n

n

n

"I said relax, so just relax, we are prepared.

"

nAs soon as Sam spoke those words a token that was placed on the table nearby started flashing.

n

"It seems like our intruder is here.

"

nSam took out an injector and gave Grivon a shot. He is too muddleheaded to even use his own energy to clean himself properly, so the shot helped him become more clearheaded and both of them started running towards the space gate.

nWhen they reached there, two people are inside the space gate formation with a bunch of stone pillars of different sizes ranging from three feet to ten feet are randomly placed around the formation.

nThe space gate was locked and the two people cannot come in or go to the other side.

nOne of them is the petty blue cloak who is injured and bleeding from his mouth. The other guy is an old man with a hunched back. His face is full of wrinkles and he is covered with a full beard.

nHe looked around as he took a deep breath and patted his own back near the middle of the spine and said in an old grumpy voice.

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"I am really getting too old for this. This little brat really made me run all the way here, but finally, I am here.

"

nHe then turned to look at Sam who is standing there quietly and said in a loud voice.

n

"Hello, you must be Sam. Someone placed a good bounty on your head and I would like to take it if you don't mind. Please don't take this the wrong way, I am just an old man looking for a good retirement and the bounty you have on your head will cover it just right.

"

nAs he spoke, he raised his hand and Sam activated his energy vision.

nHe saw very tiny energy vibrations which are completely imperceptible to any normal spiritual senses and that energy is slowly creeping on to Sam.

nBut he just stayed calm and looked at the way energy waves propagated to understand how the old man managed to kill without leaving a trace.

nThe rest of the people in the surroundings, didn't do anything as they didn't see what is happening. Even Grivon looked puzzled as the old man stood there and looked like an idiot while he extended his feeble-looking thin hand full of wrinkles.

nHe looked at Sam who also looked like an idiot as he keenly while moving his head to get a look at the energy waves from different angles.

nThis made everyone confused, except for the old man who understood what Sam is really focusing on.

nHe became flustered and split the energy waves into two separate currents and attacked Sam from both sides.

nSam side-stepped and looked at it for two more minutes and finally smiled.

nHe deactivated the energy vision and looked at the old man. The old man is actually not that powerful, his cultivation is high, but from what Sam could see, he is at the end of his life span and there is no potential left.

nHe is slowly wearing down with time and his current strength certainly doesn't match his cultivation level.

nHe crushed the token in his hands and the stone pillars started glowing along with the space gate.

nThe energy waves started attacking the old man who is inside the formation and he held his head tightly, the blue cloak stuck inside along with him and also started spitting blood immediately.

nSam extended his hand and an energy hand condensed which dragged the blue cloak outside.

nThe old man wanted to take this chance and escape too, but he was bombarded with more energy waves and before he knew it…

n*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

nExplosions occurred around the formation destroying the space gate and tearing open the spatial fabric. The old man felt the brunt of the spatial currents, but since he is on his last legs, he decided to go all out and used all of his energy to resist one last time.

nAn energy barrier formed around him as it pushed against the spatial currents and diverted those currents without any problem.

nHe wanted to wait till the effects of the explosions were mitigated, but before he could be content with that, ghosts started coming out of the stone pillars as they attacked the old man.

nThe ghosts are all soul-devouring curse carriers which is an extremely powerful and damning curse that puts the soul through awful torture as it consumes the soul bit by bit by chomping on it.

nIt is just like how some beasts tear through the flesh of their prey, but here around a hundred beasts are after one prey.

nThe old man was terrified by this, but he was not the only terrified one, Grivon also looked at it in awe and when he looked at how the ghosts moved, he was reminded of the mayhem Sam created back in the red matter.

nThe old man couldn't hold on for long and after some time he simply gave up, he turned to Sam and said with a smile.

n

"I am just the beginning, you are going to face a tough two years and that is if you survive for that long.

"

nWith that, he collapsed and the ghosts completely devoured his soul.

nSam let the specter out and made the ghosts come back to it. After getting them all together, the specter synthesized through the parts of the soul of the old man to get the memories.

nMeanwhile, he looked at Grivon and said.

n

"I told you, we are prepared. You should just relax a bit. Now get your affairs back in order and meet me tomorrow. Be sober this time, alright. You are not a good company when you are drunk.

"

nWith that, he walked back to his residence and waited for the specter to digest the memories.

nAfter a few hours, the specter finally transferred the memories to Sam.

nHe got quite a bit of valuable information from this. Particularly, the one piece of information regarding the technique the old man used. It is not the old man's skill, rather it is a type of stylistic technique like the void style and ripple style, but a lot less valuable and a lot inefficient.

nIt is still a good technique and particularly good when it was added to some of the formations that are used for trapping people.

nApart from that, he also got information regarding where the old man came from.

nThe League of Blood Iron.

nHe was a bit surprised but soon realized that this league of blood Iron is the League Sivan knew about in his memories.

nAfter connecting all the dots, he managed to summarize the information.

nSimply put, Butler Si tried to locate Sam with the help of the Star eye sect and wasn't able to do it because of the resistance lock of Grivon which was placed on the stray realm, so he placed an assignment in the league of blood iron.

nThis old man is a part of that league.

nHe arrived in the Gaja clan's territories and started killing and absorbing the soul of the subordinates of the young masters. He got the information of the closer subordinates and after killing them he confirmed whether the said young master came to meet Sam or not.

nIn that way, they managed to reach until the blue cloaks and now he came after the stray realm.

nHe died here.

nSam also understood the meaning of the last line the old man said.

nThe League of Blood Iron is an organization that is independent of the territories and realms, they are actually like a police department that makes sure that the rules were being followed. For example, the rule of higher-level organizations like the Golem sect do not interfere with the affairs of the Puppet organization.

nIn fact, from what the old man understood, the Golem Sect has faced some serious heat from the league after the puppet organization's matter has blown up.

nAnd this organization also has another rule. The members of the league cannot be part of other organizations, they can be friendly, but they cannot be subordinates, particularly when they are full-fledged members. They cannot be an employee of any normal organizations and they can place assignments in the league.

nBut when the assignment stays for two years without anyone being able to finish it, the case goes cold and they would scrap it off.

nSo, if Sam doesn't want to die prematurely, he would have to be careful for the next two years and he would be having an easier time than ever.

nApart from this piece of information, there is one more thing that attracted him and he immediately ran out of his room hurriedly towards the dead body of the old man.

nHe is still lying in the middle of the formation as the spatial tears are still present. The attendants need to wait for a while to get the body out.

nSam looked at the body of the old man and he condensed the energy arm and maneuvered it around the spatial tears to reach the chest of the old man where a locket is hanging.

nThe locket looked like a black sapphire and Sam looked at it with bright eyes like a little kid.

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