Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 435: The Alliance Leader.

While Ozul and the Transcendent woman were thrashing around the old estate, Ember had decided to pay a visit to some of her ’old colleagues.’

In another corner of Phoenix City, an old man without any Beastkin features was tending to the plants in a serene, quiet garden. Only the occasional soft wind disturbed the scenery, causing the sweet fragrance to spread all over.

With one such blow of the wind, the man halted while he was inspecting a precious white flower. As if muttering to himself, he spoke softly, "No other cultivator smells of ashes...Ember, my dearest friend."

"I’m not here to exchange pleasantries," replied Ember without any hint of emotion on her face. Anyone could guess they weren’t really friends.

"Oh..." the old man finally put down his gardening tools and turned around to face her. He spoke, "You wouldn’t mind telling me how you got your hands on an intact Mind’s Eye, would you? Seeing as you have regained your cultivation..."

"Have you given me any reason to tell you?"

"Haha! Of course, I haven’t," the old man shook his head, "Ember, my dear, now that you have regained your powers, I don’t suppose you would sit back quietly. Maybe take up a hobby like gardening?"

"Drop the act, O saintly Alliance Leader. If there is anyone who knows better of this pacifist facade of yours, it is me."

But the old man didn’t have any change of expression. He continued to behave as if they were old friends meeting for an umpteenth time. So, Ember continued,

"You owe me more than once, and it’s time to return one of the favors. Build me an estate where those Night Walkers lay dead now."

"Oh? And I guess you definitely didn’t have any hands in their death?"

"Since when did you care about little things like that?" Ember dismissed his question, "Just build me a home. I believe it shouldn’t be a problem for The Alliance to build an estate in a day?"

"Rest assured, my dear. The Alliance can’t refuse a personal request from the former City Lord, can it now?"

Ember nodded, not willing to engage in any small talk. But before she left, she asked, "With your power, why did you make it so easy for that Ryujin fool to become the City Lord?"

For the first time, the Alliance Leader looked a little serious and replied with a sigh, "The Sect was involved. I couldn’t risk offending them even if their relation with the Ryujin Family remains unclear."

"Huh? So, those bastards weren’t satisfied with all the deals they had with me?"

"Not to boast, but if I had become the Phoenix Lord, they wouldn’t have had any profitable deals. Huhu..." The Alliance Leader spoke while stroking his beard, "Lucky for them, I already have too much on my plate."

Nodding her head, Ember understood the reasoning. The Immortal Sect knew perfectly well whom to give their support. After all, the title of Lord of Phoenix City also bestowed upon that person the title of the Phoenix Lord.1

"In the past decades, none of their disciples have received The Phoenix’s blessing, yet they want more slots. What are they desperate for?" Ember muttered to herself and walked away from the garden in her own thoughts.

The Alliance Leader looked at her back for a while before going back to gardening, talking to himself, "I am her father’s age, and she doesn’t even greet me before leaving... tch!"

. . .

When Ember arrived back at the estate, she noticed Rai was already ordering people here and there, establishing a structural command chain in his own words.

Her most loyal subordinates had already arrived, but there was still a lack of manpower. If people knew that she was making Transcendents pick up rubbles and arrange her files, they would puke out blood!

Unlike the rest, Ember had to specifically look around to search for Ozul’s figure. After all, he didn’t have any Spiritual traces.

He could be seen meditating atop a ruined building.

"For once, you aren’t sleeping."

Ozul opened his eyes, giving her an annoyed stare, "Where were you? You told me I could fight her, but then disappeared yourself. What if that City Lord had appeared?"

His words had just finished when Rai suddenly materialized behind Ember, both floating in the air in a perfectly still state.

"Lord Ember, our guests really are rude, don’t you say?"

Ignoring him, Ember first addressed Ozul, "This man behind me is more than enough to stall a Sage until I arrive."

Then she looked back at Rai and spoke, "This bunch is from a Broken World. The Dragon Hatchlings. And this one in front of me particularly is out of this world..."

But Rai seemed to find it laughable, "The Dragon Hatchlings? Hahaha... It’s even funnier when you say it."

"Anyway, he helped me regain my powers. And so, his group has my gratitude." The meaning behind her words was clear. With Rai’s tendencies in mind, she had to make it clear to him that Ozul’s group wasn’t to be harmed.

"Of course, my Lord," Rai donned a serious face, "The days of crushing the skulls of the Immortal Sect’s little pets are behind me now."

Ozul wanted to go back to meditating, but their conversation didn’t let him. He was thinking of different ways he could take advantage of the Transcendents.

The conclusion he had arrived at was to be as flexible as he could in a short time.

In a fight where he had to focus on thrusting the Purity toward the enemy while keeping its edges sharp made it hard for him to manipulate it any further.

"Hmm? What are you thinking about? The estate?" Ember tried guessing what was going on in Ozul’s mind. As a Sage, there weren’t a lot of people who interested her. But she was even curious as to what usually went on his mind.

"If it’s the estate, I have taken care of it. Pack your stuff. Before the sun sets, we will have a bigger, better home in the middle of the city."

Rai took note of that and went to make the arrangements to move. He was also responsible for guiding everyone.

Meanwhile, Ozul looked at Ember suspiciously. The only reason he hadn’t already left her place was because he didn’t feel any ill intent from her. Which in itself was surprising, considering that she seemed to know he didn’t adhere to the norms of cultivation.

"Don’t you have other important things to do? Why are you so interested in me?"

But Ember raised her brows at his question, "Isn’t it normal to be interested in something totally out of this world? After regaining my cultivation, I can see it even more clearly. You... really are something. I know there exist some really strange Realms out there, but all of them still adhere to the basic principles of life!

You, on the other hand, don’t even have a beating heart! If I hadn’t used the Scarlet Eyes, even I might have missed your...internals."

The cultivators could simply suppress the sound of their beating hearts with a little training, so it didn’t appear that big of a deal when someone noticed the absence of his heartbeat.

Only when Ember used her Scarlet Eyes on him after regaining her cultivation did she come across the strangest thing in her life.

The closest thing that resembled Ozul’s body was that of a puppet. But from her interactions with him, she knew he wasn’t some strange puppet either.

For a few seconds, Ozul didn’t know what to say. Having thought all his life that the first reaction of a person who knew he was different would be to harm him, he was perplexed when that assumption didn’t fit Ember’s reaction. Which was just an innocent intrigue instead.

"While the Purity couldn’t pierce through the Spiritual barrier around that woman, I kept struggling with keeping the edges sharp and trying to cut her. If only I had more mental capacity, I could’ve instead used another chunk of the Purity to invade her body in gaseous form instead..."

That is what was on his mind, and he decided to trust her for once. After all, she never harbored any hostile emotions against him except for their first meeting.

"Huh? That’s it? The answer is always to stop struggling. As a Sage, no one means it more than me. Stop struggling and change the flow according to your will," Ember looked at him as if it wasn’t even a problem.

Her nonchalant way of preaching did annoy him a little, but it still made him think many things.

In the heat of the moment, his first instinct was to always keep pushing with the Purity.

In hindsight, if he had just let go and stopped struggling, he could’ve easily achieved what he wanted to do.

Such a thing hadn’t troubled him in the past, but after encountering stronger and stronger cultivators, he unconsciously decided to struggle more.

’I have been stressed.’

No one other than him would think so since he never missed a chance to take a nap, but he couldn’t ignore it anymore.

"I really have changed..." he muttered to himself unknowingly.

Compared to before, when he wouldn’t be phased even in the face of death, he had come a long way.

’I don’t know what to feel about this...’ he thought, feeling a little strange.

The stronger he became, the more expressive his emotions evolved to be. The feeling wasn’t entirely pleasant, but he couldn’t find any faults with it either.

’Oh that reminds me, I have yet to test the effects of the ’Scent’...’

Will be explained later. Don’t worry~