Baiyi had no idea that someone out there had arbitrarily decided on his expiry date.
He, on the hand, had been happily constructing his trans-realm transporter portal 1 , and he had already purchased the materials required for the last few steps of his construction. Since the items he ordered had not yet arrived, the Soul Armature busied himself setting up the preliminary parts, first.
He was not too pleased with some minor details, however. Although Baiyi excited for this trip, his students did not share his enthusiasm, especially the girls; they showed no signs of eagerness. They did not really want to go on an excursion; they wanted to celebrate Grace’s Day properly, instead.
Grace Day was the biggest and merriest festival of the year, and it was enticing to the kids. Little Mia had long since invited all her friends to celebrate it at her home, but Baiyi’s sudden excursion plans made the schedule become a bit too packed.
“Don’t you fret. We most certainly could return before the actual festival,” Baiyi lied, feeling a little guiltily. It was not like he did not want the kids to enjoy the festival; he just could not help getting plagued by misfortunes that always jeopardize any events he attended. Hence, he felt that his students should concede willingly, especially because this he felt he had always been an impeccable teacher.
The portal was finished in just two days. This perks of being a certified Legendary-level sorcerer played a large role in the feat. The Association had not wasted much time in sending Baiyi the necessary materials, and Baiyi himself had already finished making their camping preparations.
The girls removed their stylish short skirts and put on some sturdy clothes, then they gathered in front of Baiyi.
“I think I need to remind you all of something before we leave: you should always listen to what Miss Aya and I say, alright? Please apply discretion to whatever you do! We’re exploring a new realm, a place where no one has ever set foot on before; this is akin to a real realm pioneering exploration! Now, I’m sure you already know the dangers involved in exploring an unknown realm, so I can’t stress enough how important vigilance is…” With his back against the transporter portal, Baiyi repeated his previous day’s briefing to his students one more time.
Aya stood by his side, beaming. As long as she was still beside her favorite Mr. Hope, she was happy!
“Uh um, I keep getting a bad feeling…” Little MIa tugged at her hair and furrowed her eyebrows. For the upcoming excursion, she had opted to tie her hair into a single ponytail.
“Don’t worry, Mia. Nature is our best companion,” Nota the fairy said reassuringly and held Mia’s hand. As a spirit of the wild, Nota was, of course, not against such explorations.
Someone else, who had zero reservations about frolicking in the wild, was holding Mia’s other hand. “Don’t be scared, Mia! I’m a tough cookie, and I can scare them all away from you!” Mordred added.
Afterward, Baiyi’s posse stepped into the portal. Baiyi stood at the front of the group, and Aya stood at the back. With that, the crowd disappeared with a dazzling flash of bright light.
After they left, a few maids from the House of Wright swiftly stepped into Baiyi’s mansion. They were there on the Soul Armature’s request that they take care of the house in the group’s absence. However, before they could even start cleaning, they felt an intense wave of lethargy. Unable to fight back, the maids fell into a deep sleep, and their bodies crashed to the floor.
A few moments passed, and out of nowhere, four humanoid shadows appeared in the mansion’s courtyard. The owners of these shadows had all donned cloaks that had hoods. One of them eyed the sleeping maids, and suddenly produced four glinting daggers from his sleeves, without hiding his intention to kill!
“Hold on! I’ll advise you not to do that,” one of the hooded figures spoke. “We shouldn’t be creating unnecessary troubles to ourselves by acting recklessly.”
He crouched beside one of the sleeping maids and studied the mini emblem pinned onto her uniform. “They are from the House of Wright. More reason not to attract their ire.”
“Pfft!” The man who was holding on his daggers clicked his tongue in annoyance. The daggers twirled around his fingers for a bit, emitting cold sparks, before disappearing back up his sleeves.
The figure was a bit crossed; he eyed the couch and walked over to it, preparing to sit down.
A large cloaked figure caught his hand before he could sit.
“Do not touch anything in this house!” The large third cloaked man pulled him away from the couch to a very safe distance. “Did you not notice? The entire mansion is being watched by an indiscernible barrier of some kind. If you touch anything, it might trigger that Hope’s detection.”
The second cloaked man, who had been stopped from taking a seat, hissed in a low voice, “Why are you all such chickens? Even the sleep-inducing spell we used on maids took three days to prepare! And now what? We don’t get to do anything at all?”
“Patience, youngster,” said the fourth cloaked figure. His voice sounded ancient and hollow; it was not the kind of voice a living man could imitate. Not only that, none of the fouth cloaked figure’s actions resembled a human’s, and every part of him emanated the chill of death and decadence.
“I do not wish for all of the efforts we poured into this plan to go to waste, just because of some youngster’s pathetic oversight. If you have no idea how to be patient, then perhaps a long period of inactivity gifted by death would be the perfect lesson for you,” the fouth cloaked figure coldly said.
“Oh; no one can wait for nothing better than a corpse, right?” the impatient second cloaked figure was not the least perturbed; he retorted, “Yet, I’m curious. If you die the second time, will you still be able to keep that calmness?”
“Oh? I implore you to try,” the fourth cloaked figure coldly said.
The atmosphere suddenly got tense. The first cloaked figure quickly walked in between the second cloaked figure and the fourth cloaked figure, trying his best to pacify the situation. “My two friends, please! We shouldn’t be fighting among ourselves! We may not have met each other frequently in the past, but the High Reverend saw enough talent in each us, making him put us all in an assassination team. We should maintain the most basic rapport and have the most basic amount of respect for each other.”
At the mention of the High Reverend of the Godsfall cult, the two cloaked figures suddenly remembered their true roles, so they distance themselves. After a short period of complete silence, the second cloaked figure said, “So, what are we waiting for? That Hope has long since fled his nest. Are we supposed to stand here to waste our time like this?”
“We aren’t wasting time; we’re waiting for our last member. He’s our team leader,” the third cloaked figure clarified.
“I am not gonna be led by some asshole who doesn’t understand punctuality,” the second cloaked figure snapped impatiently.
“Oh? Sae what sort of man would ye prefer tae be led by?” A new voice resounded behind the crowd, prompting them to quickly turn around.
A towering, muscular man was standing behind the four cloaked figures. Unlike the four, the muscular man did not wear a black cloak. Instead, he wore shabby, forgettable linen-clothes, tailored in the distinctive Northern style. Additionally, this man’s look and mien strongly suggested that he was a Northern warrior, and this is strongly supported by his heavy Northern accent, making him a pretty awkward figure overall.
However, neither of the four cloaked figures dared to comment on the muscular man’s appearance or accent. They dared not make fun of someone who was emitting the aura of a Holy-level fighter.
A Holy-level Northern warrior! Being able to reach this rank as a member of the rarest class of fighters warranted the muscular man such respect.
“Oh ho ho. Not bad, not bad. A Holy-level one…” The second cloaked figure hissed, even though he seemed to be trembling slightly. Suddenly, cold flashes of bright silver tore through the air, soaring straight towards the Northern warrior.
The warrior’s left hand blurred for an instant. In the next second, everyone’s gaze finally shifted to the point where the silver flashes stopped, and they saw the muscular man’s arm raised, with three daggers as thin as cicada’s wings between two interlocking fingernails.
“Whoa! Such skill!” The second cloaked figure exclaimed earnestly, with a low whistle. “Now that’s what a Holy-level knight should be.”
“I bear na relation wi’ the knights tha the lot of yer are familiar wi’. I am a warrior,” the northerner replied obstinately. His fingers came together, and the blades were immediately kneaded into small metallic marbles.
He eyed the second cloaked figure. “You’re quick oan yer hands, but alas, yer nae fleet enough. Yer braun…is equally negligent.”
When the last syllable of the muscular man’s sentence left his lips, he flicked his fingers.
The second cloaked figure only momentarily saw a very minute blur in the air before feeling a hot, warm sensation spreading across his face. He dabbed his hand on the numb spot and found it drenched in blood.
“Let this pat an end tae any ither similar attempt,” the northerner coldly said. His fingers shook a little, and the second cloaked figure heard a loud buzz behind him. He turned around and saw the small metallic marbles, which were the remains of the squashed knives, hovering in mid-air, moving back and forth in perfect sync with the northerner’s fingers.
Although he had injured the second cloaked figure’s face by hurling those metal marbles at him, the muscular man was still controlling them firmly with his combat chi so that they did not touch anything else in the room.
This level of proficiency in controlling combat chi was obviously not something a Southern knight could do. This was not because the Southerners were weaker in combat chi; it was just the difference in their cultivation method.
To a fragile speedster such as the second cloaked figure, a lightning bruiser like the warrior in front of him was a predator, and this was probably why the warrior was chosen as the team’s leader. The second cloaked figure could only dab his face in silence, not daring to utter a single word.
“You, Sir, are truly amazing! No wonder the High Reverend wanted us to wait for your arrival before we begin our mission,” the large third cloaked figure said, eager to ease the tension. He was big and buffy, but when compared to the towering Northern Warrior, even he was small.
“Gentlemen. Fae this point onwards, we ur band o’ brothers servin’ th’ identical cause. Oor success warrants trust oan one anither, sae a proper self-introduction is in order,” the northerner spoke. “I am th’ forsaken student o’ th’ Azure Cloud Sect. Ye kin ca’ me Oni Chief.”