Rays of golden sunshine shone down on the unnatural rubble that was stacked 50 meters high like a landfill in the middle of the populated town, there was a deathly silence and at this elevation one could only hear the eerie howling of the wind as it made its way over the newly formed barrier whipping up massive whirls of grey dust-clouds that swirled and billowed like smoke as it rose towards the blue sky in columns.

Atop the rubble Hartley fell to his butt with a plop in exhaustion and relief in equal measure, he was feeling as weak as a newborn calf with trembling limbs. He breathed in and out, not minding the dust as he sat on the rubble of destruction like a junkyard king. Having just been on a roller coaster ride of emotions he took a couple of minutes to compose and gather himself. Hartley could remember an incident he had witnessed what feels like ages ago. He had been there when Patriarch Lou had cricked the neck of Lou Panjie by just reaching out, and now he had been on the receiving end of a similar exchange and had somehow lived to tell the tale.

After a few minutes of silence, murmurs and screams began to emerge in the surroundings as people returned one by one to see the carnage that was wreaked and what remained of their beloved southern border town, just minutes ago they had fled one of the most developed places in Aidonia and when the explosions and rumblings had died down for a while, the bravest among the civilians had returned to find what looked like 200 square meters of freshly tilled farmland and a landfill sitting where buildings once stood proud in a bustling commercial part of town, only the Holy Matriarch herself could tell the death toll of the innocent civilians buried alive or swept away within the rubble. Hartley pulled himself together and decided it was time to leave.

Retrieving a healing dan and a new black robe from his space ring, Hartley swallowed the dan while he got dressed and moved to the south side of where the crack had appeared, this side was somewhat unblemished and relatively unaffected as it wasn't in the path of the punch of Song Zemin. Hartley could sense fluctuations of Qin Li and Zhi Ruo and shouted out Zhi Ruo's name at the top of his lungs in panic, his voice rang out over the mainly empty area and soon four people emerged from near the open gates that was now abandoned by all guards.

Zhi Ruo recognized the voice but didn't recognize the bald headed person using the voice. It was an awkward reunion as everyone stared at Hartley's new look, Zhi Ruo came over and lovingly touched his bald head while staring into his eyes, "It'll grow back," he said as he took her into his embrace.

"We've lost Ryu Hang and two of the escorts, they died without even leaving their corpses behind" said Qin Li in a sad tone as he walked forward holding his ribs with a slight grimace of his face.

Hartley took a deep breath and looked into the sky, he felt tension worming under his skin.

"May they find peace on their journey to the river of reincarnation, unfortunately there is no time for funeral rites now, we have to head north before we run into any more trouble." he said this with strained emotion.

Yang Yi suddenly barged into the conversation.

"Sir.... Sir are we still moving north?" he obviously had had his fill of this adventure, he would love nothing more than returning to the comforts of the Wawrika province and abandon this quest to reach the capital. Hartley gritted his teeth to stop himself from strangling the man while he shouted "What did Sanzu do, Why were they calling him a traitor?"

The two escorts took a step back as they both noticed that Hartley didn't address Viscount Sanzu by his title, their faces went pale, they knew Hartley's power and knew that they had zero chance of surviving if Hartley attacked them in anger.

"Si.....Sir we have no idea, we are just guards." the men said nervously while backing away. Hartley sighed knowing that this wasn't the time or place to go into details about what had happened. He put one hand around Zhi Ruo's shoulder and the other up to and over his scalp, as if running it through thick long raven-black hair, forgetting for a moment that in fact his head was now bald.

Hartley turned and headed north with his arm wrapped around Zhi Ruo's shoulder, Qin Li followed closely behind. Hartley said over his shoulder without looking back "leave if you wish....."

An hour later four people commandeered a carriage and left the original occupants frustrated and seething by the side of the street, shaking their fists at the disappearing carriage in a fit of anger, to the red faced owner it was like watching gold coins grow legs and running away.....

Hartley sat lethargically on the rear seat of the dark carriage that was dragged along by a pair of huge white wild beasts, swallowing another rank 1 healing dan as he stretched his hand forward and passed four of them to Qin Li who sat opposite to him facing the back window of the carriage. Qin Li swallowed one of the dans with appreciation as he massaged his ribs, wincing at every touch.

Zhi Ruo was snuggled up beside Hartley resting her head against his shoulder quietly. The carriage rumbled forward with Yang Yi sat at the driver's position. He had decided to follow Hartley after deliberating with his squad mate for a short moment. The other escort chose to take his chances on the road back to the Wawrika province, it would be a long and dangerous trek for a lone person but compared to the danger going further north, the man felt going south was the safer option for himself.

The quartet had made their way on foot for a kilometer before seeing a carriage ripe for the picking, Hartley was strapped for time so decided to just take it. After all that he had seen and been through earlier in the day, worrying about the feelings of the owner was the last thing on his agenda. Once one stood before a crack in reality and survived, how can he ever truly feel safe again, knowing that he was never truly out of the range of such an attack.

For the rest of that day they made their way north on the wide highway-like road, stopping periodically to inquire about the lake surrounded by willow trees and rushed forward non-stop.

In the afternoon of the following day, the carriage was steered onto a stretch of flat grassland and traveled west for a while, making tracks as the carriage wheels mowed two thin lines over the green terrain. From the information they had gathered, there was a lake in this region, Hartley stretched out his awareness to its maximum range of 1 kilometer and scanned the area and at the same time give Yang Yi instructions on where to go.

The carriage came to a stop beside a small tree-studded hill to the right, in front, the small lake lay wedged between four giant willow trees that bowed over the lake as if in worship, their bright green leaves drooped down to floor like cloth spread on a wash line, making it almost impossible to the make out the individual leaves. The trees had thick dark bark at the base and grew upwards twisting with smaller branches in the shape of what looks almost like lightning stretching out.

The afternoon sunshine shone down, hitting the face of the dark waters of the circular lake and reflected a flood of gold light, sending it dancing across the surface of calm water that had many ripples due to a steady wind that blew over the area. To the left, the grassland rolled out to the edge of a ordinary small forest.

Hartley hoped this was the right location, they made camp and waited...

Several hours later a carriage rumbled through the green grasslands just like Hartley's stolen carriage had done earlier, the incoming carriage was matt black and made fully of metal, the wheels had an intricate suspension system with springs and axles and moved over the terrain absorbing the impact of the uneven surface easily. At first glance it looked like it weighed a ton. but if one were to look closely, they would see special runes carved along the lower sides of the carriage. These were wind elemental runes which had a lightening effect on the carriage decreasing the burden on the wild beast pulling it.

Without saying a single word, a tall silver hair man wearing armor hopped down from the driver's position, sun glinted of the golden breast plates and the metal rings on his armor jingled as he walked to open the carriage door signalling for Hartley and the rest to get in.

They traveled northwest for the next 3 days without the silver hair man exchanging even a single word, Hartley began to think the man was either a mute or he didn't put the group in his eyes, so they kept to themselves and didn't attempt to instigate any conversion with the man and so the smooth ride of the carriage continued until it pulled up to a high wall about 10 meters. The guards at the gate let the carriage through without a word. High overhead , birds flew in bomber patterns through the air, squawking in the warmth of the sunlight that produced long shadows in the late evening of the spring day.

The carriage went about 500 meters down a well made road flanked by well trimmed hedges about two meters high and pulled up to their destination that drifted into view as the sandwich of green, that enclosed them from the main gate disappeared and revealed the majestic building that was a castle made of white stone. Spires at different height rose up high as if to salute to sun above sitting atop the multiple windowed towers that sprang upwards in perfect symmetry. There were other mansions dotted around on the massive piece of real estate but this castle was the center piece.

The silver hair man with his clinking armor jumped down hitting the ground with a puff of dust and silently led the group through the mostly empty castle. They were brought to a big room for refreshments served by serving girls dressed in black and white uniforms before being ushered up several flights of stairs and into a room with multiple glass cases containing wooden carvings.

"Ahh you made it" said a cheerful voice sounding like notes played by a flute. An old man sat drinking a glass of milk behind a wooden desk, his hair and his robe was the same color as the content within his glass, his sprightly brown eyes sparkled when he looked over at Hartley and the rest. Hartley heard the man's familiar giggle, the man placed the cup down and picked up an unfinished wooden carving of a carriage and began skillfully whittling away the wood with a carving knife that was sitting on the table, humming a tune while paying no attention to his guests for several minutes, flakes of wood fell to the floor and before long a small pile of sawdust gathered. The white haired man held his latest creation up to the light and inspected it from several different angles. He sighed then put it down saying "the angle is not right, not right" A flash of disappointment surfaced on the man's face producing wrinkles at the edges of his eyes.

He swung his attention back to Hartley, "Do you know who I am?" asked the man. "I think you are Kang" Hartley said, then that familiar giggle sounded again. Hartley introduced himself and the others to the man in reverence. This unassuming man who looked mortal was responsible for saving his life and Hartley showed the utmost respect to the eccentric man.

The man inspected Hartley with his eyes saying "interesting...interesting, you appear to be mortal but you are not are you?" Hartley didn't hide anything and told the man about the stealth scripture he had taken from an assassin when he first became a xanthian and had subconsciously hidden his aura ever since.

"You've placed yourself in quite a position." The old man said. Then he and Hartley proceeded to have a conversation as if no one else was present.