Parting Ways Under Different Circumstances

''So how is your progress? Did you find them?''

''Miss, I wasn't able to locate them but… I think, I found the reason for it. It's not only this sealed world that hides them. I suspect that they are using some kind of method to elude my detection. Miss, you also know what that means..''

Leyzhen looked coldly at Yeqin. She already knew she couldn't trust Yeqin anymore. What she didn't understand was how did he got free from the shackles forced him to servitude. This really made an already complicated problem even more complicated for her.

''Since they have some means to hide, you should keep an eye on the big sects active in this planet instead. There are only so many sects capable of hiding them. As for locating the mortal, you don't need to bother. ''

''As you wish, Miss.''

Yeqin bowed and left the room.

After Yeqin left the room, Leyzhen thought for a little while and made up her mind. She knew that Yeqin probably wanted her to move out personally but if she stayed passive all the time, this will only give Yeqin more time to prepare. Now what she needed to do was taking the initiative and forcing Yeqin to make his move prematurely.

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Unusually, Mayton was sleeping soundly while Angeza was lying next to Mayton, watching him sleep. In the hunters camp, everyone except for Ghorzhang, Zgar and Angeza were asleep. Since the hunters fought in a melee, they were exceptionally tired tonight. Because of this, it was decided that youngsters would keep watch tonight. When the time came to select sentries for the night, Mayton shamelessly nominated Ghorzhang for duty as he went to sleep.

This didn't anger Ghorzhang though. He knew that Mayton did that because of his strange sensory ability. Thus all he could do was sigh and accept his fate. As for Zgar, he was nominated by Ghorzhang. They were closer to each other after Mayton invited them both to his home, back in the village. It was more enjoyable to spend the night with someone you get along with after all.

The bandits' attack reminded them how dangerous the roads could be so Ghorzhang and Zgar were looking around alertly to catch any sign of danger before it's too late. What they didn't know was there was already someone slowly floating down behind them with a cloud under his feet.

This man had a middle aged appearance and wore gray daoist robes. He looked like someone who transcended worldliness as he rode the cloud down with his hands still behind his back.

''Hey, little girl! Hey, I am up here!'' the middle age daoist said with a deep voice.

''Wh- Who is there?! H-how can someone fly?''

Angeza said shakily. Even though the voice sounded part boasting and part excited, Angeza was afraid of supernatural things after the disaster in the village thus she wasn't able to recognize it. The only thing on her mind right now was waking up everyone as soon as possible.

''AAAAAHHHHHH! Enemy! Everyone, wake up! ''

she started to shout before waiting for the man to explain himself.

This made the middle aged daoist panic too. He already regretted his actions. All he wanted to do was impressing this little girl with fancy tricks. Otherwise what was the use of the cloud under his feet? What was the use of adjusting his posture to look like a transcendent expert while he slowly floated down? Even the things he would say after awing the little girl were ready.

''I- wait, little lass stop shouting. I am not a bad person. Have you ever seen such a cool looking baddie? I am obviously some divine figure who came from the skies to end all your troubles and grant your wishes, alright?''

He was really bad with children, so the middle aged man started blabbering as he didn't know what to do.

''Liar, If you are not an enemy, how come I can't wa-wake my brother up? You, did you.. just like mom and dad..''

Angeza couldn't finish her sentence as she started to choke on her words.

Seeing the things were taking a turn for the worse, the middle aged daoist sighed as he waved his finger towards Mayton. After this gesture, Mayton immediately woke up.

'' See, nothing happened to your brother, he was just sleeping.'' the middle aged daoist said with the sweetest voice he could muster. There were already beads of sweat on his forehead. Today, he finally realized it was harder to deal with little girls than dealing with a horde of ferocious beasts.

Angeza was already behind Mayton, hugging his waist and she simply wasn't paying attention to the middle aged daoist.

''Senior, please leave my little sister alone, the one you are after is me. I'll do as you say, so please don't hurt my sister.''

After waking up and seeing someone float in front of him, Mayton immediately associated the middle aged daoist with the strong cultivator who was after him. He still remembered Old Mert's words about not antagonizing such experts. The strange massacre at the village also reinforced this point. He knew he couldn't resist, so he tried to at least save his sister.

The middle aged daoist didn't know what the heck Mayton was talking about though. He even started to doubt his judgment in trying to recruit Angeza. This pair of siblings obviously had something wrong with their heads.

''Huh? Why would I be after you? I don't even know who the heck you are!''

Mayton relaxed a little after hearing him. He was truly afraid that he would implicate his sister and the rest of the villagers. But it seemed like there was a misunderstanding. So he cleared his throat and got ready to speak when the middle aged daoist waved his finger towards him again. Mayton opened and closed his mouth, but no sound came out.

''Okay, enough of this farce. Now shut up and listen to me. Since I can see that little lass won't do as I say anyway, I might as well just convince you. Brat, your sister has a high aptitude for cultivation. It's higher than even some direct disciples of great sects. She also has necessary resolution to cultivate. Thus she caught my eye when I was returning from a mission to investigate the destruction of some villages near the Demonic Forest. I want her to become my disciple and return to my sect with me.''

After finishing his explanation, the middle aged daoist waved his finger again to let Mayton answer.

Mayton was stunned. Old Mert told him of the possibility of some senior coming to take him in as a disciple, but no one thought instead of him, his sister will get recruited.

''Senior, please accept my apologies for my rudeness, but may I ask about what you found out in those villages you mentioned?''

Mayton said, clearly agitated. He knew he wasn't strong enough to avenge his parents and fellow villagers yet, but knowing his enemy was indeed important. That way, he would know how strong he needed to be before seeking revenge and when he was strong enough where to find his enemies.

The middle aged daoist thoughtfully looked at him for a few seconds then his eyes brightened as he looked like he finally understood what was going on.

''So that's why. That's how it is. No need for apologizing. It is me who should apologize to your sister. It seems like my thoughtless actions really scared her. As for what you want to learn, I'll naturally tell you if you accept my offer. You should know that there are people willing to die for the chance I am offering to your sister. You don't have to worry about her safety too. I am sure she will be safer with me.''

When the middle aged daoist said '' she will be safer with me'' his eyes narrowed a little. This made Mayton suspect the middle aged daoist knew something about his situation.

A sincere man who had difficulties communicating with others. This was Mayton's impression of the daoist. 'Such a man will not be scheming. He has no need to scheme to deal with us anyway.' thought Mayton. He hated the idea of getting separated from his sister but he also knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity for her. When he was thinking of how to get more benefits from the daoist before agreeing, suddenly Angeza who didn't say anything and quietly listened from Mayton's back all this time, took a step forward and said;

''Mister, I am willing to become your disciple and go to your sect. But only if you take my brother with us too.''

After hearing her condition, the middle aged daoist had a complex look on his face. It looked like he was in a dilemma about a difficult choice. When he finally opened his mouth to say something, he saw the expectant look on Angeza's face and closed his mouth again without saying anything. Finally, he sighed as he said;

''This.. isn't a good idea. If I take your brother with us, I am afraid.. bad things will happen to him. Why don't we do it like that? I'll help your brother a little to keep him safe, but in return, you won't tell anything about him to anyone, ever. Not even to the people closest to you. Don't forget If you tell anything about him he.. something really bad will happen to him, okay?''

The middle aged daoist tried his best to select words that won't scare Angeza too much. He especially tried to avoid anything related to death. From Angeza and Mayton's earlier reactions he already understood where they came from and what they experienced. This also explained Angeza's resolute heart at such a tender age. This made him feel pity for Angeza. He really wanted to bring Mayton with them for Angeza. But unfortunately, if his conjecture was true, there was only one thing waiting for Mayton at his sect, death. His conjecture also explained Angeza's talent which made it more probable.

Angeza had a pure soul. Pure souls didn't give any inborn strength or special abilities. In fact, it even hindered cultivating most cultivation techniques by preventing absorption of qi. People with pure souls could only use one type of qi. The pure qi. And not even the usual kind harvested by mortals. If there was even a tiny bit of impurity in the qi, pure soul didn't let it enter the body. This caused their cultivation to be slower than others unless they used high quality cultivation materials but when they successfully cultivated they were stronger than other cultivators thanks to the pureness of their soul.

Even with the high cost of cultivation, every sect and cult out there wanted a cultivator with a pure soul to join them. But it was just too hard to find one. Because their soul rejected almost every kind of qi, they didn't accumulate qi unconsciously like other mortals. This made it almost impossible to sense them without knowing they had the pure soul beforehand. Thus every child from the famous lineages got checked to see if they had the pure soul or not.

There were two kinds of cultivators with pure soul; First and the most common kind was people who inherited it from their ancestors. Lineages with one or more strong divine cultivators in their ancestry had a chance to produce an offspring with a pure soul. That was one of the reasons why it was important to keep track of one's lineage.

As for the second kind, it was much rarer. When the baby was still in the belly of his or her mother, with the continuous usage of some expensive materials and the appropriate technique, it was possible to stop the baby from absorbing any of the impurities present in the world. Even a tiny bit of impurity absorbed by the baby ruined the process. This reduced success rates drastically. When you combined the expenses with minuscule success rate, it simply wasn't worth trying.

But in the past, there was a legendary divine cultivator who had the pure soul despite not fulfilling any of the conditions. According to the legends, both of his parents were mortals. His father died mysteriously at the night they married, and his mother vanished from the town they were living in. At that time neither his mother nor his father's murderer knew of his mother's pregnancy.

The legendary cultivator's father got murdered by an ancient demon who fell in love with his mother. Then the demon tried to convince the legendary cultivator's mother to come with him but he got rejected harshly. In his anger, the demon killed her husband but couldn't bring himself to harm her. Thus he kidnapped her.

Years later an old divine cultivator heard of the heinous deeds of the demon and came to exterminate him. After accomplishing his mission he found a little boy in the demons nest. That little boy miraculously had a pure soul and went on to become a legendary divine cultivator.

This legend prompted divine sects to conduct various experiments using demons but ultimately all the experiments failed.

The middle aged daoist already sensed that Mayton's soul hid something horrifying in it, but he didn't want to ascertain it. Because, if he knew for sure Mayton had something to do with a strong demon, he would be forced to kill him. Having doubts and not acting on them and knowing for certain but still not doing the required thing were entirely different concepts.

He was already old despite his middle aged look, and this was the first time he wanted to take in a disciple. He just couldn't bring himself to kill the brother of his first disciple. Thus he decided to turn a blind eye to the whole situation. Who knows maybe his suspicions were wrong...

''Little sis you should go together with this uncle and listen to him in everything, okay? I'll definitely find you when it's less dangerous. Didn't you want to get strong and help me? You can get stronger than me if you go with this uncle.''

Mayton finally made his decision. The things middle aged daoist said about the safety of Angeza and the meaningful look he gave Mayton, convinced Mayton to make Angeza go with him. While he was getting ready to say a few more things to convince Angeza, Angeza cut in;

''No need to convince me, big brother. I will listen to your arrangements. I am already willing to accept mister as my master. But mist-.. master please don't renege on your promise. You have to help big brother.''

''Haha, good! It's a small matter. Kid, here take this talisman and keep it with you at all times. Don't let anyone see it or you will involve my sect and your sister in your matters too. With this talisman on you, not even the strongest person in this world can find out about your secret without thoroughly scrutinizing you.''

''Master, big brother has another urgent problem, he can't stay under the sun for too long or he will get sick. Master, please heal big brother's illness.''

''You… Little, lass you are really forcing me to k-.. Sigh, okay I'll help him but you must not ask for more. I already lost greatly in this deal. Kid, catch this.''

As he finished his sentence, the middle daoist took out a scroll from the seemingly empty air and threw the scroll at Mayton. The daoist really felt helpless. Those symptoms showed his suspicion had at least 80 percent chance of being true. But he was even forced to help someone like this in his cultivation.

'' Little lass, I already helped your brother greatly. Now, say your goodbye and we will depart immediately. Kid as for the question you asked about your village, I don't know who did it, but all the villagers near this side of the Demonic Forest got their souls harvested. It could be the work of either a devil or someone who makes deals with them. There are a few organizations which harvest souls and then sell them to devils. That's all I know.''

Seeing the impatience of her new master, Angeza knew she should say her farewell to Mayton as she hugged Mayton with tears glistening in her eyes.

''Big brother, please be safe, okay?

Angeza said with a forced smile on her face just when Mayton was going the say the same things to Angeza. Mayton looked at her for a moment then patted her head and said;

''Don't worry about your brother, I'll be safe, and I'll find you as soon as possible.''

After Mayton finished his sentence, he looked at the middle aged daoist with a questioning look.

''I know what you want to ask. You shouldn't bother asking. When the time is right, the little lass can find you instead. Don't forget, I'm doing this for the safety of your sister. ''

As the middle aged daoist finished his words, he swished his sleeves and a cloud materialized beneath Angeza's feet and lifted her up. The daoist himself was standing on a different cloud with his hands behind his back as they slowly floated up. If the daoist didn't turn his back to Angeza and Mayton, they could see a smug smile on his face, which totally didn't conform to his transcended expert image.

''Senior, can you at least tell me your name?''

shouted Mayton from behind them.

''They call me Glittering Calmness.''

A voice reverberated in the night as Angeza and the middle aged daoist disappeared among the clouds.