“Father! What is going on?” the chubby son asked his chubby father. “Just follow me. You will se—” The mayor paused when he arrived in the hallway and saw the three unconscious men that he had taken with them.

“Useless!” he shouted. “Don’t provide them any treatment.” Then he continued on outside, shouting for someone to bring him his carriage.

A large horse with flowing blue locks rode to the front with a blue carriage pulled behind it. The old man quickly got onto it and waited a moment for his son to get on. As for Ning or Byron, he didn’t stop for either and simply rushed off.

A different carriage came, one with a few more men and that too went past them. Ning turned to Byron. “They really don’t care about you, do they?” he asked.

Byron could only sigh as his response. “Let’s go, see what is happening,” he said. “I’m sure they will rush back to me and you once they are done with it anyway.”

“They really are a bunch of assholes,” Ning said. “Let’s go.”

They walked down the long staircase, arriving at the bottom where they couldn’t really tell which direction the carriages had gone.

“Uncle came from the northern forest, so this direction,” Byron pointed to his left.

Ning nodded as he knew exactly what direction he was supposed to go. He sprinted with Byron, making their way toward the mayor. The fresh smell of rain hadn’t yet left the air, and the water streamed along the sidelines of the streets, making its way down to the port where it would meet the ocean.

“You are in the Essence Soul realm aren’t you?” Ning asked the man.

Byron was surprised for a second that Ning had found out but lost all of that emotion when he remember who he was talking to. “Yes, Low Essence Soul realm,” he said.

“And they still treat you like this?” Ning asked.

“I don’t have any fighting skills and am only useful as a converter. So they don’t have much use for me aside from at the shop,” Byron said.

“God damn, you have a pitiful life, my friend,” Ning said. “I’ll see if I can help you in any way before I leave this city in a few days.”

“You’re leaving in a few days?” Byron asked as he ran.

“Of course,” Ning said. “I don’t have much to do in this city anyway. I will leave as soon as my daughter no longer has any fun in this place.”

“I see,” Byron said. “So you only stay around somewhere for your daughter’s sake?”

“Not really,” Ning said. “This just so happens to be the first journey my daughter is on. I’m letting her make the decisions. If not for that…” Byron waited for him to say something but he didn’t. Instead, a large sound was sent resounding through the city.

“What is that?” Ning asked.

“Call to arms,” Byron said. “It calls for everyone in the Low Essence soul realm to come to where the horn was raised in order to prepare for a fight.”

“You too?” Ning asked.

“Me too,” Byron said.

“I thought you didn’t know how to fight,” Ning said.

“Doesn’t matter. I have to use my weapons in that case and shoot out a few things,” Byron said. “It’s not that bad though.”

They ran for a while and quickly saw someone running from the other side as well.

After a minute they arrived on an area of barricade where the mayor was standing with his son and other men. They were doing nothing as men gathered and waited in patience.

“There must be a beast coming from the northern side,” Byron said.

“Is there?” Ning wondered. He was sure that he heard the man say ‘her’ and not ‘it’. Unless it was a beast intelligent enough to appear feminine to these morons, he doubted they would use ‘Her’.

The others seemed to be absolutely certain that it was a beast and waited.

“Do beasts come a lot this way?” Nig asked Byron.

“Once in a while,” Byron said. “Never needs more than a single person with Essence Soul realm to deal with it, but we all come just in case.”

“Byron, stop talking and watch!” the mayor shouted without even looking back.

Byron sighed and shrugged toward Ning, who could only give an understanding look. A few minutes later, a man came running toward the barricade. “I saw them,” he said. “They’re coming.”

“All of them?” the mayor asked.

The man who was huffing in and out hurriedly nodded. The mayor couldn’t be happier than seeing him nod.

“This is good news, boys,” he said. “Any moment, we are going to get 3 beasts at once.”

“Three beasts?”

“Three?”

Byron was a little surprised. “3 beasts are coming? That’s a lot,” he thought. “I hope they aren’t in the Essence Soul realm. That would be difficult to deal with.”

“I don’t think this forest has any beast higher than the Essence Manifestation realm,” Ning said. “We made sure of that before coming here.”

“Huh?” Byron asked, but Ning didn’t elaborate.

“They’re here!” the mayor pointed and everyone looked in the distance.

“So that’s the be—” Byron paused when he looked in the distance. He paused for a bit, confused a little. He stared for a bit before turning to look at Ning who had an unusual smile on his face.

“Well, that’s weird,” he said. “I didn’t realize she went to the forest.”

“That’s…”

Ning nodded. “That’s a girl,” one of them said. “Are we here to fight with the beasts next to her?”

“Must be,” another one said. “Where are the two other beasts beside it?” The mayor seemed to enraged by the line of thought. “You morons! Who told you we were fighting a beast?” he asked. “I called you all here to take care of that girl.”

All of the people there including the chubby son couldn’t help but look at the mayor in confusion.

“Huh?” It was impossible for anyone to have thought that they were here to fight a girl. After all, who in their right mind would ever come to that conclusion?

Given the past history, it was only right to think that it was a beast that they were fighting. So when it was revealed to be a girl, they were of course all surprised and confused.

“Mayor, we’re fighting a little girl?” one of them asked.

“Do I have to write it on paper and send each of you it as a paper before you realize it?” the mayor shouted at them. “Yes, that’s the girl we’re fighting. And that beast and its children are the 3 things we are taking from her.”

Everyone felt awkward hearing that. They didn’t want to fight the little girl at all.

“If it helps,” the man by the mayor spoke. “That little girl beat up our group in the forest and left 3 of us 5 half dead. Even the mayor was unconscious when I brought him back.”

“Oh!” the people said.

“Yes, that girl attacked me out of nowhere,” the mayor said. “She hurt me. Find me justice.”

The men were finally somewhat accepting of the fact that they had to fight the little girl.

Ning watched in awe as the men prepared to fight his daughter, right in front of him. He could only smile at what was coming up ahead.

Emma had already seen the barricade and the mayor that was at the front. “How is he alright?” she thought. “I’m sure I broke his neck. She should be bedridden for months.”

She looked around and saw her father. “What is father doing here?” she wondered.

“I’m confused,” Umbra said.

“Me too,” Emma said. “But Papa is here, so he must have known about our fight already. Let’s go.”

She continued along her path without worry and made her way toward the barricade.

“Yes, she’s coming,” the mayor said. “When she gets here, make sure to—”

“Mayor!” Ning quickly spoke up. “What?” the mayor spoke angrily, annoyed at the fact that he had been stopped from giving his command.

Everyone there turned to look at Ning, most not recognizing him at all. The mayor was even more angry that he didn’t know who it was, and that he was so weak.

He couldn’t even tell why he was there. He only somewhat remembered that he was with Byron.

“Byron! Take that bastard away!” the mayor shouted.

“Mayor!” Ning shouted back. “Do you know who I am?”

The mayor paused for a second. He stared at Ning, but couldn’t recognize him at all. “Who are you?” he asked.

The chubby son quickly spoke into his father’s ears, telling him who he was.

“Ah, you’re my doctor?” the mayor said. “Step aside.”

“Mayor, I healed you and I demand compensation,” Ning said. “Healed me? I was alright from the beginning,” the mayor said.

“No, I healed you,” Ning said. “Ask your man what your situation was.”

The man next to the mayor nodded. “You were severely hurt, mayor. And your neck was broken too. I don’t know how that young man healed you, but he did,” the man said.

“Oh, well… thank you,” the mayor said.

“Mayor, you know better than anyone here that there is no free meal in this world,” Ning said. “You must pay for the healing you received.”

“Sure, we’ll talk about it later,” the mayor said.

“No, now,” Ning said.

“Lat—”

“Now!” Ning shouted.

The mayor got angry. “Fine! What do you want? give it to him,” he said to his subordinate.

Ning grinned. “I want 20 Million Fire Coins.”