CHAPTER 896: Composure

***In Witherbone City, the Kiaran residence.

In a grand and lavishly decorated meeting room, the Patriarch of the House of Kiaran smiled faintly as he read a scroll handed to him by Emily.

Standing beside Emily were Bollands and Stratholme. Others, especially Sanguis, Gilbert and Phoebe, who tended to be impulsive, were not allowed to attend the meeting, lest they bring harm to the House of Han.

That day, Emily gave Sha-t'o the scroll describing one of the demonic combat formations that Bollands, Sanguis and Gilbert had documented.

After hearing these words relayed by Dagassi, Emily and the others knew that if they continued to keep their lips shut, Sha-t'o and the treacherous leaders of Witherbone City might lose patience and wipe out their family clan and extract the secrets they desired from their souls.

Hoping to stay alive as long as possible, Emily agreed to their request, but only gave them one of the demonic battle formation training methods.

After waiting so long, and pressuring the House of Han in every way possible, Sha-t'o finally got the scroll he wanted. Needless to say, he was quite pleased.

But as Sha-t'o carefully read the scroll, the smile on his face gradually turned dark. And when he finished it, he angrily flung the scroll. <i >Pa! It was propelled by a forceful energy and slapped loudly on Bollands' cheek.

"You trying to make a fool out of me with these stupid scribblings? How in the world can they be better at team-combat just by dancing around in those nonsensical steps? Ridiculous!" Sha-t'o wore a dark face as he glared at the three members of the House of Han. He took a deep breath and coldly groaned, "My House of Kiaran has demonstrated our good faith. Not only are we housing your Han Family in our Residence, but we are also giving you millions of black crystal coins. But all we get in return is this bullshit?"

It was obvious that Sha-t'o had deliberately slapped Bollands with the scroll to humiliate Bollands and the House of Han.

Sha-t'o was annoyed at Bollands from the moment they met, especially by the faint killing intent Bollands released. Unlike Emily and Stratholme, Bollands was not respectful to Sha-t'o but was rather rude and indifferent. All he could do in his anger was try to get a reaction out of Bollands.

Any ordinary person who had been insulted by Sha-t'o in this way would probably have lost his temper and started a full-scale brawl.

But Bollands did not react as Sha-t'o had expected. In fact, he did not react at all!

There was no sign of anger, sadness or humiliation on his face. He remained calm and indifferent, as if Sha-t'o had not slapped him. He was like a monk who felt nothing at all.

Bollands picked up the scroll, then explained in a calm, indifferent voice, "The set of steps and positions recorded on this scroll is genuine. It is the method we use to train our House of Han guards. To prove that this is not a fake, you can simply ask three of your House of Kiaran guards to practice the technique and test them against three others".

Emily and Stratholme breathed a sigh of relief. They knew that Bollands was a monster who could be even more ferocious than Sanguis and Gilbert when it came to killing. They were truly afraid that Bollands, after being insulted by Sha-t'o, might lose his cool and go all out against Sha-t'o.

They also knew that this might have been Sha-t'o's intention - to provoke Bollands into attacking him and ending up dead.

In addition to Sha-t'o, the patriarch of the Kiaran family, there were five Highgods of the Kiaran family in the meeting room. They stood in a line, all staring at Bollands, ready to kill him if he snapped.

Sha-t'o looked as if he had not expected Bollands to keep his cool so well. He hesitated for a moment before waving impatiently, "You three are dismissed. Leave the scroll here. I will test the technique with some of my divine guards. If I find that it has no effect on the team's fighting power, you'll get it!"

Stratholme and Emily exchanged glances, bade Sha-t'o a respectful farewell and left the conference room with Bollands.

"My Patriarch, the self-control of this fellow is truly frightening! I have watched him closely - he has not shown the slightest anger from beginning to end. A person who has such great control over his own emotions will eventually become a formidable character. He will be a tremendous threat to us," one of the Highgods remarked after the Han family left.

"A character like him who can remain so calm in the face of such an insult is either a fool or a most formidable enemy. Patriarch, he must not be allowed to live!" another Highgod advised.

These Highgods of the Kiaran family felt very threatened by Bollands. They were not afraid of Bollands' current strength, but of his patience, for they themselves could not remain so calm and indifferent to such humiliation and insult. They felt that allowing Bollands to live would be no different to sleeping in a bed with a viper underneath.

Sha-t'o was no fool, and he too could see what a threat Bollands could be. He snarled, "Of course I know that. But he stayed calm no matter what I threw at him. I need no excuse to kill him now! We need to see if the scroll they gave us is actually useful. But in any case, they are trapped in our Kiaran Residence. We will only kill them after they give us all their secrets!"

"Patriarch, why bother asking them for the secrets? Isn't it easier to just kill them all and extract the memories from their souls?" asked one of the puzzled Highgods.

Sha-t'o explained, "This is easier said than done. Not only does memory extraction require a great deal of the reader's divine energy, but there is no guarantee that the victim's memories will be fully extracted. The reader will also need to act quickly, as the moment a person dies, their memories will begin to dissipate with their soul. In the end, the reader might only get random information that can't be useful. After all, the soul is the most complex and mysterious thing in the world. No one has ever come close to fully understanding it.

Then Sha-t'o gestured and instructed, "Take the scroll and get some of the guards to practice the technique. I want to know the results as soon as possible."

"Understood, Patriarch!" the Highgods replied in unison, bowing and leaving.

*** Stratholme, Emily and Bollands returned to their temporary residence beside the Bone Refinery. Stratholme and Emily heaved a sigh of relief as they looked at Bollands. Emily remarked, "You've done really well, Bollands. I'm proud of you."

"I think Sha-t'o did it on purpose. He wanted to provoke you into attacking him. For a moment I was so worried that you would fall into his trap," Stratholme said admiringly. But soon he put on an angry face and remarked, "If we get the chance, we'll skin Sha-t'o alive!"

"What happened?" asked Sanguis and Gilbert at the same time. Of the Han family, Sanguis and Gilbert were the closest to Bollands. They could tell from Emily and Stratholme's reactions that something must have happened to Bollands. "Old man, what happened?"

"Sha-t'o was..." Stratholme recounted with a cold face what had happened in the meeting room.

After hearing the account, Sanguis, without saying a word, began to march angrily out of the building. It was as if he wanted to draw blood!

Gilbert roared and shouted as if he had gone mad: "Monstrous, monstrous! I've had enough of these bastards! I'll kill them all!"

"You two, come back here!" Stratholme, Emily, Ayermike and the others shouted hastily. They knew that if Sanguis and Gilbert came out of the building and started killing those of the House of Kiaran, a war would break out and the House of Han could all perish with them in the Kiaran Residence.

"You can continue to cower, but I won't! I will decide what I do with my life!" shouted Gilbert angrily, as if he had been insulted instead of Bollands.

Gilbert and Sanguis had outstanding powers. Stratholme, Phoebe and the others could not stop them from leaving. They were alarmed when they saw that the two wouldn't listen to their advice and continued to march out of the building to draw blood, knowing that they would end up killing themselves.

"Come back here!" Bollands knitted his eyebrows and coldly commanded, "Senior Brother said you two must listen to my instructions while he is away!"

Bollands felt something warm in his cold heart. The three of them usually hung out together and often had friendly duels with each other. Over time, they had gradually formed a very strong bond.

"But... but..." Sanguis and Gilbert murmured as they looked at Bollands.

"We will have our revenge!" Bollands looked at them and said calmly, "But not today! Now is not the time! Do not jeopardise the entire House of Han with your recklessness!"

Sanguis and Gilbert stared at the icy Bollands. After a long time, they sighed and gave up the idea.