"Boss, they are here,

" a man suddenly walked up to Markus and reported in a silent voice.

"Right on time,

" Markus muttered before moving his hand up and patting the man on the back.

"Good job. Continue the investigation,

" he praised the man before giving him the next orders.

'You shouldn't have tested me back then,' he thought as the massive crowd of people continued to walk towards the outer gate of the camp. Looking around, he could see the few expensive mercenaries that he hired personally after the recommendation from the local mercenary guild.

In the crowd consisting mostly of opportunists and fortune-finders, there was only a handful of truly valuable people. Between roughly a thousand-strong group, there were only seven craftsmen, fifteen mercenary warriors, and roughly fifty of Al's clansmen.

"So you are Marcus,

" one of the forementioned people approached the saint.

"I have a letter from Antion to you and one to Al that I will need to pass on directly. I hope that won't be a problem,

" the middle-aged man said in a perfectly neutral tone as if he was commenting on the weather.

"You can pass it to me once we take the corner ahead,

" Markus looked up and to the left before giving his reply.

There were people watching every single step of theirs. As such, even something as simple as talking with each other had to be a precisely thought-out operation.

"Are you foreseeing any problems to arise?

" the man asked, not daring to as much as look at Markus' face.

"Something hangs in the air,

" the former saint replied ambiguously, unwilling to share the details of something so vital out in the open.

"It will be for the best if you guys were to be prepared for the fight,

" he added before biting on his bottom lip.

'While I hope it will all go smoothly, I'm not some kind of naive idiot to blindly believe in it,' Markus thought, watching the side-streets his crowd passed as they moved forward.

And soon, his guess proved to be correct.

As soon as the front of the group reached the perimeter of the gate that separated the warcamp from the actual desert, they stopped.

People moving in the middle and back part of the crowd have yet to see that a problem arose, so they ended up pushing forward, squeezing those in between.

And as Markus reached the very corner that he mentioned a moment earlier, he saw what the reason for the sudden halt was.

"The leader of the group, step forward!

" An officer from the military part of the camp stood ahead of a massive troop. The troop that blocked the exit from the camp from the crowd that Markus gathered.

"What are we going to do?

" One of the mercenaries approached Markus, openly asking him the question.

After all, now that the confrontation came to be, the number of things they need to keep hidden greatly decreased.

"For now, just keep still. Don't do ** unless they openly attack,

" Markus ordered before making his way towards the front of the crowd.

Given how everyone was squeezed up, this task was a challenge on its own. Which in turn made the whole matter slightly problematic with how there was a limit to the patience that the soldiers had.

'I know I can get through them way faster,' Markus thought, already able to see the faces of the military ahead, 'but let's see whether they will make any mistakes,' he summed up his plan and even slowed down his pace of squeezing through the people.

"I'm asking one last time,

" the officer spoke up as he laid his hand at the handle of the sword by his waist.

"The leader of this group, step forward!

"

Markus reached the very end of the crowd... And he stopped there. Given how he was the mastermind of the entire event, he even had the magical energy he managed to obtain from loosely crushed magic stones just to prevent anyone from recognizing him.

"And why should we give you our leader?

" He shouted, acting as a random person in the crowd.

"This gate only serves to prevent invasion. There is no law that you can use to forbid us to venture to the desert!

" he shouted again, trying to see how far the other party was willing to go to stop them.

But rather than shouting anything back, the officer simply smiled before turning around and putting two of his fingers into his mouth.

"WHEEZ!

" the high sound of whistling seemed to penetrate everyone's ears in an unpleasant fashion.

And nothing happened.

At least, not on the military end.

One of the men that just happened to stand right beside Markus suddenly moved forward. He pushed the people blocking his way away without even the slightest hint of effort before walking out to the open space and turning around.

On his lips was a satisfied smile.

"I'm the three-star cultivator and high interrogator in the direct service of the Star Emperor!

" the man introduced himself before moving his eyes right where Markus stood.

"Please, we are not here to fight, but some things need to be sorted out. Come out,

" he pleaded, keeping his eyes glued to Markus' face.

'What a clever rat,' he thought, hiding what was going through his head with a wide smile. And then, as if he was a kid in some kind of game, he ducked.

'Now that your line of sight is broken, I wonder if you will still be able to track me,' Markus thought as he moved around blindly for a moment before standing up straight again.

But in reality, what he did was just a simple act of defiance aimed at showing the man that he wasn't as easy to track as the man most likely wished he would be.

"I'm the leader of this group,

" Markus said, stepping out of the crowd with confidence. His pockets were full of the magic stones that he busied himself with sourcing for the first three days of his visit to the camp.

Those that he managed to turn into small pieces were all embedded into his clothes, constantly providing him with a small surge of magical energy.

But as the event at the Inn previously proved, that could be less than enough. And for that very reason, Markus had no other choice but to fill his pockets with magic stones, ready to suck them dry of energy at any given notice.

"I'm not going to ask you whether you know it or not, because putting it frankly... There is no way for you to know that law,

" Jacob said as he put a wide smile on his face.

"This entire desert is a claimed territory of the Star emperor. If you are going to settle there for whatever mad reason you came up with, you need to be aware of the restrictions, duties, and taxes that you will be obliged to satisfy,

" he explained the situation, intentionally using tax and duties separately even if they, for the most part, meant the same.

After all, how could he lead the negotiations if he were to give his exact wishes right off the bat?

"Excuse me, but that won't work,

" Markus responded with no hesitation.

"No matter what you will ask for, no matter what you will expect us to do, you should be well aware that you don't have the might to enforce it,

" Markus said openly, not hiding away his disdain for the local powers.

"Are you sure to be so quick to ignore the laws of the Star Emperor?

" Jacob asked, opening his eyes wide in surprise.

It was the first time for the high investigator to show his true feelings. He changed his face back to a neutral expression pretty quick, but it was pretty obvious that his negotiation opponent didn't miss it.

"For me, that Star Emperor is just a name,

" Markus replied while shrugging his arms.

"For me, he is yet another target for the Cultivator Hunters, the people that I decided to release from the chains of hatred and bring away to a place where no cultivator could make them recall why they sent out a killing spree in the first place,

" Markus said, telling a slightly modified story of his ancestors.

To be perfectly honest, he didn't lie much. Given the conflict between the spirits worshipers of Al and the cultivators of the current day, calling them cultivators hunters wasn't that much of a stretch.

"What did you say?!

" Jacob raised his voice a bit, this time making sure to keep his expression straight.

"Are you deaf, dumb, or just pretending to be either of them?

" Markus asked, taking a step forward and finally allowing his aura to rein free rather than keeping it restrained. In a second, everyone in the city felt as if the heavens suddenly doubled in weight.

Everyone in the crowd fell to their knees. Most of the soldiers behind the investigator did the same. Only a selected few, Al's men and Markus mercenaries among them, managed to resist the sudden pressure.

"Since you were so kind to explain your laws to me, I will be kind enough to repeat myself. Or rather, to tell you what reality is,

" Markus said, taking another step forward.

"With me, I have the first batch of fifty seasoned cultivator hunters. Each of them has the blood of at least ten people on their hands. Every single one of them is itching to go on a rampage right now but are not doing it only because of my strict order,

" Markus said, finally taking his stop roughly five steps away from the high investigator.

"If you let us pass right now, they will be sure to commend your behavior in their letters,

" Markus said before reining in his aura once again and smiling.

For a moment, the atmosphere in the place almost relaxed. It wasn't some kind of mind-trick, but a simple effect of releasing people from their pressure.

"What letters,

" Jacob asked, squinting his eyes. While he managed to withstand the pressure of that man, it wasn't an easy task. Not even for a three-star cultivator like him.

"Letters to the remaining army of those hunters, currently massacring every poor little fellow that is unlucky enough to cross their path,

" Markus replied before raising his hand to his mouth... Only to get rid of a piece of meat that got stuck between his teeth.