Death... and me

Zostemou shook his head, telling him, "Most of my subordinates were forced to sign the contract, so I was left with almost no one to do my biddings. I couldn't send anyone to watch them. Father, you'll have to look for him yourself." As soon as Zostemou said that, he sprung into action once again, having to deal with another issue that appeared within the range of his Divine Sense.

Mou narrowed his eyes in response but didn't waste time there. He had already arranged for some people to come to Dry Sky City to help his son. If the occurrences were smaller, then his son wouldn't need to go out so many times and could therefore cultivate. That was the only safe way to guarantee his son wouldn't die due to the contract and could still have time to train. "Let's go. We need to investigate."

Unfortunately for Mou, it didn't take long to find information about the twins. "What?! They already teleported away?!" That's what he heard from the Formation Guild's master. "Which city did they go to? Did they use the long-distance teleport formation?"

"No, they decided to use the city-to-city teleport formations to save Divine Stones. After all, long-distance teleport formations would need Rank Two Divine Stones. Who in our region would dare to spend Rank Two Divine Stones on teleportation?" the guild master said in response.

Mou pondered if he should use the few Rank Two Divine Stones he had to try to catch up to the twins. But then again, he wasn't sure about where they were going and might completely miss them. Rank Two Divine Stones was just too important for him. "We will teleport from one city to another as well, following the same path as them. I can still afford Rank One Divine Stones in the cities that won't let us teleport for free."

Duran and Regil nodded in response before they all took the teleport formations. Fortunately, there were records being kept about each teleport, and it was especially easy in Treavin as a lot fewer people used them.

The twins, of course, didn't know anything. They simply teleported from one city to another, not bothering with whether they would pay for the teleportation or not. Without a doubt, they were much wealthier than Mou, or perhaps wealthier than the entire Traste Clan. After several days, they had already passed through seven regions, teleporting from one point to another.

Thanks to their cultivation, no one had any idea regarding the fact that they could pay for the teleport. Otherwise, they might have been stopped in some cities where the situation was even more chaotic than Dry Sky City. Little did they know that each new teleport was an extra cost in Mou's pockets, which deeply pained the man.

At some point, Mou understood where the twins were going by following the same teleports, muttering, "They're heading to the center of the continent."

Duran and Regil looked at each other before warning Lord Mou, "Mou, you do know how much it would cost for all three of us to teleport all the way to the center of the continent, right? Let alone the teleportation trip back home. Are you sure it's worth the pursuit? Worse than that, what if they're just passing through the center of the continent, but their destination is, in fact, the opposite side of the continent?"

Mou looked at the two and had to admit their words made sense. "Now that you say that, my investigation did point out they first appeared close to the continental barrier. In that case, their destination is actually..."

"Pol Continent!" All three of them noticed this issue. Indeed, the twins would need to pass through the center of the Treavin Continent if they wished to reach the continental barrier between Pol and Treavin. "But, how do they expect to pass through the continental barrier?"

Regil shook his head as he replied, "I don't think it'll be a problem for them. After all, didn't they pass through the barrier between Yubisval and Treavin? Since they did it once, they should have their methods to do it again. It's not like you don't know there are ways to go through the barriers, even if it isn't official. It's just that small fry like us wouldn't have the right to use the official means."

With that said, they reached an impasse, a monetary one. If they could catch up to the twins and take them down, they would most likely have the Divine Stones to make the trip worth it. However, if they didn't find their group in the end, or if they headed straight to the continental barrier between Treavin and Pol, their group would eventually be stuck somewhere. They wouldn't even have the Divine Stones to even go back.

By now, even Mou's greed for the Soul Binding Contracts and thirst for revenge for his son began to dwindle. Divine Stones meant everything in this place, after all. He had already spent quite a lot of them using the teleports. "What if only one of us go after them? Even if we can't find their group, we should have enough Divine Stones to return."

Duran and Regil shook their heads. "That's too dangerous. In a place like Vankotis Region, the Void Tempering Realm may be a respectable level of cultivation, but things are different in the center of the continent. Can you imagine what would happen to our family line in the clan if something happened to you, Mou?"

Mou bitterly smiled in response as he looked at the teleport formation in front of him. He already got the information that the twins used that one to go to the next city, and he would need to pay to use it as well. In the end, Mou decided to swallow his loss and turn around, telling the two, "Let's go back. We have been away from the clan for way too long already. Those idiots from the Lastou line are probably becoming restless already."

The Traste Clan obviously had its own internal power struggle, and the Lastou line was one of their competitors there.. In any case, the pursuit of the twins was over without the two ever finding out about it.