Stopping his cultivation, Ryu slowly exited the tent and tried to sense where the source of the scouting aura was. Unexpectedly he couldn’t find out who was investigating him. This person must have grasped an extremely profound method of concealing their Qi since Ryu was only a few seconds late in sending out his own aura.

“Is something the matter?” The headmaster of Raging Thunder Sect, Cro-La, appeared beside Ryu in a flash and asked. Cro-La’s tent was just a few meters away from Ryu’s so when Ryu left his tent after so many days, he naturally wanted to see if there’s anything he could do for Ryu.

“Nothing, I thought I sensed an intruder. Must be my imagination.” Ryu replied politely. “Senior Cro-La, I am worried that whoever tried to harm you might be from within the sect. Perhaps that person is with us right at this moment.”

With a sigh Cro-La admitted that he too had the same suspicions. “No need to call me a senior. Actually that’s what I fear as well but I can’t think of anyone with enough power or influence to pull something like this off.”

“I’m curious, do you have a special body yourself? Is that why you and your daughters are targeted?” Ryu asked. He saw that within Cro-La’s body there was a brimming source of lightning Qi that wasn’t there before when he was ill. He also didn’t understand how the twin girls could have gotten special bodies.

“No I do not. I come from the Lei Clan that had long collapsed but back in its glory days, my ancestors did indeed have supernatural abilities from a special bloodline. The bloodline has been diluted so much now that its special abilities can’t be awoken unfortunately. It was a miracle that my daughters got lucky enough to have special bodies while carrying the special bloodline though. My second wife is only at the King Domain as well so the odds of were extremely low.” Cro-La explained. Special bodies were usually produced by those at least in the Emperor Domain since that’s when essences were formed.

“Is it possible that your son is jealous enough to act against you and your daughters?” Ryu said directly.

“My son is capable of many things but I don’t believe he would go that far.” Cro-La replied confidently. Ryu didn’t pursue the matter with him any further since he had complete faith in Has-Tai.

“Could I trouble you with a few more questions?” Ryu asked after remembering that sect leader Cro-La was from the Lin Province and had most likely visited the capital countless times in the past.

“Of course, anything I know I would share with you.” Cro-La replied.

“I’m curious about the dynamics of Fujin, how many powerful figures are in it and how formidable are they?” Ryu got straight to the point.

“I’m quite familiar with the capital. Each of the capitals of the five provinces are pretty much unassailable. They have been fortified by countless generations of experts. For the Lin Province capital, there’s always a reserve of at least a million soldiers, five generals, maybe two lieutenant generals, and the high commander of the army himself, the Thousand Armed Demon. Not to mention the royal clans have dozens of experts too.” Cro-La explained.

“Lieutenant generals? High Commander? Royal clans?” Ryu asked. Deep inside he frowned, he didn’t expect Exoe to downplay how dangerous the place is by that much.

“A regular general is already at the Emperor Domain. A lieutenant general is at the Supreme Domain. The High Commander is the one at the top of the army hierarchy, at the Sovereign Domain! As for the royal clans, they are the ones that supported the founder of the Lin Empire when he established his Kingdom.” Cro-La said as he sat down and drew a basic map on the ground.

“The capital has strange magical defenses called Enchantments. Our sect hired an Enchanter in the past and paid a huge fortune for them just to lay down a few defensive measures. Each side of the capital is guarded by three Emperor Domain experts. Then there’s the inner walls that’s guarded by one supreme expert on each side. The palace is right here in the center and that’s guarded by two Sovereign Domain experts.” Cro-La explained as he continued to draw.

“What about the emperor himself?” Ryu asked. He always wondered how the ruler of the Lin Province measures up to other experts.

“That… is hard to answer.” Cro-La said as he paused to collect his thoughts. With a wave of his hand, a Qi barrier formed around them. Qi barriers are less effective and more Qi consuming than Enchantments when used to just block an area off. He spoke again with a lower voice. “The Lin Empire’s founder was a legend. He supposedly reached a level where he could easily slay dragons. Sovereign Domain experts can’t handle a dragon at all, not even a baby one. So who knows what the depths of his cultivation had reached. As for his descendants… they are actually not powerful at all. In fact, I’ve had the chance to see the emperor a few times in the past during Ranking Tournaments between sects and some other festivals, his cultivation isn’t even in the King Domain by my estimate!”

“What? How could that be?” Ryu said in shock. How can the ruler of an empire consisting of hundreds of millions of citizens be so weak? To rule over a low grade city you have to be in the Grandmaster Domain and to rule over a high grade city you have to be in Heaven Domain or even King Domain!

“This shouldn’t be talked about in public, you could be arrested and executed along with your relatives!” Cro-La warned sternly. “From what I know… it seems like the descendants of the Lin Empire’s founder were only subpar when it came to their cultivation but the founder left them countless treasures that only those with his blood could inherit. These treasures are not regular items, it is rumored that the palace is enhanced by such a treasure and when in danger, an invincible barrier will be erected around it. There’s also other treasures that can easily be used by the emperor to kill Sovereign Domain experts! The current emperor also lived for nearly a million years, probably from the help of a priceless treasure.”

“Wow.” Ryu was speechless, why type of magical items could be wielded by someone with low cultivation to kill Sovereign Domain experts? He has not heard of such things even from Alexis’s diary or Prince Na’Vi.

“Without the emperor’s bloodline, these magical items left by the founder can’t be used! So that’s how the Lin Empire founder’s descendants have managed to stay in power for millions of years. In fact there is no way a rebellion could even occur because if the emperor does die somehow, our province would surely be annexed by other provinces. Some provinces are in similar situation as us, the Toko Empire for instance has three legendary spears that can shake the heavens but only those with royal blood could wield them. The Feng Province and Xu Province on the other hand have capable rulers with cultivations beyond the Sovereign Domain! The Feng Province has the strongest military might, all males over the age of eighteen must join the army or a sect! Even the females are encouraged to enroll into the army. Xu province instead uses their vast wealth to attract powerful beings to fight for their province, they are much richer than the other provinces. It’s the only province that’s not ruled by royalty but by someone from the Spirit Medicine Workshop!” Cro-La explained.

“So that’s how it is.” Ryu said as he understood how the dynamics between the provinces worked.

“Could I trouble you for a copy of a map around the area of the capital?” Ryu asked after learning what he was really getting himself into at the Lin Empire’s capital, Fujin.

“That’s no trouble at all! We have it somewhere in our treasury, I’ll send someone out for it right away.” Cro-La said. He didn’t pry into why Ryu wanted this map which Ryu appreciated.

From what Ryu could tell and what the Saint Jade Sect headmaster told Ryu, Cro-La is a very benevolent man. Their sects often have joint missions to eradicate evil from the land. The world would definitely be a worse place without such a man so Ryu secretly decided to flush out whoever is after his life. Ryu told Cro-La that he’s going to go for a stroll and will be back later.

Walking outside the camp, Ryu was surprised by the move unleashed by Cro-La, the Unconquerable Lightning Blizzard. It looked like a war zone, not even a single leaf could be found within a kilometer of the camp even after two weeks.

After speed walking for half an hour, each steps gliding for meters long, Ryu reached a desolated area in the wilderness.

“Why don’t you come out now?” Ryu’ve voice echoed out. The clouds floated across the sky, obscuring the illumination from the moon. Under a trunk of a tree, a rat opened its eyes, disturbed by some slight movements in the air. Three figures slowly emerged from the shadows.

“Who are you? Who sent you? Why are you after the sect head’s life?” Ryu asked as he turned to face them. With one hand behind his back, he stood there confidently. He had a feeling that whoever is betraying the Raging Thunder Sect would come out to confront him. The three figures ignored his questions and proceeded forward in three streaks of black lines.

Judging by their speed and sheer amount of Qi, they were in the King Domain. The Ryu now was different than he was two weeks ago, he had made significant progress that put him in a whole different league. Even if the most accomplished King Domain practitioner fought him at the moment, at most it would be a tie by Ryu’s estimate. Ryu had grasped the basics of each stance of the unranked skills and even enhanced or fused some of them.

These three would make great practice material for him. Using techniques from the Indomitable Genbu, he reinforced his body with the Invulnerable Body stance. Usually when you reinforce your body, you see a faint glimmer of Qi. However, following the unique instructions of this stance Ryu managed to store and compress Qi to a thin molten sheet around his body. It made his skin look like tempered glass that just came out of a furnace with a unique golden orange glow.

Clang! Clang! Clang! The three assailants attack couldn’t even make a dent or force Ryu to budge one bit. However this didn’t faze them one bit, regrouping themselves they condensed three balls of Qi between their hands. The three sources of Qi formed three points of a triangle. It seemed to be some sort of formation attack. A prismatic beam shot out of this triangular symbol and reverberated towards Ryu.

Formation skills require at least two people to utilize that’s why Ryu didn’t train in them. These skills were valued during warfare and less popular in regular fights since the requirements for activating them usually puts the users in great risk.

Weaving his arm in a circular motion around him, a hazy pool of Qi appeared in front of Ryu and seemingly neutralized the attack with ease. This was the Impregnable Fortress stance that contained endless variations on how to neutralize, deflect or block all sorts of attack. However, Ryu made his own adjustments to include the concepts of Tai Chi in them to cancel out the attack. This was actually more Qi efficient than Sage Arts since that requires equal amount of Qi to negate opposing attack. Ryu managed to use cunning and efficient movements to neutralize it.

Ryu noticed something was odd about these opponents. Usually his opponents would have been shocked and prepared to flee but these three are not discouraged one bit. He could tell by their auras that they had more fight in them than ever before. It’s as if they are willing to take Ryu down at the cost of their own lives.

Ryu decided there and now that he needs to capture these people and get down to the bottom of it. Laying down tracks of Qi in front of him, Ryu maneuvered in front of them extremely fast. Raising his right hand up and slamming it down afterwards, a pair of dreadful claws condensed out by Qi appeared above the trio. It slammed downwards in the same motion as Ryu’s hand. Like a cat catching mice, it grasped them within its paws. The claw was white colored and detailed so vividly that it looked like the real thing. This was the Baleful White Claw from the Merciless Tiger.

Oddly these three didn’t even let out any shouts and instead they were unleashing all their Qi trying to escape. Their faces distorted and even the skin on their bodies started to produce blood from the over exertion. Alarmed, Ryu summoned the Origin Power from within him and entered a Zen-like state. Without Origin Power, none of the Seven Forgotten Professions can be used. Ryu inhibited their Qi with his own by nullification of the Sage Arts. Even so the three wouldn’t stop struggling, forcing Ryu to physically hold their body still with Qi. Although their mouths were forming and their bones were dislocated, the tenacity in these people were not diminished.

“What’s going on?” Ryu asked himself as he took off their masks from their pinned down bodies. Three pairs of lifeless eyes were revealed. They snarled at Ryu and even attempted to bite him. Flabbergasted, Ryu have no idea why they are in such animalistic state. He tried using Telepathy with the Mind Tome on them but they had no thoughts. It’s as if they were not in control of their own bodies.

Suddenly sharp pains entered Ryu’s body from all directions. It’s as if small needles are pricking him out of nowhere. Thanks to his fast reflexes, he instantly launched the Invulnerable Body stance from the Indomitable Genbu once again and stopped the invisible piecing attacks from advancing. To Ryu’s surprise, he could barely see the traces of Qi in this sneak attack so he instantly released more Qi into his aura to detect his surroundings. Subsequently he could scarcely feel what appears to be a cross-like shaped object above him. It was indiscernible to the naked eye but the invisible needle-like attacks are coming from it. Although the invisible attack was stopped at a physical level, the Qi in them persisted in invading Ryu. Thankfully Ryu’s Qi was much more profound than others at the same level, the invading Qi was held off before it could go too deep. Just when Ryu begun to rebel against this, the cross-like object above him stirred and his whole body was yanked by the invisible threads to move! Alarmed Ryu tried his best to resist getting controlled but he couldn’t break free.