Unsealing Emptiness

Although he felt the Mana waves a couple of times, he did not bother to check every time and enjoyed his peace while he could.

The people outside also felt the waves of Mana. It wasn’t challenging to notice since they were all alert to look out for Mana signatures near them in the first place. If they couldn’t even feel such intense waves, then being on a lookout for the Beasts was useless as well.

But they did not dare to check inside the tent in fear of incurring Ozul’s wrath.

The night quickly passed away, and people were reminded of the morning as they could finally hear the Beasts roars in the distance again.

After they had been caught up in the fog, they did not hear the Beasts and other animals because all of them had gotten out of the area, but they came back after the fog dispersed.

Ozul did not plan to get up early in the morning, but he had to when he felt the movement near him.

.....

When he opened his eyes, he realized that it was from Raven and Blaze. They had just opened their eyes as well, and the aura released out of their body was as wild as it could get.

Since they were not cultivating anymore, the Mana leaked out of their body. It wouldn’t need someone to be a professional to know the duo’s Rank at this moment.

Just the raw amount of pressure that they exerted on the surroundings would make anyone realize that they were both at the End Stage of Rank-6!

Though Raven had a slightly sharper aura, which indicated that she was at the peak of Rank-6! Just a small push, and she would be a Rank-7 Mage!

Although Blaze wasn’t that far from Raven either, it seemed that his talent was finally showing the advantages he had over his peers.

After cultivating for so long without any break and the continuous breakthroughs had caused the duo not to be familiarized with their own powers. That’s why the Mana started to exude out of their bodies without them realizing it.

Their sudden pressure on the surroundings caught the attention of people that had their eyes on the tent all the time. It made them all curious, but they did not have the guts to check inside the tent.

At this time, Ozul looked at the duo with a slight smile on his face. Both of them felt like different people just overnight.

The duo beamed with excited smiles as well after noticing how Ozul had a slight smile on his face. They stored their Elemental Seed inside their Spatial storage before slowly approaching Ozul.

“So, what do you think?” Raven asked excitedly, both of them expecting some praise from him.

“Could’ve been better,” Ozul replied with his usual emotionless voice. The smile on his face was only short-lived. He wasn’t the type to keep smiling even on happy occasions.

“Tch!”-X2

Both of them clicked their tongues. Although Ozul was only around their age, single praise from him was always enough to make them happy.

However, they could also notice that Ozul was genuinely satisfied with their progress this time, even when it was all because of the Elemental Seeds and the essence. All of which were obtained by Ozul.

“Did you absorb all of it?” Ozul asked since it seemed rather too fast that they had absorbed so much of that Mana.

“Yes. The more time we spent, the easier it became. Though it is all because of the Elemental Seeds,” Blaze replied.

“Okay, then we will start moving again today. Get as much rest as you can.” Ozul advised before moving out of the tent.

He wanted to talk with Clive right now since it seemed that staying here for any further would only cause trouble for them.

As he walked towards Clive’s tent, all curious and vigilant eyes fell on him. He arrived before the tent as the two Silverknights who stood guard outside hurriedly ran inside to call for Clive.

The remaining would’ve started questioning whoever it was that wanted to meet their Vice Leader, but standing before Ozul made him realize how no matter how strict his training was, he couldn’t do the impossible.

It just suffocated him while he tried his best to avoid eye contact. Fortunately for him, Clive quickly came out of his tent.

“Uhm... did something happen? Do you need anything?” Clive didn’t know what to ask. He was just as nervous as the guards.

“Give the order to start the preparation to start moving again,” Ozul said with a blank face. Clive did not even mind his tone, which suggested his sentence as more of an order than asking.

“Okay! I will do that. But... is there any particular reason?” Clive quickly agreed with it before he hesitated to ask for the reason.

“This whole area was home to thousands of living creatures before the fog forced them to move away. Now that the fog is gone, what do you think will happen?” Ozul did not need to explain everything since Clive was a smart man himself. A hint was enough for now.

“They will come back to their homes. And in this case of mass migration... there will be total chaos all around this area!” Clive almost shouted the last part as he came to the realization.

When the Beasts came back to form their territories again, it would cause the other Beasts to fight them over the area. And this scene would occur everywhere around the parts which were covered with the fog before.

“Moreover, you might not have realized it yet, but we are not exactly on the boundaries anymore. So Rank-7 Beasts might actually be involved-” Ozul had just finished his sentence before Clive ran off to order the mercenaries to start preparing.

The closer they were to the middle of the forest, the stronger and stranger Beasts the convoy would encounter. And in the chaos, they would have no chances of survival if even the Rank-7 Beasts are involved!

He did not even wait for Ozul to say anything else since starting the preparations to start moving was the priority right now.

Ozul returned to the tent when he saw that Clive was just as enthusiastic as he wanted him to be. Of course, he had told Clive about the situation because he wanted them to hurry the journey now. It had already been weeks since they had entered the Old Whispering Woods. He was getting bored of it now.

But he was also happy for the opportunities that it had provided for Raven and Blaze to grow so much in such a short amount of time.

When he entered the tent again, he noticed that instead of taking a nap, the duo had started to meditate!

“Didn’t I tell you to rest?” Ozul asked with a dangerous tone, which caused Raven and Blaze’s hair to stand.

They had already retracted their Mana pressure as it was quite easy for them with their talent. However, they were still meditating to get familiar with all their improvements.

“We were just-”

“Rest.” Ozul did not let Blaze say anything as his cold voice reverberated inside the tent.

Hearing his voice, they hurriedly laid back on the ground and closed their eyes, though they thought that Ozul would go out of the room and not stay here to see them pretending for over an hour!

It took Clive an hour to get the mercenaries to complete the preparations. He wanted to set out as early as possible after hearing about the possible chaos in the near future.

Ozul woke up the duo before Raven hurriedly stored the tent as well.

As the trio looked around, everyone was ready and set in their formation that Clive had told them to be in. It seemed that they were only waiting for the trio.

It was just like usual, but there was no disgust and disdain when they looked at the trio. Instead, there was only fear present in their eyes.

As the trio joined in from behind, Clive started to lead the convoy moving. Unlike before, there was no fog whatsoever, so their pace increased as well.

There were only about a little more than fifty or so people in the Convoy during this time. All of them were at least Rank-5 Mages.

Such a strong party and almost all the mercenaries would still get on their toes after hearing the howling Beasts. Clive had explained to them about the situation that they were in, so they weren’t as relaxed as they had been a few days ago.

A few Rank-5 Beasts came across them, but Clive quickly dealt with them personally to not cause any commotion, which might attract some stronger Beasts.

Time started to pass, but the people kept moving without any pause.

The weakest of the bunch were some Rank-4 Mages before, courtesy to the plant monsters, and the deadly vines. But now it was the Rank-5 Mages who were not only in the majority but also the weakest.

Since even the weakest were Rank-5 now, the convoy’s pace had increased as well.

In a short while, they had already crossed a huge section of the area that was previously covered with the fog.

Half a day passed before some of the mercenaries wanted to rest, but Clive did not listen to anyone’s request. Upon further insistence, he just glared at the mercenaries to make them shut up...