Unsealing Emptiness

Ozul could feel the desperation in her voice; he didn’t even need to probe her troubled emotions.

Feeling the unperturbed gaze on her, Ember composed herself.

“How dangerous is it?”

“...”

“...At least give me a vague estimate of their strength?”

Ember was at a loss for words when faced with his questions. It was a given that he wouldn’t have jumped to help her without even knowing the danger.

.....

‘No. In the first place, it was stupid for me to even suggest such a thing... but I have no choice.’ She bit her lips, a bitter lump stuck in her throat.

“...There would definitely be someone at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm.”

The old lady tried her best to avoid his eyes, but her wrinkled face couldn’t hide her worries.

“Is that it?” Ozul pressed.

Sighing a mouthful of foul air, Ember knew that she had to come clean. There was no point in hiding anything, “There is a small chance that someone at the Origin Realm might be involved. Though it’s highly unlikely.”

Ozul shook his head, “Do you think your plans and calculations going awry was likely?”

The old lady was forced to suck in another mouthful of cold breath. He had a point. The current situation was completely unexpected. It could only be possible with the involvement of an unknown party who could very well be stronger than her estimates.

Seeing her so defeated was a first for Ozul.

But he also understood that there could be too much at stake for her to act this way.

Shaking his head, he didn’t accept throwing himself into a pit he couldn’t crawl out of, “I don’t accept such deals-”

“I know what I am asking of you is unreasonable. However, rest assured that you will be compensated just as much.” She looked down at the ground, resigning to fate, “Besides, you should abandon the mission if you determine the situation to be unsalvageable...”

Ozul squinted his eyes in suspicion. However, her emotions couldn’t be deceiving. She was indeed sincere.

‘Has she come to her senses?’ A little surprised, Ozul wondered what the old lady was thinking before it finally hit him, ‘She doesn’t want to lose an important asset over a potentially lost situation...’

‘That’s a first from her.’

After all, even when her subordinates were captured, her priority was to get them killed instead of rescued.

‘She is a ruthless woman...’

Ember wasn’t fazed when she met his critical scrutiny. If he didn’t agree to her request, she could only bitterly face the consequences of this situation.

“Do you have Spiritual Cores?” Ozul inquired.

“??..Spiritual Cores?” Ember questioned, wondering what Spiritual Cores had to do with this situation.

“Do you have them or not?”

“... I do.”

“Great. However, keep in mind that even if I return without killing your people, you will have to compensate me for taking the risk. Can we work with that?” Ozul’s tone suggested no room for negotiation. He was sacrificing his precious sleep for this. He wouldn’t take it if he stood to gain nothing in the end.

“Wait- you only want Spiritual Cores? Are you sure?”

Ozul nodded, “It would be best if they are of the Nascent Soul Realm.”

“Alright. You have my word that you will be rewarded generously,” Ember promised confidently. She was ready to accept much more ridiculous demands from him, but it seemed that she could never guess what went on in his cunning mind.

When she looked at his face, for a moment, it felt as if his lips were curled in a feint smile.

‘I must be daydreaming...’

. . .

Ozul was rushing in a certain direction towards the outskirts of the city.

Ember had explained all the details of the situation to him. She had hired a capable group of people to do certain things for her. Although they knew almost nothing about her, it would still cause her endless troubles if the specifics of their mission were leaked to the humans.

As for what exactly that mission was, she didn’t even tell him.

Ember only knew the general area where those mercenaries were held captive. She hadn’t had the time to confirm their exact whereabouts. So it was up to him to find them as well.

“That won’t be an issue...”

He muttered as he could virtually see the density of Spiritual Essence in one of the places highly concentrated than the rest.

He slowed down so as to not alert the enemies. Even though he was still a mile away from that area, the collective pressure of their Spiritual Essence equaled that of a powerhouse that wouldn’t be ignored by anyone in this and even the surrounding kingdoms.

‘This seems almost impossible... but I have yet to assess their strengths,’ Ozul could tell that confronting them openly would be his sure defeat.

‘Not only are there a couple of people at the second stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, but that pressure is definitely from someone at the peak of the Nascent Soul.’

Suddenly Ozul remembered that Ember, that old lady, was half a step into the Origin Realm, yet he never felt such pressure from her.

Realizing that she was hiding her strength all along and he wasn’t aware of it, he bitterly shook his head, ‘I keep underestimating her...’

Turning his focus back on the building which seemed to be a rundown warehouse surrounded by trees and vegetation.

He was suspended in the air and had an unhindered view of the entire landscape.

‘They are no ordinary men,’ he thought as he noticed the situation.

From the surges of the Spiritual Essence, there were about twenty cultivators surrounding the warehouse, yet he could only locate half of them visually.

All of them seemed well-versed in hiding their presence.

Unfortunately for them, it was useless against Ozul who was so sensitive to everything around him that even wild beasts couldn’t compete with him.

“This will be tricky,” he muttered under his breath.

His biggest advantage in these situations had always been his lack of presence.

Once he stopped letting his body suck in the Spiritual Essence, around him it acted as if he was any regular inanimate object.

The same thing used to happen with Mana in his previous Realm.

Disturbances in the flow of Spiritual Essence is usually the main indicator that there is a living being in the near vicinity.

Unless these cultivators looked for other changes in the environment, they could never sense his presence.

Taking advantage of a strong breeze, he rushed near the torn-out building.

It got harder with each step as he had to be mindful of all the people scattered about.

Fortunately, he had also honed the art of completely hiding his presence. Even in the normal routine, his footsteps had stopped making any noise.

Peeking from behind a tree with a thick canopy, Ozul could see the entrance to the warehouse.

The warehouse was big enough to compete with a small manor in the city, but most of the people here were at the second stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.

The entrance was in his view, but there was no possible way that he could enter without being attacked by ten of those people at the same time.

‘Should I kill them one by one?’

He contemplated that thought before pushing it to the back of his mind.

It would be close to impossible even if he tried to assassinate everyone quietly.

Killing even one of them would surely alert the rest as even if he didn’t have any trace of Spiritual Essence, these people did. The death of someone at the Soul Liberation stage of the Nascent Soul Realm would surely turn all the heads in his direction.

The wind rustled the leaves, but the thick crown of trees barely moved.

‘Those people are certainly inside...’

He was in a dilemma now since the situation had become a little too complicated.

It was like a hornet’s nest.

And he didn’t know if it was worth it to go through a swarm of hornets just for some Spiritual Cores.

‘But I would be getting Spiritual Cores of the Nascent Soul Realm...’

In the end, he cursed himself before deciding to just go ahead with it.

‘If I just play a little dirty, dealing with the second stage Nascent Soul Realms would be possible. I am not confident about the peak Nascent Soul Realm guy sitting inside... But I can always run away from him.’

He was confident in his ability to escape a chase if it came down to it.

‘It’s fortunate that there is no one at the Origin Realm.’ Ozul could imagine how troublesome an Origin Realm cultivator would have been.

Even now, he didn’t plan on a direct confrontation. Though it seemed impossible to avoid, he would delay it for as long as he could.

.....

Ember had told him that there were a total of twelve people held captive, but he could only sense the presence of eleven such people in one of the corners.

‘Is one of them already dead?’ he wondered, closing his eyes and concentrating his focus inside the building.

‘There he is...’ In his mind, he could form the picture of a dead body lying beside the group of eleven people, rotting in front of his own comrades.

He breathed a sigh of relief since the absence of one of them could mean that they were being interrogated right this instant.

Having found his targets’ location, he took a deep breath and once again checked his surroundings.

Hiding in the canopy of one of the trees, he slowly siphoned traces of The Purity and gradually formed a bubble of black mist that he had a hard time controlling.

If he had a blood pumping heart in his body, his veins would have started bulging under sheer mental stress.

‘This better do the trick...’