"Father, why? WHY?!"
A woman who shared Wade's features screamed at Gerald who sat on his golden throne, looking down at his daughter with indifferent eyes.
Julia was a woman with a gentle temperament and modest bearings. Many would mistake her for a commoner with the way she was dressed.
"Do I have to explain myself?"
Gerald's cold voice made Julie shiver. Her body trembled as she looked down to the ground, tears welled up in her eyes.
"Father-in-law, can you please reconsider this?"
A man dressed in scholarly robes consoled his wife. His gaze was steady and calculative as if nothing could shake the calm of his mind.
"Nolan, when did you become the head of the clan?"
An oppressive aura pinned his body down but it failed to even produce the faintest frown on his face. Nolan simply stood up and dusted his robes off.
"I respect the Patriarch's orders."
He bowed to the man on the golden throne. Then simply picked up Julie and left.
"Dear, we can't help him anymore, everything is in his hands now."
Nolan kissed his wife on the forehead and ruffled her hair for reassurance, but the woman could only feel pain as now both of her sons embarked on a deadly journey.
One willingly and the other by force.
———
"Damn, it is really far away."
Wade looked at the map while riding a horse through the dense forest.
"Blood Temple trials should start a month later. For now, I need to reach one of its subordinate cities: Radan City."
He quickly pinpointed the shortest route. While galloping on his horse, he thought through the recent events.
'What is this book?'
'Who wrote it?'
'This mysterious book allowed me to achieve such unbelievable results in such a short time, even granting me the physical strength of an average First Stage of Body Refinement cultivator.'
'Even the freshly broken cultivators would be at the bottom of their stage or realm, only after consolidating their cultivation base could they bring it to the average standard or higher.'
"Hmm? It is getting darker."
Wade didn't notice the passage of time while trying to come up with new theories.
"Damn, I have to use the map again."
He tried to find a specific triangle shape in a maze of scribbles and lines.
"I wish I had one of those Jadephones. I would have thought of a place and it would have found it for me."
No matter how frustrated he was with a 2D map, he was too broke to afford a Jadephone and even in his clan only those with a certain cultivation and background possessed it.
Nevertheless, he eventually found an inn nearby to rest. After threatening the stable boy to take care of his horse, he entered the building.
What greeted him was a desolate atmosphere with only a few shady guests inside.
'Huh, the best place to make people disappear.'
He approached the counter and looked at the old man behind it.
"A hundred coppers a night."
The old man didn't bother with pleasantries, his sunken eyes looked lifeless and cruel. There was also a strange light within them that made Wade grossed out.
Wade placed a small pouch on the counter and accepted the keys. Then, he walked up the creaking wooden stairs which made the inn even more eerie.
He opened a rusty metal door and walked into a room with a single bed and table. To say the least, it was an immense downgrade for someone like Wade.
"I guess this is where my journey begins."
———
Hours passed deep into the night. The room was pitch-black with only faint rhythmic sounds of breathing.
Slowly, the rusty door creaked open, revealing two tall hooded figures. They slowly approached the bed and one of them reached out to reveal what was beneath the blanket.
They carefully pulled the blanket, only to find Wade grinning from ear to ear.
"Ahh!"
The hooded men yelped in fear, and the next moment, the room erupted in bloody screams.
Wade jumped off the bed and lunged with a dagger in his hand at the nearest person. His impeccable timing and successful shock tactic allowed him to plunge the blade into someone's throat.
"You-!!"
The hood dropped back, revealing to be one of the people that Wade had seen on the first floor.
Without bothering to listen, he diagonally jerked out the blade, tearing through tender flesh in the process. The body dropped down with gurgling sounds desperately clutching for air.
"Bastard!"
The remaining man pounced at him with a short sword.
Wade smirked and pivoted to the side, with one clean motion, he stabbed the dagger into the man's chest, piercing the heart.
"Trafficking people isn't the safest career."
He kicked the corpse away, pulling out the blade in the process.
"I guess, it is time to clean up this place."
Wade picked up one of the corpses and threw it in the corridor. Just as he had expected, the floor collapsed revealing sharp bamboo sprouts underneath.
"No wonder the floor was so thick."
He then dissected both bodies and walked through the hallway. Along the way, he would throw pieces of flesh to check for any traps.
"That old man is really ingenious, setting up so many traps in such a confined place is a feat worthy of praise. However, he underestimated me."
It didn't take long for Wade to reach the first floor after overcoming multiple deadly traps.
The place was pitch black and deathly silent. The only source of light was the rays of moonlight that peered through the holes in the walls.
"Hey! Won't you be receiving your guests?!"
He flashed a cocky grin, trying to provoke the old man.
A few minutes later, a scrawny silhouette walked out of the shadows with spiked maces in his hands.
"I will cut off that tongue that doesn't respect its seniors."
The old man threatened with narrowed cold eyes. He was confident that everything was still in his control.
Hearing that, Wade couldn't contain his laughter as he looked at the old man with a knowing smile.
The old man instantly guessed what he wanted to do and tried to stop him.
"You can't-!"
However, he was too late as Wade spun back and threw the dagger into the pitch darkness.
In the next moment, a high-pitched scream spread through the inn.