Hidden in plain sight

"Hey. have you heard the news yet?" A guy asked another guy who is sitting in front of him in tavern.

"What news?'

"Apparently the mayors son is found dead yesterday in Dupar Gong."

"What?" The other guy was shocked.

"Not only that but the body is found brutally beaten and destroyed. There are cut marks every where and even some part of the body is completely chopped off. They had to very careful to piece everything together."

"Is it a beast from the gong that did this? How brutal!"

"Not exactly. It's a speculated that the killer is actually the poster girl. Apparently she's been seen recently that place and the mayors son went after her. But when they arrived there they met with an unexpected beast tied. As a result most of the members died while he was brutally killed by that girl."

"How tragic!"

"Well serves it him right." Another man intervened. "He's not a man people should feel sorry for. The crime he committed is not small. That's the least amount of punishment for him." The man spoke with a very harsh voice which heard by everyone in the tavern.

Majority of the people in the city don't liked Joffrey. He was bad and luturus play boy. Most of the people still remember what he did in the city gate a few years ago. But still even all this crime a man should not be tortured and killed like this. They want Joffrey to be punished but they didn't want such punishment. So when the man shouted nobody back him up or stopped him. It's just they all decided to keep it quiet.

The man looked around the tavern and made an angry ugly. But it's none of his business so he stood up started to leave the tavern. But before he went he stopped for a bit and said the first two guy, "You guys should head with me. I am going to hunt the criminals down. Apparently for that stupid man mayor increased the bounty of that girl to 50 thousand law grade and 5 thousand middle grade crystals."

"What? " This time everyone is hyped. Because that's a big amount of money they can ever possibly get. People all of a sudden started to get hyped.

While the hype in the tavern is still going on in the corner of the tavern in a small table Magnus and Anna is eating lunch. They heard everything that happened here from the beginning to the end and remained quite.

The result of the thing they did made a great impact in this city. First of all the mayor declared the all out search in that area. After the killed Joffrey both left the scene immediately. In about an hour later Mayor and his crew arrived at Dupar Gong but the beast stamped is very powerful and the elder if the beast is also very competent. As a result it took about two more hours for the mayor to finally defeat the Beast leader and went inside the valley.

But before that Magnus and Anna returned to the city with a different identity. As the guys mentioned the entire city heard the news of the Joffrey's death but most of them remained quite because it's really not something they can joy now.

Joffrey is a buffoon but his father is not a fool. That man immediately increased the bounty and started actively hunting for Anna. But the most irony is that the killer is living just under his nose.

They quietly finished their meals and left the place. After they entered the apartment Anna asked, "What's our next plan?" with a sharp curious tone. Magnus went and set in the sofa and replied with a relaxed expression,

"For now we lay low for a couple of days. After that I am thinking of remaining here for a few more months."

"How long?" Kuudere Anna asked with a very calm voice. "When we are going to that place?"

"Don't be impatient. That place is outside the barrier. Right now it's risky for us to outside since the entire land is sealed and constantly people above level 50 guarding it. If anyone finds us about our secret it's a disaster. You have enemy same as I have my share of enemy. "

"But we can't just stay here forever because this land has less Qi. So our cultivation is taking time. My cultivation is stuck at level 15 while you are stuck at level 12. It will take a long time for us to become powerful if we stay here." Anna went and set in the sofa too.

In a sort span of one day Magnus's position in Anna's mind changed. All of them now somewhat trust him and know that his not a fool when he plans something. It's not a regular thing where a level 12 cultivator defeated five level 25 cultivators with a bow and arrow. Right now Tsundere, Kuudere completely trust Magnus. Also from yesterday Proud Anna appeared a few time. As she sat close to Magnus she also changed her face. Right now she's inside the house. There's no way anyone can easily find her here and she already mastered the technique quite well to the point that she can change back with ease. As Magnus looked at her pretty beautiful patterned eyes he replied with a smile,

"That is a problem indeed. But don't worry I have a plan for this." saying that Magnus pulled out a small map from his pocket. He opened it in front of Anna and point out a location.

Anna leaned in a little close to Magnus to see the map. "It's a map of Northern Land and what's in that location?."

"It's the heart of the Alps. As you know that Alps divided north into two parts. But Alps itself is divided into two. One is northern Alps while the other one is southern Alps.

Southern Alps is low level area where beast are not very powerful. But Northern Alps is the power zoon of the Alps. " Magnus paused for a second before asking Anna, "Do you know why this land has less Qi?"

Anna replied with a confused face, "Is it because of the geographical problem?"

"It is a geographical problem but not the way you think. Many decades ago people tried to figure out the reason why the north has a low world Qi. So they did some research and found that the Alps mountain is actually responsible for this. Although the global Qi circulation in the north is low it's not that low in regards to every other place. But the main problem is that Alps mountain is actively taking a big chunk of Qi like a worm hole. It's dragging those Qi in somewhere in the middle of the Northern Alps.

So people tried to enter the location where the Alps are taking the Qi but they never found it. For two reasons they failed to find the location. First the mountain range is very hard to scale. Second the beasts that live in that place are all level 3 beasts and are on the verge of becoming a monster. So as a result they failed multiple times. "

"They could just attack with a level 50 cultivator " Anna said mockingly.

"They actually did. It's just that there's a very powerful beast that reside in that mountain. As a result they didn't even get close to the area before the beast unleashed it's might.

So that's why that place has the most Qi of the north and also very rigid cold land. If we need to venture inside that place we need to prepare a lot of things beforehand."

"What are you planning to go there? Don't tell me you are planning to use the beast core to improve faster " Anna asked with a surprise.

"It looks like you're a clever Princess not a foolish one."

"Fuck you basterd. Do you not know how dangerous it is to advance using beast core. It's nature of Qi is different from human so without processing the core first taking it directly will result with two different Qi inside the body. As a result the cultivators may face Qi deviation because they can't use their own Qi properly because of the other ones interfere."

"Oho. So you know quite a lot. But you are wrong in one thing. Is that it's anot that risky when you know how to mix them together inside your body. " Magnus said with a mysterious smile.

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About a few miles away in the road that leads to the city of Terra, a large carriage is carrying five passengers towards it. A girl with a cone shape hat is looking at the city as she exclaimed, "So this is the city of Terra. Never thought that northern land can have such a big place. I hope that they have a comfy hotel so that I can sleep as fast as possible."

The other people also looked at the city with a slight surprise. They are the people of Rakham family of the iron Empire. The people in the carriage look quite exhausted as they run all the way to Iron Empire border to the Terra within 15 days. So every member is right now needs a break.

"We will take a rest for tonight when we enter the city. The next morning you guy know the drill. " The leading girl asked with a domineering voice.

"Yes. Everyone replied with an exhausted voice."