Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 443: City Lord’s Nightmare.

Ozul was sleeping peacefully when a knock came at the door.

Recognizing Rai’s Spiritual Essence, Ozul woke up and opened the door himself.

"So soon?" he asked with a little annoyance in his tone. It hadn’t been an hour since he had come back to his room to sleep.

To his delight, Rai answered, "No. I am merely here for a discussion. Our target will leave tomorrow night."

"You want me to do extra chores?" He remembered the conversation from earlier. Ember had told Rai to convince him if he wanted to and here he was.

"So you don’t like small talk," nodding appreciatively, Rai commented, "I like that. And well, it’s nothing much, honestly. Lord Ember only wants you to do the killing part, but I see so much potential in you!"

"As in?"

"You are much better suited for making the body disappear!"

It took Ozul a while to process that simply wrapping the body with Purity and bringing it to another place was valued so highly by him.

"Like I did today? Just that?"

Rai nodded his head, his face as serious and eager as that of a child’s.

If Rai hadn’t made it such an issue himself, he would have continued doing it anyway. Now, he could get something out of it.

With careful wording, he spoke, "No, thank you. I don’t have any incentive. I’d rather just do the killing part."

And with that, he was about to close the door on Rai’s face before the latter hurriedly took a step forward and entered the room.

"Ask of me what I can provide, and I shall provide."

"I don’t need money or any resources," Ozul continued to act disinterested.

"Hmm..." Rai gave it a thought and put forth his offer, "You might not need anything, but surely your group over there requires a ton of resources?" He said while pointing toward the trio who were still lost in their cultivation.

But Ozul had to disappoint him again, "Why do you think I even bother to do the killing part?"

It was because Ember was teaching the trio. They were already provided with all the resources they needed and even occasional guidance from a Sage. Nothing more was needed.

"Uhm... What do you want then?" Rai asked helplessly. He had never met any person like him. All cultivators wanted resources and money. Having used these two against people all his life, he was stumped now that tools failed.

Seizing the opportunity, Ozul replied with a contemplative tone, "I need more experience against Transcendents. Teach me all that you can." H

For good measure, he even injected Rai with a few traces of the Scent. He didn’t know how much it would help influence the thoughts of a peak Transcendent, but it was still better than nothing.

Rai was more than happy to accept the offer since he wasn’t losing anything either, "Alright, you have a deal!"

Although teaching was a taxing business, something told him the boy was worth investing in.

"Okay, don’t disturb me anymore."

*Tuk!*

And the door was finally shut in Rai’s face as Ozul went back to sleep. To say he was tired wouldn’t be true, but there was nothing better to do than taking naps.

...

The City Lord’s horror had only begun after the first assassination.

Being the City Lord for so long, he had long forgotten what it felt like for someone to target him.

He gave all the Transcendents a few more life-saving artifacts and believed that since all of them would be careful from now on, such a tragedy wouldn’t repeat again.

Not even the Immortal Sect would have taken it kindly after losing a Transcendent much less the Ryujin Family.

But no matter how many people he sent to investigate, they couldn’t find out who was behind the disappearance of his messenger.

To his despair, it was only the next day when news reached his ears that another Transcendent disappeared!

Now, the whole City Lord’s Hall was in a panic. The Transcendents were powerhouses in their own right. They were the true measure of power in this Realm and beyond, yet two such individuals under the City Lord disappeared without a trace!

Fear grasped people’s hearts as they started to worry about their own lives.

Losing two Transcendents in a few days threw the City Lord into such a fit of rage that he was prepared to duke it out with Ember personally. After all, he was almost convinced that she was behind this, but couldn’t find any evidence.

Not willing to take any more losses, he issued a decree for all the Transcendents to move in pairs only. He also only sent them out of the city when it was absolutely necessary.

This affected the Ryujin Family’s operations, but it was still better than losing pillars of strength.

At that point, Ozul couldn’t take them out alone even if he was willing to risk his life.

He didn’t know if he could die or not, but the pain he had felt when a hole was drilled through his chest wasn’t something he could overlook.

’The pain and the emotions only broke out after I had regained all my limbs. Maybe it would have been better if I hadn’t gotten them back?’ It was only a passing thought, but something Ozul would have contemplated seriously if he had known the side effects before.

Rai was also helpless against this new development.

Although Ember wanted results, she was clear in her instructions that he should prioritize being anonymous.

And so, Rai could either wait for the City Lord to drop his guard again or for Ember to lose her patience.

They were standing in a forest and having a spar. He was teaching Ozul all that Transcendents were capable of while ransacking his brain to think up anything that didn’t result in an all-out war.

"I have an idea, I don’t know if it would work..." Ozul suddenly brought up as the dog Beastkin’s ears stood up.

Coming closer to him, Rai answered, "Well, don’t keep it hidden!"

"I can try to contain your Spiritual Essence. If you force it, I think it might work," he kept it brief.

Rai’s eyes lit up, "Go ahead!"

The amount of Purity that Ozul could create now was more than enough to stretch a meters-wide dome around them.

Rai had his Spiritual Essence suppressed before, but now he slowly started to raise his aura.

"I have expanded all of the Spiritual Essence. It’s either that I reduce the size of this dome or I don’t participate in the fight at all," Ozul told him. If they were to do it, Rai would have to kill both Transcendents by himself. "Also, if they force themselves out of the dome, it would be hard to contain themselves..."

Rai’s aura slowly rose as he tested how much pressure the dome could contain.

As it reached the level of a Transcendent in the initial stages, his eyes morphed into an arching smile.

He slowly let it all out and the dome was even able to contain the level of someone in the middle stages!

But Ozul stopped him there, "Any more than that and the aura will start leaking."

It wasn’t noticeable to Rai, but he could feel the trembling of the Purity. He was trying to keep it together consciously, or it would have scattered already.

’His aura is too powerful...’ At this point, he could admit without a doubt that Rai was one of the most powerful people he had come across.

Even before when they were sparring, he was able to dodge all of his attacks with extreme precision.

No matter how small or hidden a projectile he threw at him, Rai dodged it at the last second while continuously complaining about the Transcendents moving in pairs.

"This much is enough, heh..." Rai’s smile reached his ears as he stretched his hands, "I guess it’s time to start the hunt again. I could kiss you right now, boy, but I have a feeling you wouldn’t like it~"

...

All hell broke loose when the City Lord yet again received the news about the disappearance.

This time, the scene was more chaotic than before, as could be imagined for a fight between more than two Transcendents. Yet, there were no traces left on the battle scene!

Two more Transcedents disappeared and no one knew how!

"Stop all the operations! Cease any activities outside the city! Call them all back!" the City Lord began to shout orders, the veins on his forehead were threatening to burst out any moment now.

After losing a quarter of the Transcendents working under him, Ryujin was at his wit’s end. He even stopped the people who were investigating, afraid that he would lose more people.

He couldn’t be blamed for his outburst as even the Immortal Sect couldn’t afford to lose four Transcendents like this.

If it was a war, these four people could have leveled entire cities by themselves. And now, they were made to disappear as if some cannon fodder!

"Just what the hell is going on!?" His roar even spread out of the estate.

At this point, even he was starting to doubt whether Ember was really behind all of this. He didn’t think she had the resources to achieve something this grand in scale.

One had to know that these Transcendents except for the first one were all equipped with the best equipment the City Lord’s Hall could gather and they were all expecting an attack!

"Establish a communication line with the Immortal Sect, we need their help." The City Lord sighed as he ordered his son.

His son couldn’t help but express his worries, "But father, those bastards are vultures! Can’t we wake up the Phoenix?"

"And tell her what?! That we don’t know who did it?!" The City Lord threw the wine glass at his son who didn’t bother dodging.

It was at this moment that he felt an aura invade his estate. His narrowed eyes shifted toward the door,

The door opened and a familiar figure walked inside, "Don’t take it out on the kid, Ryujin. It’s unbecoming of you."

"Alliance Leader..."