Unsealing Emptiness

Only a few people saw him standing up and quietly leaving their camp.

Those few individuals hurried to the leader’s tent to notify him, but they didn’t need to because both the leader and the vice leader had been keeping an eye on him since the beginning.

They sighed with relief since they had planned to attack the County Lord’s estate tonight.

With his leave, the leader quickly started shouting out orders and everyone suddenly got busier.

. . .

‘I hope it works,’ Ozul thought as he sped back towards the teleportation gate he remembered was in an alleyway.

.....

‘It’s done whether it works or not now.’

He shook his head internally. This wasn’t one of his best plans, but that was all he could think of at the moment.

For the kidnapping to be successful, the survival of Tiger Fangs was a must, and unless he himself delayed the County Lord’s father, the leader and the vice leader of Tiger Fangs were sure to lose their lives tonight.

He could only stop the Tiger Fangs from ever confronting the County Lord’s father. However, no one in their right mind would ever let a complete stranger tell them what to do. Hence, he had to pull this stunt for them to get familiar with him. If he were to now tell them anything, at least his words would be more believable.

‘Even if they don’t listen, the kidnapping will still happen.’

Ozul sighed thinking of all the things he would have to do tonight.

First and foremost, he needed to change his clothes, which were stained with the blood of a random animal he had killed in the wilderness.

He needed to give the appearance of an eccentric man in order to assert that he wasn’t there for some ulterior motive. As a result, he did the first thing that sprang to mind: blood and wine.

The wine tasted better than the beer he had sipped before, but it was still not enough for him to crave it.

The desire of humans to keep chugging down alcohol still perplexed him. Maybe he hadn’t found something to his taste yet, or maybe he was just built differently from humans.

‘Is it because of the intoxication? Since my body automatically removes anything harmful inside my body, maybe it doesn’t affect me,’ Ozul thought absentmindedly.

Before long, he reached the place and teleported back to the base before removing the mask on his face.

The scenery instantly changed and the lush garden filled with busy Beastkin filled his sight.

The man beside the gate stared at him silently. Ozul felt his emotions and they were mostly made up of curiosity at that moment.

He ignored him and walked away.

Before he could locate his room, the old lady, Ember arrived before him. With a small smile on her face, she asked, “I thought I would only see you after the task was done.”

“I didn’t,” replied Ozul before he walked past her and entered the room.

Ember was left there standing with a crack in her smile. She thought she had finally started grasping their personalities, but it seemed that she had yet to learn more.

Hiding her embarrassment, she turned around and also walked inside the room. She didn’t knock, but since it was her base, she could do anything she wanted.

Quietly standing behind Ozul, she noticed he reached down to touch Raven’s head.

The trio were all cultivating in a lotus position and didn’t open their eyes even when they heard the door open.

Raven stopped cultivating when she felt a familiar touch on her head, and the first thing she saw was a blood-smeared shirt that she knew was meant to be perfectly white.

She wasn’t concerned that he was hurt because he didn’t seem to have any blood.

Sighing in concern over what he had been doing for the past two days, she flicked her wrist and a pair of black pants and a white shirt materialized in front of her. Ozul grabbed them and turned to go.

They hardly made eye contact throughout this interaction, as if Raven was used to it.

She saw him walking out of the door and Ember following behind him with a confused face before she closed her eyes again and went back to cultivating.

As the door closed behind them, Ember woke up from her confusion and asked, “You came back just to change clothes?”

“Wait, you don’t even carry a Spatial Ring with you?”

Ozul turned around and gave her a stern look. He questioned, “Is there a problem with that?”

“No...”

For a moment Ember didn’t know what to say.

“I just meant it would be easier if you had the Spatial Ring instead of her?” This genuinely confused Ember as she spoke her mind to him.

In her line of work, clothes getting torn apart was common and so carrying a Spatial Ring with multiple sets of clothes had also become the norm. If they couldn’t afford it, she would have understood, but Raven clearly had a Spatial Ring before and he still gave the next one to her?

Ozul shrugged his shoulders feigning indifference, “That is how it always has been. She carries my clothes.”

He couldn’t tell her the actual reason since it might make her suspicious of him.

‘That reminds me... This is a whole separate Realm.’ ‘It should be easy to locate someone who can construct a Spatial Ring that can be used without the Spiritual Essence,’ he thought, making a mental note to check with blacksmiths or whoever produced Spatial Rings.

Ember was buried in her thoughts as he went away.

She already thought Ozul didn’t utilize Spiritual Essence, so she didn’t probe any further.

Unbeknownst to Ozul, Ember was a seasoned veteran who knew more than the average cultivator.

Her intuition had already brought her closer to the truth than he had imagined.

He walked out the gate under the curious eyes of the gatekeeper and arrived back in Waterfall County.

He quickly switched his clothes and donned the mask made up of the Purity again.

The Purity under his feet felt like an extension of his body as he floated and sped towards the County Lord’s estate. It wasn’t night yet, so he thought it might be better to confirm the location of the heir.

Minutes later he was floating above the estate and confirmed that the County Lord had already left.

‘His father came out of seclusion...’ He guessed as he noticed an even more powerful aura coming from a certain room in the middle of the building.

‘This person can singlehandedly defeat ten of Tiger Fangs.’

Ozul gauged his opponent’s strength and knew that in terms of raw power, he wasn’t the old man’s match.

‘So it appears that my strength would be around the Soul Liberation stage of the Nascent Soul Realm...’ He was also instructed about the cultivation realms. Given that the County Lord’s father was at the peak of Soul Liberation, he deduced his own power level.

‘However, that is only when comparing the raw power...’ He shrugged. He wasn’t afraid of that old man.

After all, he didn’t think anyone could manage a hair-thin needle flying at them at breakneck speed. Given that most cultivators rely on sensing the Spiritual Essence to avoid threats, it would be nearly impossible for them to sense his attacks since his needles carry no such energy.

Knowing that still didn’t bring him any satisfaction because it had been a long while since he could improve his strength.

After gaining all his body parts back, his strength had stagnated and he hadn’t been able to find any method to improve as of yet.

‘Since absorbing the Spiritual Essence is like eating Mana Cores of high-ranked Beasts in the old Realm, could eating Spiritual Cores of humans or Beasts in this Realm do something?’

Staring at the spot where he felt the aura of the County Lord’s father, Ozul suddenly had the urge to experiment, ‘Should I try eating one...’

‘Not now...’ he shook his head.

If he were to kill the old man, there would be suspicion that someone other than the Tiger Fangs was involved.

Though given his present approach, some people may still be suspicious, he couldn’t do anything about it. The circumstances were tricky, and he just had a few days to complete the task.

His current approach was all he could think of at the time.

Ozul continued to entertain all kinds of thoughts after finding the heir of the County Lord.

He was currently in a room drunk and surrounded by naked women.

The Star had already set, it had gotten completely dark, but he had yet to find any traces of the Tiger Fangs.

‘There is no point in taking out the heir right now. They need to cause a commotion first...’

He was waiting for the chaos to surround the entire estate before he made his move.

Time was of the essence now as he not only had to kidnap the heir but also warn the leader about the father of the County Lord.

*Boom!*

In the opposite corner of the County, a huge explosion occurred, engulfing a large area under its fire.

*Boom!*

Following the previous one, another explosion went down in the same area.

*Boom!*

A few more explosions occurred in a series, following which, small groups of County guards immediately rushed to the site.

Sighing tiredly, Ozul muttered, “Finally...”

.....