Danger Ahead

All the members of the blood moon sect camped in a small forest, it was not much of a forest just a dozen of trees clumped together. The area they were camping in was a few miles away from the Abun Village. They were waiting for the arrival of the inner disciple Darvin. Muffled crying of the captured girls could be heard from inside the carts.

Even though Tiara had treated all of Alfie's wounds but he was still lying down unconscious in one of the tents.

A masked cultivator entered Gary's tent and said while bowing- "Inner member Gary, Disciple Darvin has arrived."

Outside his tent, every masked cultivator including Tiara had their head bowed in front of a tall dark man, hulking build with a beard reaching his chest, he was none other than Darvin.

Hearing the messenger Gary got up immediately and went straight out.

"Greeting core disciples Darvin." Gary bowed his head, greeting his senior as soon as he saw Darvin

"Hmmm" replied Darvin with his heavy bass voice, befitting his physical stature. Darvin then looked at every person present there, face to face as if looking through them. One by one all the Masked men swallowed their saliva in dread as soon as Darvin's eyes laid on them.

"One warrior rank cultivator missing?" Darvin asked once he could not locate one of the three warriors ranked members.

"Garry stepped forward and narrated to him the reason for Alfie's absence."

Darvin just nodded his head and asked the two warrior ranks Tiara and Gary to follow him in a tent. There he gestured them to sit on the wodden chairs, taking a deep breath Darvin started narrating them the plan - "We have two missions at hand, and both are interlinked. The first is to find and secure the Energy stone, and the other one is to invade the Withlock town. You both will be accomplishing a part the 2nd mission. Once the location of the stone is confirmed, you both will be heading to the Withlock town, where you have to win the trust of the people there and steal the alerting wave crystal. Once you are done you will send a messenger to the group that will be camping in the WildWitch forest after they have successfully secured the energy stone. ?" Darvin paused, and seeing the two puzzled he asked "Any question ?"

Tiara was the first one to raise a question- "Disciple Darvin isn't Wildwitch forest a red zone, will it be safe to send human and warrior rank cultivators there?"

"The reason that forest is a red-zone is not because of the high level monsters, but due to a savage mysterious female cultivator known as the WildWitch that resides there. There won't be any problem if the searching party does not go deep into the forest and the energy stone is not in her territory so it should not be an issue." Darvin said explaining. Both were amazed hearing the explanation, they had never imagined that the presence of a single cultivator could make a whole forest red zone. A red zone area was generally a place that was not fully traveled or uncovered because of the high danger level, people generally assume the danger is due to the high-level monster roaming those forests.

After gulping down the information, it was Gary who asked the next question-"Inner Disciple, will you be joining the team securing the Energy stone ?"

"No, I will join when you all once you have stolen the alert wave crystal and sent the message to the camping group in the forest. I want to kill my nephew and the members of Withlock family myself " Darvin replied with a huge grin on his face and thought - 'I want to hear that piece of shit Darren's cries once more.'

Seeing the sinister grin on Darvin's daunting face both of them swallowed their saliva in terror. They felt sorry for Withlock family and his nephew, even in the blood moon sect Darvin was known for inhumanely torturing his enemies before killing them.

After a moment Darvin spoke again- "It might take a few months to locate the exact location of the energy stone, so you both have a few months to rest and prepare for the mission ahead. I will contact you both once the energy stone is located. Don't attract too much attention wherever you both go in these months " Darvin said handing them two fake identification cards.

"But how will you locate us if we leave from here ?" Gary asked with a puzzled tone.

"I have my ways. You both can leave in a few days when you have taken care of everything here, and sold the slaves" Darvin took a pause and said with a rough tone as if warning them "-and remember this, I have sacrificed a lot to be here and destroy Withlock family, and I would not tolerate anyone shattering my plans so be careful."

"Ye..sss inner disciple Darvin, we will keep in mind." Gary said while stuttering.