Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 433: Tensions.

"Send an invitation. Summon her to the City Lord’s Hall."

The City Lord’s Hall was a designated building in the heart of Phoenix City. The City Lord occasionally sat in the Hall to deal with urgent matters of the city in front of an audience.

The audience consisted of the most influential parties in the City. A representative from The Alliance was also present at all times.

The invitation reached Ember’s estate the next day. The messenger, having known the fate of the two people sent there yesterday, refrained from saying anything that would anger the beastkin.

The invitation quickly reached Ember’s hands. She noticed the City Lord’s stamp burned at the corner of the paper and scoffed with a disgusted face. Tearing it apart, she spat, "Tell that Ryujin bastard if he wants to meet me to come here by himself."

The messenger shuddered as he picked up the torn-apart invitation and traced his steps back to the City Lord’s Hall.

Raven and the other two were almost always with her these days inside the estate.

"Didn’t you say the City Lord was also a Sage? Is it wise to go against him when you just regained your powers? I mean, your strongest people are us..." Blase spoke at last, having judged the situation quietly all this time. It wasn’t his fight, so he wasn’t jumpy like before. On the contrary, he was absorbing everything calmly; the knowledge of cultivation and the situation of Phoenix City.

Leaving the Ryujin Family and The Alliance, even the smaller powers in Phoenix City had a force to be reckoned with. On the other hand, Ember was alone. The people in her estate weren’t even at the Origin Realm while according to her own words, the real fights happened with Transcendents in these regions.

So anyone could guess that if the City Lord, who was also a Sage, kept Ember busy only for a while, his people would destroy everything that she held dear.

Ozul and the trio could also become unfortunate victims in the struggle between her and all her enemies.

"She knows what she’s doing," surprisingly, it wasn’t Ember who answered, but Raven on her behalf.

Meanwhile, Ember smiled slightly, knowing Blaze’s worries. "My, you have a lot of trust in me," she smirked, looking in Raven’s direction.

Shaking her head, Raven replied, "I simply understand that you who bowed her head for so long to sharpen your fangs wouldn’t do anything stupid now. I don’t trust you, I trust your capabilities."

And Raven was right; Ember couldn’t have survived for so long even after her powers were sealed if not for her cunning.

"Ah, if only you had accepted becoming my disciple. We could’ve accomplished so much together..." sighed Ember dramatically before she went out of the estate again.

...

Not even a week had passed and the atmosphere around Phoenix City had changed entirely.

Someone like Raven, Blaze, or Zier couldn’t sense it. But the people who were born here could tell that tensions were brewing.

The first real indication of the rising tensions came with the fall of the rising organization named the Nightwalkers. Their building was situated in the central parts of Phoenix City, proving their resources for being able to manage such expenses.

The organization fell overnight, but there wasn’t even a hint of struggle at the sight.

Nightwalkers’ top brass were murdered and their headquarters was demolished. They even had two Transcendents running its leading operations; they were also assassinated.

No clue was found as Ember left no traces of her presence at the scene. For her, who was a Sage, erasing her Spiritual Presence was as easy as breathing.

"I could have left this for Rai to deal with, but knowing both my cousin and the Ryujin family supported these crawlers, I couldn’t hold myself back," she seemingly muttered to herself, standing atop her estate’s building, moonlight illuminating her silver hair tied in a neat bun and her dragon horns akin to ancient ornaments.

"Who is Rai?" Ozul asked lazily, having a shade of Purity over his eyes to avoid the moonlight.

"A subordinate of mine; some call him my right-hand man even. Though he gets bored easily, I couldn’t ask for a better right-hand man than him."

"Why haven’t I ever seen him?" asked Ozul, a little interested.

"When my powers were sealed, it was in my best interest to send away all my subordinates."

"Even the loyal ones?"

"Especially the loyal ones. If I had no power of my own but commanded such subordinates, they wouldn’t have let me live. I had to discard all my cards to appear as harmless as possible."

"Hmm," Ozul hummed in understanding. Ember, though prideful and merciless, was one of the most rational people he had come across.

Being able to throw away even the last shed of power she had because she saw the bigger picture was commendable. She wasn’t a Sage for nothing, Ozul mused with his eyes closed.

"I take it those Nightwalkers weren’t the last to fall in this city?" he asked offhandedly.

Glancing down at him taking a nap so casually in her presence, Ember smirked, "Why, you want to help?"

"No..."

"Too late~ I wanted a left-hand man as well."

"..."

...

The next day, Ozul was inside his room, and the trio were training when the gates to the estate banged open.

A surge of bloodlust washed over the estate as everyone stopped whatever they were doing.

Ozul also woke up, but sensing the bloodlust wasn’t directed at anyone he cared about, he closed his eyes again. Since it was unrelated to him, he didn’t care even if a meteor fell outside his room.

A man dressed decently walked inside with a dozen more men behind him. A clear distinction between the rest and the leading man, his clothes soaked in someone’s blood, creeped out everyone.

The leading man covered in blood also had two severed heads in his hand, grabbed by the hair. The whole sight was grotesque and disturbing.

The trio had also stopped their cultivation as they came to the yard, facing the group of beastkin who had just barged in.

"Control yourself, Rai!" Ember’s voice rang throughout the estate, making the man drop the severed heads as he went to his knee.

The bloodlust enveloping the estate also vanished as if it never existed in the first place.

A gentle wind swept the dust away from the pavement as Ember appeared in front of the kneeling Rai.

"I see you have brought everyone," she muttered, ignoring the stench of blood.

Rai stood up, and smiled a little, "They were all happy once they heard the news that you were back. Luckily, these two showed a little hesitation." He said the last part pointing to the two severed heads on the ground.

Zier wondered why he said luckily, but considering the creepy smile on his blood-covered face, he kept his questions to himself.

Just then, Raven used the Scarlet Eyes on the group of men to get an idea of how strong they were. Unfortunately, she could only make a vague guess from the density of Spiritual Essence surrounding them.

Only she had forgotten how people didn’t take it kindly when probed.

The bloodlust that had disappeared just now appeared again, and was directed directly at her in a moment’s notice!

The sheer pressure from the bloodlust made her knees weak, but she didn’t stumble before a gush of wind swept the area again, and Ozul appeared in front of her.

"We have quite disrespectful guests, Lord Ember," Rai said, wiping the blood off of his face with a handkerchief.

"They are new to this Realm. And it’s good that you know they are guests," Ember gave him a threatening glance as Rai stopped again.

"You, didn’t I tell you just yesterday not to use Scarlet Eyes on everyone?" She admonished Raven who looked back at her in protest but without any retort. It really was her fault.

At last, Ember addressed Ozul, "It was nothing. You can go back to your nap."

The latter switched his gaze between Ember and Rai before his eyes settled on the group of beastkin that Rai had brought.

’All of them are above the Origin Realm...’

Raven was caught using the Scarlet Eyes because the technique used the Spiritual Essence and the target of the technique could sense the probing on their bodies if they were proficient enough.

But Ozul didn’t have such a drawback. He could look at anyone and measure their Spiritual Essence, thereby determining their cultivation realm.

It was while he was inspecting the group of beastkin that he noticed their emotions as well.

Since he had been sensitive for a while now, he couldn’t ignore the trembling waves of emotions coming from a certain woman in the crowd.

She had a single sharp horn on her forehead; other than that, there wasn’t a single hint of beastkin features on her body.

She stood right in the middle of the group, trying to blend in, but how could she escape Ozul’s attention?

"That woman with a horn over there," he pointed right at her, alarming the woman in question, "Can I? Fighting a Transcendent to death is something that I need right now."

"Hmm?" Rai hummed in confusion as he waited for Ember’s response.

Pleased that he could find spies even among a group of Transncendents, Ember smiled, "Go ahead. Don’t worry about this estate. We’re moving anyway~"

She said before turning to Rai, "Let him do whatever he wants. But don’t let the girl escape." With that, she disappeared from the yard again.

Although Rai understood little of what was happening, he complied with her instructions to the fullest.

"Lord Ember really found interesting guests..."