Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 349: Teenager.

While people in the alley were discussing how to handle that matter, another scene was unfolding somewhere in an unknown location in the Abezan Realm.

An old man was sitting in an empty tavern. There was still a lingering smell of beer in the air, but strangely, no other customer than him was to be seen anywhere.

It seemed like a shabby old place, but it was big enough to accommodate more than fifty people at the same time.

The old man sat around a round wooden table, silently observing the grotesque scene in front of him.

On his table was a motionless small red fox, cut open from the belly to the neck. All of its insides were revealed to the old man, who examined every nook and cranny as if looking for something.

Strangely, it wasn’t only his table that had been smudged with blood spatters.

The whole tavern had dark spots of red sprayed over. However, there was nothing amiss except for a single flipped table, the rest were neatly arranged, with some drinks left unfinished. If an unknowing man walked inside right now, he’d probably freak out and flee as soon as their feet could drag their body.

.....

This amount of blood didn’t belong to a single small red fox.

As the old man silently tinkered with the corpse of the red fox, the door to the tavern creaked open, and the fresh smell of air diluted with the pungent stench of the insides, making little to no difference.

“My liege.”

The man who had entered the tavern was, all of a sudden, behind the old man’s chair.

The old man didn’t turn around, keeping his focus on the fox which wasn’t even recognizable anymore.

If Ozul was here, he would recognize both of them as Old Gu, and his so-called subordinate whose name he couldn’t remember.

“This... My liege, even if ‘they’ don’t pose any threat to us, is it really alright to be so... careless?” Minho asked after looking around the tavern.

“Mhm. Don’t worry, I don’t have a plan to go to that Broken World anymore. I’m bored of it~” Old Gu replied without any change in expressions.

Minho breathed a sigh of relief as he heard his response. There was no way ‘they’ could have forced his Master to be imprisoned in that Broken World against his wishes.

“What about the task I gave you?” Old Gu asked.

“About that...”

“Hm? What happened?” Old Gu finally turned around, noticing Minho’s nervous tone.

“The cat you told me about. It’s too strong... Before I touched that kid, I... I would have died a thousand times...” Minho, recounted everything that had happened and recalled the moment he had peered into those bottomless eyes. He hadn’t felt so suffocated in his life!

He expected Old Gu to yell at him and tell him he needed to go back and finish the job, however, Old Gu instead burst out laughing, which caught him off guard.

“Hahaha! I have truly not seen everything this world has to offer!”

“Good! Good!”

“People in the Realm of Abezan who could make you sweat merely with a glance can be counted on one hand. I had a feeling that cat was interesting~”

Old Gu stroked his white beard unconsciously as he dreamed about messing with Ozul again. In the process, however, he forgot that his hands were bloodier than a heart pumping blood.

Not caring about the fact that half his bear was smeared with the blood of a dead fox, Old Gu strode out of the tavern excitedly, “Come! We have some Realms to travel to!”

“Hahaha! It’s good that I didn’t kill myself all those times! Life has again gotten interesting!!”

Minho could only stare at his back with a shocked expression on his face as he listened to Old Gu’s nonsensical blabberings. Although the origins of that boy and the cat seemed mysterious, his master had faced things far more dangerous and bloodier than anyone could imagine. He didn’t understand why they interested his master so much.

. . .

Back in the town, Ozul had already found a place to sleep.

Raven took them to the most expensive-looking hotel and they naturally were able to exchange a Low-grade Spirit Stone for 10 Gold coins.

Ozul had a whole day to himself in his room while the other three went to explore the town and familiarize themselves with this new Realm.

He didn’t know how much time had passed before he suddenly sensed strong fluctuations of Spiritual Essence from a certain direction.

Although compared to Minho, these ones weren’t even worth mentioning, Ozul still got up to check it. These people were stronger than all others he had sensed in this town.

Outside the window, orange painted the sky as the Star was gradually setting.

It was difficult to find anything unusual among the crowd. To locate the not-so-normal from the scene, one must first become familiar with what is normal.

But Ozul could sense the Spiritual Essence fluctuations. Facing the direction he was pointed towards, he noticed a couple of men moving discreetly among the crowd.

They all wore casual clothes, and one wouldn’t normally find anything strange looking at them. But considering that they were all cultivators and were moving towards the same direction, Ozul knew that they must be together.

Trying to locate their target, he jumped out of the window and flew towards another house.

Those men had already turned a corner; he couldn’t see them from his building anymore.

Curiosity got the better of him and he decided to follow them. He wanted to see how these cultivators of this Realm used the Spiritual Essence.

It was only after he jumped atop a few buildings did he find those men again. Following the sight of their direction, he found a few men in dull robes hurrying forward. Among the crowd, he couldn’t precisely read their emotions, but it was clear from their movement that they were the target, and they were well aware of it.

There was also a teenager running with them. It seemed like those four people were protecting him.

“Five. No-... Eight,” he muttered under his breath.

Five of those shady people were on the ground, while three followed from above.

‘They are outnumbered,’ Ozul knew that those people running away wouldn’t be able to run for long.

He, however, didn’t have any intentions of stepping in to save those ‘damsels’ in distress. Whatever was happening was unrelated to him, he was only there to watch the show.

And then it happened.

In desperation, the teenager finally turned a wrong turn.

Not only was it a dead-end, but there also weren’t even any people in the alley. The fact that the Star had almost set didn’t help either since it was only getting darker.

Ozul stood atop the building and eagerly watched the scene unfold. The three people had already jumped down and hadn’t seen him.

The teenager, along with what seemed to be his four guards, was now surrounded in the alley.

He couldn’t see the teenager’s face, but the amount of Spiritual Essence in his body wasn’t much lower than those of the people surrounding him. Whoever he was, he was notably more talented than the rest.

“You!-... There will be consequences to this! If anything happens to me, don’t think for a second that my father will let any of you go!” The teenager shouted in indignation.

‘A noble?’ Ozul guessed in his heart.

He was also wearing a dull rob like the rest, so the teenager’s expensive clothes weren’t visible.

‘This will be a bloodbath...’ Ozul realized as he felt the strong killing intent of these people, all directed at the teenager.

He was surprised by the fact that the teenager’s heart was still steady even after being the target of this much bloodlust. He appeared to have been in similar situations several times before.

The teenager realized that he couldn’t buy any time and without waiting for them, he took the initiative and commanded his men,

“Attack!! We have to hold on for just a bit longer and reinforcements will be here!”

His four guards exploded with strength and charged at the five men at the alley’s entrance. The fact that reinforcements were coming lifted their morale.

The teenager then fearlessly turned around and faced the remaining three people on the opposite end. He brandished a saber from his waist and charged at them without worrying about his back.

Ozul now began to doubt whether he was really just a teenager. Considering that cultivation could prolong one’s life, it wasn’t unusual for people to retain their youthful looks just like Raven and Blaze.

The teenager’s tact and thoughtful decisions were the main source of the doubt.

Not a moment passed and the sounds of sword clashes filled the dark alley.

For a moment, Ozul couldn’t help but think, ‘Why does everything happen in alleys these days...’

Although the people that teenager was fighting seemed to be slightly more powerful than him considering their Spiritual Essence, the latter was somehow able to keep up.

‘Is it because of that saber?’ Ozul kept a close eye on the teenager and realized that indeed some of his Spiritual Essence was flowing in that saber through his palms.

While the teenager was barely able to parry their attacks, his four guards weren’t faring so good.

He was overnumbered by two people, but still holding on. Yet, it wasn’t the same with his guards.

A minute had gone by, and some of them were already covered in wounds!