Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 31. The Nameless Clan.

“Leave,” Yin said coldly, suppressing his anger for the sake of not disturbing Laien’s breakthrough. He knew that look in people’s eyes all too well; the look of contempt, one that those who want to use you and then discard you always had. For a moment he saw exactly this look in Kalan’s eyes, so if he still had any lingering doubts as to whether he would let Laien convince him to help with that ritual, now he certainly had none. They definitely couldn’t trust the inhabitants of this village.

Kalan swallowed nervously, the thoughts of smoothing the situation out leaving him entirely. He was so nervous that he bowed as he would before the High Priest, then hurriedly left with a stream of cold sweat pouring down his back. He feared the High Priest, but that was mainly due to the authority this man wielded in the village; he had never felt the High Priest’s strength was so far removed he wouldn’t ever be a match for him. However, that surge of killing intent from Yin was so terrifying that it shook him to the very core. It wasn’t anything related to logic; he simply was scared of Yin just like a man would be scared of a savage beast he encountered in a desolate area.

“Big brother Yin, you are being scary,” the six-year-old spoke up somewhat nervously. He had also sensed what he interpreted as ‘anger’ of Yin’s, but he was nowhere as shaken as Kalan for two particular reasons. Firstly, he wasn’t the one Yin’s outburst of murderous intent was directed towards and secondly, he was lying down next to Yin and Laien, just by the lakeside. Thanks to that and partially thanks to how oblivious he was to the experience of sensing killing intent itself he got off relatively scot-free instead of being terrified half to death.

“Kalan isn’t a bad person, you know?” the six-year-old said quietly. “He was always nice to me, much more than his father or others from the surface,” he added, a bit sad to see Yin and Kalan not getting along. What was it that Kalan did or said that caused Yin to become so angry with him?

“A good person wouldn’t be so cool about sacrificing someone for any kind of a reason,” Yin said sourly. Unless something truly world-shaking happened, he wouldn’t believe Kalan was a good person. Trusting anyone from this village would be as foolish as a chicken running up to a granny the moment she visited the henhouse not in the morning, but in the afternoon, just before dinnertime.

“They don’t really want to do it…” the six-year-old insisted, but it was quite apparent from the way he looked down onto the ground for a second or two that he was hoping he wasn’t wrong. “If the Divine Seal isn’t strengthened, those two demons will get free. They will first kill all of us, then go on to destroy the rest of the world,” he explained, knowing he was the only one in his generation who was capable of performing his duty. His death would save everyone, so he wasn’t sad about it. He wasn’t… sad. He really wasn’t.

“And you know that because?” Yin asked with a sigh, this time not avoiding the subject the six-year-old would surely find uncomfortable.

“I heard the story from the High Priest and from Marie many times,” the six-year-old replied calmly. “I also read the ancient tomes describing the events of ten thousand years ago,” he added, feeling that Yin was trying to say that only words weren’t enough to be trustworthy.

“You mentioned it before.” Yin nodded slightly. “Since you are already awake, how about you tell me the whole story?” he requested, choosing not to argue the truth anymore. Saving this kid wasn’t his priority, so he wouldn’t do something cruel like giving him a false hope.

“It’s a pretty sad story,” the six-year-old began saying, not appearing to be as disturbed by the subject as Yin had thought he would be. “Ten thousand years ago we weren’t as small as we are now. Our bloodline was a powerful clan. We were the greatest on the continent, everyone needed to listen to us and obey our orders. The world was peaceful under our rule, but now… it’s a taboo to speak of the old name of our clan. The High Priest says our ancestors would be ashamed if we were to call ourselves by the name we had back then, when we were so powerful,” he explained and sighed a little. If not for those demons, their clan would still stand atop of the continent, their bloodline wouldn’t be cursed and… he wouldn’t need to die.

“One day, not too far away from here the skies opened and cried in a mix of crimson flame and azure water,” he continued, using exactly the same words that were written on those old scrolls. He always thought they were really poetic and sounded really nice, so he ended up remembering them very well. “Two streaks fell from the skies, one engulfed in crimson flames, the other in the azure water. They caved a huge crater in the earth, one that spanned many kilometers, though luckily killed none as they fell in the middle of an inhabited forest. One of our trading cities was nearby, so they sent some people to see what happened,” the six-year-old kept speaking, towards the end shifting back to his normal manner of speech as the extent of what he had memorized arrived.

“They discovered the two demons there, who back then took the forms of a young man and a young woman. The two demons were heavily wounded and incredibly weak, but our people were foolish enough to trust them and agree to offer them protection and an opportunity to recover strength,” he went on, adding some words the High Priest tended to use when telling this story here and there.

“With the help of our people, the demons began recovering quickly. After two months, our High King and many High Princes came to see and talk with the demons, seeking to learn something from those otherworldly creatures,” the six-year-old stopped briefly, proud of himself for remembering so many different words and not stuttering at all. He could tell Yin was listening to him very attentively and he was very happy to see him do so. “Regrettably, the demons soon revealed their true colors. They first became friends with the children of the High King and of the most powerful High Princes, then bewildered them and lured them away to suck them dry,” he said with a slight frown, not really understanding this part of the story. The High Priest used those words, while the old scrolls used some words he didn’t know and which Marie refused to explain to him.

“Anyway,” he picked up, not wanting to pause for too long. “The High King and the High Princes led our most powerful experts into a battle against the demons. We were the most powerful clan on the continent, but the demons were even stronger. We couldn’t beat them and when the High King recognized that, he used a sealing magic to form a Divine Seal and lock the demons away for all eternity. However, before the seal formed the demons released one last magic, cursing every one of the same bloodline as the High King. The Divine Seal then formed, but…”

“The Demons were too strong to be sealed. The Divine Seal cracked almost immediately and the curse started draining the life force of our people. The High King, the High Princes and those who aided in the release of the grand magic died first, then died many others. Our clan fell into a decline and the continent was thrown into a long era of endless wars. In just a few decades, our clan became a shadow of its old self. In the end, the last direct descendant of the late High King created a wondrous formation technique to repair and strengthen the seal, alas… it was too late,” the six-year-old smiled to himself a little. The story was a sad one, but he very much liked all those nice words the High Priest and Marie used when telling of it. Even the words on those old scrolls were nice. He usually had nothing much to do apart from training… so he would often lose himself in the world of words.

“Our clan was already too weak to sustain the sealing technique. The ritual required the sacrifice of people with a very pure bloodline that only our clan had, but there wasn’t enough of them. Almost all the adults gave their lives up to try and complete the seal, they almost completed it… but in the end, one last crack remained. There was only handful of us left, and so we were reduced to the state similar to the one you can see now,” the six-year-old sighed heavily and looked Yin in the eye. That was pretty much it; there wasn’t more to this old story.

“And those demons are sealed there, so close to us?” Yin asked, turning his gaze towards the huge crystal shining with crimson and azure light.

“Mhm,” the six-year-old nodded. “It’s a bit scary, right?” he asked with a slight smile, in truth feeling more intrigued than scared. He was no longer scared of dying, so thinking about those demons wasn’t as frightening either. In fact, he was pretty curious as to how they could have looked; imagining all the evil things they had probably done was pretty fun too, especially when his ancestors would then come to punish and seal them. If only they could have also been as successful in reality as in his dreams and imaginations.

“A bit,” Yin agreed, not pursuing the subject anymore. “Let’s talk about something else,” he suggested, quietly hoping for Laien to be done with his breakthrough as soon as possible. Unless Laien hurried up, those people here could really resort to using strength to force them to do what they wanted; and some parts of this old story were to believed, then those formations around the village should be quite powerful. Powerful enough to make him worry whether he and Laien would be able to deal with them if need be.

---

“Hrm?” Ruan raised his head, the slight movement in the forest across the area of grassland getting his attention. “Bandits?” he murmured, surprised to see any thugs after all this time.

“Oho.” Liza walked up slowly to the tree Ruan was sitting on. “Looks like someone is here to relieve us of our boredom,” she commented with a smile, but her expression began gradually sinking as she started noticing more and more people moving within the woods. First, it was hundreds… then they began pouring out onto the plains at a spot around ten kilometers away from their camp and soon, the numbers she could see reached thousands.

“Good Gods, how many of them are there?” Dinne said nervously, suddenly very grateful to Ruan for forcing them to set up the camp in the forest by the roadside and not in a place where they would be in the plain view.

“I don’t know and I don’t want to learn,” Ruan said with a weak laugh. “Look at those few dozen black-cloaked men in the middle, they are all wearing the same capes and are walking in an orderly fashion. That should be the elite unit leading all those bandits,” he pointed out, watching the small group carefully.

“Do you want to try them?” Liza asked with a mix of disbelief and eagerness. By the looks of it, there were more than ten thousand people in this band, charging right into their ranks would be pure madness… but also an opportunity for a great profit. Just thinking about all the gold she had taken for herself after those two kiddos slaughtered one large camp was making her feel excited! Yet, her common sense was still strong enough to let her know this idea was a ridiculous one.

“Take a better look at their movements,” Ruan said grimly. “I can tell when I see a trained unit and they are just that. All of them are walking at the exact same pace and they look to be prepared to stop any incoming attacks at any time. My guess is… that one of those black-cloaked men is one of the true bosses of the Anarchic Lands, a Great Chieftain,” he stated and shook his head. From what he knew the Great Chieftains themselves were only at the second or third Realm of Heroes and commanded at most from a few to a dozen martial masters each. Logically speaking they shouldn’t be strong enough to confidently launch an attack against their group… but with the aid of this swarm of meat shields, it could very well turn out to be very dangerous.

“You think they came for us?” Liza asked, anxiety and frustration sounding in her voice. She did nothing to stop that wild hunt of the boy and even encouraged it; if the Great Chieftains got pissed off enough to join hands in order to hunt them down… then they were in a great deal of trouble.

“Either that or they are heading out to pillage a large city,” Ruan said with a sarcastic smirk. “We should get out of here before they notice us… and let’s hope this forest is as impassable as that jerk claimed it to be,” he said, then sighed heavily. He didn’t think any of the Great Chieftains would dare to act against them; people like that should be aware of Laien’s and Yin’s background in the Sarkcente Kingdom. It was his miscalculation, one that he shouldn’t have made.

“Enough talking,” the black-cloaked man said coldly, startling the other six so badly they nearly pissed their pants. Since the beginning of their journey, it was the first time he had ever said anything! “If you don’t want to die yet, get on your horses and follow me,” he warned and without waiting for the six to shake off their shock, began walking towards the horses; very slowly, without making any sudden shifts or movements as to not be easily noticeable from the plains.

“What the…” Ethane shook his head. He wanted to say something more, but Rishe put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a meaningful look. If even this guy was nervous then this time the matter was serious enough for all of them to truly risk dying unless they got up and ran away as soon as possible.

The six of them exchanged a few quick glances, then slowly headed deeper into the forest towards their horses. This time the challenge was beyond the level they could handle; they could only hope the boys would be lucky enough to survive this peril and get out from the area before those bandits could swarm them. The two of them were unnaturally strong, but even they wouldn’t be a match for those ridiculous numbers. They would simply be tired out to the point of exhaustion and killed.

---

“Master, they are leaving,” one of the three Shadows walking right behind Shade informed in a low voice.

“Yes, I know,” Shade said carefreely. “Just let them go. Unless they interfere do not touch them,” he ordered in a bit more serious tone.

“Understood,” the Shadow acknowledged, then dissipated into a cloud of black smoke and went to deliver the orders to his subordinates.

“Oi, whatever you were called!” Shade called out to the bandit boss he had assigned as a leader of this little troupe. “Get those who are in the mood to check this forest out. A few thousand first, the rest tomorrow,” he ordered simply, in the end too impatient to waste a whole day on letting those thugs rest.

Black Lion frowned at first… or rather, imagined himself frowning, but was neither brave nor stupid enough to do that. “Well, how about sending some people I’ve always wanted to get rid of first?” he thought to himself as he bowed to Shade, a slight smile sneaking onto his lips.

---

“What is going on with all those people?” the High Priest groaned. He was currently sitting cross-legged on the floor, on top of a huge rune that was the heart of the grand formation protecting the village, and he looked rather worried. “They began pouring in just a few hours after the sunrise. I thought it was a random group of treasure-hunters, but now there’s over four thousands of them and more are coming with each minute,” he murmured to himself. The bewildering formation could handle up to six, seven thousand people on its own, but anything above that would require his active and constant control.

Regrettably, he was nowhere as skilled as his ancestors at using the grand formation; he could at most enhance the effects of the bewildering formation and deliver mental messages to those who carried the back staves around. If he could employ the full power of the grand formation… then he could decimate whole armies with its aid, not to speak of a few thousand forest bandits. There was a reason the remnants of their clan hadn’t been routed by the many who craved their secret arts, and this grand formation was exactly that reason.

“Why are the entering our forest en masse, to begin with? Could it be…?” the High Priest frowned, then called out to Kalan.

“Come to the main control room, now.”

Even though he was used to hearing the High Priest’s voice out of nowhere, Kalan jumped up the moment he heard it. He was in the middle of thinking up a method to make up with Yin when the High Priest called for him, and he definitely didn’t want to tell the High Priest about how badly he had screwed up without having anything to make up for it. However, he couldn’t do anything about it now; the High Priest had called him, there was no way he could ignore him or delay for any amount of time.

“High Priest,” he greeted and bowed a minute later after entering the room with the main formation rune engraved on its floor.

“Go ask that outsider kid if they did anything to make thousands of bandits chase after them,” the High Priest said frowningly, then returned to attuning himself to the formation. He could already guess the answer without having Kalan ask, but making those outsiders feel guilty and indebting them to the village would be very beneficial. As long as the numbers of those invaders didn’t go into many tens of thousands he wouldn’t have trouble holding them back, but those kids didn’t need to know that.

“H-high Priest,” Kalan spoke up nervously. “I don’t think it’s the best idea to send me…” he said weakly, the thoughts of the High Priest’s and his father’s reactions to the news of his spectacular failure causing him to feel nauseous. This was the first important task he had been assigned and it was because the High Priest deemed him more suited to it that his father, or even than himself! And yet, he failed! There was no excuse to that.

On the other hand, little did Kalan know that the High Priest’s evaluation of his character and his decision to entrust talking with Yin to someone who didn’t believe in the righteousness of his own words was the main cause of the failure. It had been hard for Yin to tell if Marie was being honest with him or not because she wholeheartedly believed she was doing something good, something right. Kalan, in comparison, had been thinking he is choosing the lesser evil the whole time; he didn’t think he was in the right and he knew he would be doing those two boys wrong. He simply prioritized his own people above the likes of two children he had never met or had any relationship with. As a result, his hidden intentions were as plain as day to Yin.

“What do you mean it’s not the best idea to send you?” The High Priest glanced at Kalan, only for the look of realization to appear on his face a second later. “What did you tell this kid to make him hate you?” he asked straightforwardly, seeing no other possible reason for Kalan to be acting in this way.

“I didn’t say anything wrong!” Kalan raised his voice accidentally out of frustration, but came back to his senses right afterward and bowed deeply. “I’m sorry, High Priest. I don’t know what went wrong. That boy… he didn’t seem to trust me at all from the moment I approached him. He treated me very different compared to when we were talking before that…” he explained bitterly, hesitating whether to tell the High Priest about how the conversation ended.

“Also…” he began saying, then pursed his lips and forced the words out. “I think that green-haired outsider can read hearts. He got incredibly angry at me when I… thought about the option of using force to make them do what we wanted,” he admitted, unable to come up with any other explanation. What else could have caused Yin to become so furious out of the blue other than that?

The High Priest’s frown became deeper. There were records of people who could read hearts in their ancient chronicles, but all of those people without exception came from the same place; the Forbidden Lands which existed from the time immemorial. Even their clan at their peak of power never attempted to do as much as investigate the Forbidden Lands; the secrets and terrifying powers that place in the middle of the continent hid were just too dangerous for anyone who approached them carelessly.

If that outsider was a person from the Forbidden Lands… then they would need to be twice as cautious when restraining him. Quite a few of their men would surely end up dying while doing so too, but that was a low price for regaining their freedom and gaining access to new powerful bloodlines. Their clan needed good, fresh blood to once again flourish… and those two boys were like a godsend in this regard. Perhaps it was even better and not worse if that kid proved to be someone from the Forbidden Lands! His descendants would enable their clan to once again rise to the top of the continent!

“It’s fine, just go ask him about the bandits,” the High Priest said much to Kalan’s surprise. His failure had been dismissed, just like that? Without any punishment or reprimand?

“Yes, High Priest,” Kalan bowed, not about to start questioning the High Priest’s decision. He could only consider himself to be lucky.

---

“Why are you back?” Yin asked coldly the moment Kalan approached, very apparently displeased by the man’s presence.

“I need to ask you a question,” Kalan said calmly, trying to keep his mind clear of unnecessary thoughts. After seeing how Yin sighed, then looked up at his face he continued. “Did you happen to do anything to offend a lot of bandits in the Anarchic Lands? And by large I mean thousands of them, perhaps more.”

The look in Yin’s eyes turned grim. They did do exactly that; they went around killing any bandit they could find. Could it be that one of the big fishes decided to get rid of them for good and called as many men as he could to come along? The last time it was around thousand men… so this time it could very well be ten thousand or more. Normally they could have just run away, but Laien was in the middle of making his breakthrough. They couldn’t afford to move from here.

“We might have,” Yin said unhappily. “What, are they trying to force their way in here?” he asked, as much as he disliked it knowing they had no other option but to ask for this village to protect them. He alone wouldn’t be able to fend off thousands of people from Laien, it was impossible.

Kalan’s eyes lit up when he saw Yin’s reaction to this simple question. So that was why the High Priest wasn’t so worried about his failure! They didn’t need to convince those kids anymore; they had no choice but to rely on them! With the positions reversed, negotiations couldn’t have become more simple.

“They are trying to, in fact just as I said, thousands of them are,” Kalan said with a slight smile, no longer bothering to hide his intentions; it was pointless for him to act, so he could as well not act at all. “The High Priest is controlling the bewildering formation to ward them off… but it’s not an easy task. If more of those bandits appear the formation might have trouble holding out. Yet, you are our guests, we will do our best to protect you… in return for a favor or two,” he said contentedly and waited for Yin to reply with a satisfied smile on his face. Maybe he was more similar to his father than he had thought.

Yin stared at Kalan coldly. However, he swallowed the words he wanted to say, snorted angrily and said.

“Tell me what you want from us.”