For the past few hours, Sam's brain is on overload.

He is working with the utmost focus that he could manifest. The weird runes… the reason they were familiar yet unfamiliar…that sensation was like an itch to him. The only thing that he understood about is how the energy is transferring through that inscription, which made it into a tracking spell.

He didn't get a good idea of each rune worked while he was being inscribed by this spell.

So, he came back to the restaurant and started studying right then and there. As for why he did that immediately, to put it simply he didn't feel threatened by the challenge. He has his beasts and he is confident in their abilities.

There is no need for him to even make a move.

He is confident that even without him moving, the beasts could cleanly handle any first grade level cultivator. He took the chance to study those runes. Of course, apart from scratching that itch in his mind, he does have another purpose.

To leave a message.

An arrogant and haughty message that is backed with his own competence. A message that will be deeply engraved in the minds of the people. A message that will be remembered

He was thinking of how to do it and he did have some plans in his head, but this tracker spell gave him the perfect opportunity.

So, he left the heavy lifting for the beasts while he worked on the runes. After spending a few hours on it, he saw just how difficult it is to draw them. Even though he managed to draw them with energy, the runes didn't work.

They collapsed as soon as he tried to make them transmit energy.

He even went as far as replicating the exact pattern of the runic circle that appeared when the spell was being cast on him.

But it is still fall apart, which should have been impossible. Then he started dividing each of the runes within the inscription and ran hundreds of small energy simulations to understand how they work. He was multitasking all over the place.

After repeated failures, he finally found where the key was.

The familiarity of the runes. He started looking at the familiarity and matched it with what he already knew, which are the regular runes and their patterns. Sam is extremely confident in his ability use the general runes.

After another round of repeated tries, he managed to find what the trick and he was absolutely gob smacked.

Then he started trying his inscriptions based on what he understood. Repeatedly failures once again. Knowing the principle and applying it are different things. The repeated explosion of tables was for that exact reason.

Of course, he did see some success and he was about to engrave a bigger inscription that he had high expectations about.

For that, he even made the beasts sit down on the side without making any noise. He did every rune slowly, at a snail's pace. He was at the final set of runes that needs to be engraved. At that exact moment…

"Siola calling. Requesting emergency backup. Break the protocol. Breach it.

"

He heard the loud yelling of Siola, his hand trembled and the energy that he was about inject went off balance just a bit.

*CRACK*

The table cracked. The crack started from the inscription pattern and it slowly spread all over the table's surface like a spider web. Sam's face that was originally focused suddenly turned into a sea of calm. He looked at the woman who screamed.

His aura changed a bit.

He stood up and started walking towards her.

"What part of 'Keep it quiet' did you have trouble understanding?

"

Sam's words were low and menacing.

Siola felt his killing intent as he walked towards here. He walked through the corpses as if they were not even there and stopped right in front of her. She was still sitting on the ground and looked up to meet his gaze.

That gaze that is filled with anger.

It wasn't unrestricted rage, rather it felt like he gathered the rush of a crashing river and confined it in a small marbled sized container with sheer brute force. It is dangerous, yet looked calm on the surface.

Ever since Sam stepped his foot in this place, ever since she saw him, Siola only had one expression on her face.

Contempt.

She talked down to him, acted haughty, particularly when saw Sam go to the restaurant directly to drink lavishly as soon as he stepped in the Telchine territory.

He didn't act vigilant, he didn't act careful, he didn't even attempt to cover his tracks. He was carefree as if he was coming here on a trip. This pissed her off. Particularly, when Krejin showed such interest in him.

In her opinion, since her young master placed high expectations on someone, it should practically be their life's purpose to live up to those expectations, it is totally on them.

And Sam is just goofing off. That pissed her off alright.

She talked to him with derision and contempt. But now… she is unable to utter a single word. She wanted to scream and hurl curses at him. She wanted to yell and talk down to him. She wanted to remind him of the lowly life he was.

But her words didn't dare come out.

Even if her mind was thinking of them, her body is refusing to obey. Her vocal chords are refusing to activate. They are all saying same thing to her.

That she shouldn't.

Sam raised his hand, extending it towards her face, like a stealthy snake, slow and steady. Siola didn't move, or her body refused to budge. Its as if it is saying to her.

'Just surrender'

At that moment…

*BOOM*

An explosion out of nowhere, aimed at Sam's hand.

*SWOOSH*

He took two steps back. The attack landed in the middle. Right in between in him and Siola.

She was blown away by that attack, creating more distance between him and her. A young man came in between both of them and stood there. Shielding her from Sam.

"Step back. Now.

" The young man spoke through gritted teeth.

Sam looked to the side. The beasts were ready to move and only stopped after this gesture.

At the same time, he also noticed someone else. A few more people that were standing a bit away from his current position. Their gazes felt familiar, maybe because they are the group that were in charge of monitoring Sam.

Sam looked at the group while addressing the young man.

"Krejin made it clear that only people of my cultivation level will attack me. What is this?

"

The young man's face turned a tad bit red. Maybe from embarrassment.

"We are not attacking you. We are here to stop you from continuing this sick slaughter.

"

*CHUCKLE*

Sam laughed slightly. The young man was pissed. He knew that he himself talked absolute nonsense. He just couldn't just say that he wanted to save this woman so that he and his team wouldn't be implicated for her possible death.

After all, they are all subordinates and they don't know what runs in the heads of their eccentric masters.

They just took a bet, assuming that Krejin would want this woman alive and they might be punished if she isn't.

As for those big words, he just didn't want to admit it. He felt shameful for doing something likes, particularly when he saw the dozens of corpses all over the street.

He only stood firmly without giving Sam any response.

"Do whatever you want, she will die today. One way or the other.

"

Sam spoke and activated fusion. It is dual elemental fusion that he developed. Space and Shadow.

*SWOOSH*

He disappeared into his own shadow and appeared behind Siola. Shadow sword appeared in his hand as he swung it towards her neck.

*BAM*

Just before it could touch her neck, he felt a strong force blocking his sword, not letting it move.

*SWOOSH*

He didn't waste his time, he disappeared and arrived at a different spot. Aiming to kill her in the same way, but the result was the same.

The opponent, the young man, is at late stage of Divine Plane Initiation. He is just two levels higher than Sam. He is also the weakest among the group of guards that interfered. The others didn't dare to go in recklessly.

*BAM*

*BAM*

*BAM*

"Stop it kid. Don't push it too far.

"

The young man spoke through his gritted teeth.

Sam just smirked and continued to attack.

*BAM* *BAM* *BAM*

The attacks became faster and more precise. The young man had a hard time resisting Sam without attacking back. His body is urging him to do so. His instinct is tempted to do so, but he cannot.

After five minutes, just when he was about reconsider that thought…

"What the ** is happening here?

"

A voice familiar to all of them was heard.