Traveling through the forest, Ellis was humming while walking and seen not care about the world. Seeing how Ellis is in a happy mood, ray suddenly asked out of curiosity.

" Hey, what happened for you to be so happy".

" I'm going back home, isn't that reason good enough" replied Ellis while dancing around.

" Sure at long last you will be able to live lazing around" asked ray.

" You can say that again, do you remember the last time you were able to get a good sleep in that cave with all the noise the workers are making" replied Ellis with a question of his own.

" What does that get to do with the question at hand," asked ray with a twitched face.

" Everything you hear me, you see what this prince needs right now is a warm bath, nice meal, and a good sleep" replied Ellis while rubbing his stomach.

Seeing how Ellis is behaving like he's going to the promised land, ray turns to the maids and said while shaking his head in pity.

" No wonder they don't talk much, he was able to put them in inactive state".

They continue their journey while discussing along the way but all of a sudden Kate and Maria suddenly stop walking. Noticing the change in the atmosphere Ellis asked.

" What happened".

" Clink" drawing their blade from their scabbard, they choose to ignore Ellis and started to study their surroundings before replying.

" We are being followed".

Turning around with a frown, Ellis and Ray began to look around also, but they did not notice anything out of the ordinary. Being unable to catch any scent of another aura beside theirs, Ray couldn't help but ask.

" Are you sure we are being followed because I can't feel any other presence apart from ours"?

" That's because they are hiding their Aura" replied Maria

" When do you plan on coming out," asked Kate while looking at a specific area.

" Hahaha, who would have thought that we'll be discovered so early," said a man who was wearing rag clothes with a straw hat.

" We were been followed" replied Ray in shock.

" Look over there," said Ellis while pointing not too far from the rag man.

Looking at the area Ellis was pointing, four men were also dressed in a rag like the first one.

" There are too many of them and the level of their cultivation is also on par with ours," said Kate.

" Straw hat and rag clothes, ain't those the straw bandit," asked Ellis.

" Guess we are popular" laughed one of the men.

When Ray saw that they were being ambushed by some bandit, a certain scene came into his mind and he could hold himself back then to turn around and flee, but before he could go far, an attack made of spiritual energy was sent towards him and when he thought he was going to die, another spiritual energy smashing against the other which lead to an explosion.

" Stay close to us if you want to live," said Kate while looking at the straw bandit.

Maria there are too many for us to handle," said Kate.

" Yeah, I think they are after young master Ellis" replied Maria.

" Hahaha, since you already know why we are here, why don't you just save us the stress and hand him over then maybe we'll consider sparing your lives," said the leader of the bandit.

" There is no way we are handing our young master over to you," said Kate while stepping forward to cover Ellis.

" Well at least we tried to reason with you" replied the leader of the bandit before ordering his men to attack.

" WATER WAVE: RAGING TIDES" Roar Kate and at of nowhere a wave of water came crashing towards the straw bandit.

Channeling the energy, the bandit leader was able to counter with his attack which leads to a smokescreen. Taking advantage of the situation, Kate and Maria were able to leave with Ellis and Ray and when the smoke was cleared off the bandit was angry to see that their prey has already escaped.

" Spread out and whoever that finds them should not attack but instead send us a signal and wait so that we can seal off their escape route and kill the target" commanded the bandit leader.

They all spread out in search of Ellis and his group and eventually the sun began to go down. In the forest Kate and Maria were running at their top speed. Though where they are heading to be no longer the director of the Gibson clan Rather they were heading into another side of the forest and beyond the forest is the Patton clan in the Hiepia empire.

" Isn't that forest the breach to Hiepia empire," asked Ellis in surprise.

" Yes young master Ellis, we'll be taking shelter there until we can shake our pursuer off" replied Maria.

" Why don't we take another way around to get to the clan instead of going to the Hiepia empire," asked Ray this time around?

" We can't do that for whoever that wants the young master dead, must have blocked any way to get to the clan" replied Kate.

While they were running, I spiritual light ball was shot towards the sky. And looking at it while they were running Ray asked what it was due to curiosity.

" What is that light ball".

Turning to look at the ball, Kate's expression suddenly change to that of fright and said while increasing our speed.

" Oh, we have been found, come on let us make ace to the forest".

Increasing their movement, they were able to enter the forest before the straw bandit could regroup and since it was already nighttime to search for someone in a dark area was troublesome unless you are searching via spiritual senses which is very painful for the human body. When they enter the forest they continue to run and after confirming that they are far from the bandit, they decided to rest a little.