Quite a lot of people stared at Kirano once they reached the little community with her home. A small cottage where her family lived was all they really owned. They had no farmland and without any way to earn money, all they could ever save up were the few coins made with odd jobs.

Most of their money had to be used for clothes and other necessities and there was no real way for them to ever pay back their debt.

Having experienced the overly full dinner table and the great workmanship of the rooms in the Earthly Treasures Pavilion, Kirano was even more aware now how large the gap in status between their lady and herself was, when looking at the dilapidated old little cottage.

It was home and she loved her family and even the memories she made here, but there was really nothing good to say about their place to live, other than it being better than sleeping on the ground.

"Well, here we are. You better tell your parents that you might come home quite a bit later over the next few days. Cultivation is a large step for someone like you, but there is no reason to make them worry." Rinomi told her and prepared to leave again.

"Thank you miss Rin for bringing me here."

"Yes yes, I see you tomorrow. Get some sleep and don't be late."

Rinomi kept her face cold and distanced, obviously not interested in getting too attached to anyone. Her habits might change over time, but they would not change very quickly.

When the new spy master was halfway back to the pavilion, she suddenly turned alert. She had no idea what was wrong, but she trusted her instincts. The unnatural silence, the slight vibrations in the ambient spirit energy, it was hard to pinpoint the underlying issue, but Rinomi felt as if she was being watched by someone.

'For someone to hide from my senses, they must know what they are doing. I'm not back to my peak strength yet and still recovering, but unless it's an expert of similar strength I should still be able to notice them.' she thought, raising her level of alertness even more.

When Rinomi suddenly burst forward with a lot of speed, she could still feel the harmless looking attacks that missed her by just a tiny bit. The ground was sliced apart by the attacks that contained a lot of hidden power.

Escaping the first wave of attacks, Rinomi noticed that it was likely not just a single person attacking her. There were no factions in this kingdom, or even the whole island group that could send not just one assassin of such skill, but several.

'They must have found me!'

"Oh, you managed to avoid that? It seems like you got rid of the poison somehow." A voice Rinomi never expected to hear in this region of the world called out to her from the shadows.

The Earthly Treasures Pavilion was already on the southern edge of the city and Kirano's small community was even further away from the city. Other than a small road leading further south and then curving eastward, there was not much to find in this empty land.

A few trees here and there, enough for those people to hide, but not enough to call it a real forest, as well as a lot of tiny hills and plains in between the city and its outskirts. No human buildings or constructions to be seen anywhere.

Even the capital itself, would not have anyone who would be able to deal with two or more Core stage cultivators. Except perhaps a very mysterious young woman of a certain pavilion that Rinomi got to meet recently.

Her pursuers obviously expected her to try and fight them and already prepared for a confrontation. Rinomi could run from them for a certain amount of time, but it was just a question of time before she would run out of spiritual power in her still weakened state.

When she did not stop and fight though, but instead increased her speed even more, the leader of the group who tried to catch her cursed.

"After her, she won't get far. Don't let her out of your eyes."

Three shadows were rushing out from the trees and after Rinomi's fleeing figure. Their leader followed right behind them.

Mori Eshin was a small captain of a group of assassins when Rinomi was still part of the Grey Order, one of the top hidden factions in the distant Central Island Union.

The group of large islands had five empires vying for power, a fragile balance between all of them granting a long-lasting peace treaty and keeping each other in check.

None of the empires wanted to take the first step in a war, as the 'victor' would suffer enough losses to become simply another prey for the empires uninvolved in whatever war there might be.

As one of the strongest regions in the world, there were not many powers who could resist any single one of these five empires and as a result, the surrounding kingdoms were all vassals to one or another of these five.

Grey Order was a faction that was based in all five of them, using the disagreements and tension between the factions, that would not openly start a war, but always tried to change the status quo and power of another behind the scenes for their own benefit.

Some even considered the Grey Order as a sixth faction by now, able to rival the empires with their many Core stage cultivators, even though they had no Origin stage cultivator yet.

"You can't escape from here traitor! Give up and yield and there might still be some chance that you will not lose your life!" Eshin shouted, but Rinomi did not even respond to his words.

'It was you who framed me in the first place and got me into such a stupid situation. Not only would I be a fool if I turned myself in, but I would have run for the past months for absolutely nothing.' she thought.

She could finally see the city wall of Sume and increased her speed once more to cover the last remaining distance.

"Do you really think that you can hide in the city? There is no one there that can protect you, you're just wasting time!"

Eshin was annoyed by her actions. It would not be too hard to follow her into the city, but it would be quite troublesome as they might attract lots of attention from the local government and its army and cultivators.

"Ignore the others. If they block your path, kill them, there is no one we have to watch out for here." he told the others in their group.

When Rinomi was finally over the city wall, a wall that might be useful against low stage Foundation cultivators but no one beyond that, as they could just jump over it, she quickly made her way to the Earthly Treasures Pavilion.

Once inside she shouted out for help, alarming Yui, Ryoma and Tora.

"Enemy attack!"

Even Miyuki was shaken from her slumber, but soon her father put her back to sleep, confident that Yui and Tora would deal with the problem.

A part of him was a little bit worried about Yui and another part wanted to go and face this enemy in a heroic way. The biggest part though, told him not to be an idiot, die a horrible way before anyone could step in and leave Yui as a widow before they even had a chance to get married.

Rinomi's voice caused a certain artifact spirit to frown. Tora had just gone to bed and was close to falling into a nice slumber. Who was foolish enough to keep her from her wonderful nap time?

-

Eshin watched as his subordinates entered through the still slightly opened entrance gate of this pavilion. Obviously Rinomi seemed to have some reinforcements or help in this place that was why she would want to fight them here.

He did not worry too much about it though. Even if she found another Core stage cultivator to help, with their numerical superiority it would not be a big difference.

He had stayed outside in order to prevent her from fleeing again, but no one seemed to be leaving the place at all.

'Why is it so quiet? Why were there no sounds of fighting?' Eshin had a rather bad feeling about this place after more than a quarter of an hour had passed without the slightest bit of noise.

It had strange materials that were not typical for such a far-off place. In fact, he could not really tell what the building was made of. The black and red colors, dimly lit by the spirit fire torches around the place, gave it an ominous majestic look and did not help him stay calm either.

"Report, what is going on in there!?" he called out, but no one seemed to respond.

'Is there some formation that is trapping them? Did they run right into a trap?'

Mori Eshin did not think much about this country when they came here for the first time. It was a rundown kingdom of no real importance without many powerful people.

Faced with this tower like pavilion however, he had to adapt his way of thinking. If this building was an old relic of some ancient cultivator, it might very well be that there were formations in there that could confuse or trap even a Core stage cultivator for some time.

He had not heard of any formation yet that was powerful enough to trap a Core stage for a long time, but even a few minutes would be a risk they couldn't afford. While Rinomi might be weakened, it was obvious that she was not weakened to the point of no longer being a danger to them.

"If you lay a trap in this tower, then I just rip a hole into it to avoid it!" he snorted in disdain, and his spirit power blasted against one of the Earthly Treasures Pavilion's walls.

Eshin expected the wall to get turned into rubble, or at the worst some defensive formation to protect the building and tremble under the impact. The wall however did not break down, nor did he see any protective formation.

It just seemed as if all his power was completely absorbed, disappearing without any trace.

Angry about the outcome, he attacked the building yet again, using an even stronger strike, but the outcome was the same, leaving him with a frown.

'This does not seem at all normal. Maybe I should get some distance and just wait for the others to break out.' he thought.

The idea of entering himself made him uncomfortable and as he could not break in from outside, there did not seem to be any way for him to assist his subordinates either.

Mori Eshin was always a person who above all else looked out for his own wellbeing and power. Never would he risk himself to save anyone and it was no different here.

'If it really is some ancient relic, the leaders of the Order would be very interested. Even if we lose a few Core stage cultivators finding such a relic might be more than worth it.'

He just wanted to leave the area when he heard a cold voice from behind him. Just the voice alone made him shiver.

The strength of the aura washing over him only a moment later, however, was far far worse. He did not even get to turn around, when his body completely froze in fear.

"Where do you plan on going? Now that you woke me up, you better stay here and atone for your sins."

-

Yui watched the group of cultivators in one of their dimensional realms, who were now joined by their leader. Tora had gone outside and caught him rather quickly, before throwing him inside as well.

"We just capture them there?" she asked her sister. "What should we do with them?"

Tora shrugged her shoulders. "You said you didn't need them and gave them to me, as such we just let them stay here. No need to worry about them afterwards."

Her voice this time felt slightly creepy. This was not a voice Yui was used to hearing at all. It was a voice that had a slight hint of something otherworldly, something that was not completely human.

For the first time Yui remembered the saying that a tool is neither good nor bad and that a sword can be both used by an honorable defender to defend their home, as well as by a tyrant to torment the innocent.

She frowned slightly and as the Earthly Treasures Pavilion's master she was innately aware that if those assassins stayed in there, it would not take long for them to become nothing more than drained husks void of any life.

"You can drain their powers there?" Yui asked, more to confirm her suspicions even though she was quite sure about the answer already.

"They will be quite the help on our road to getting stronger. While a Core stage cultivator is not really all that powerful, in our current stage they are still quite useful. Much better fuel than just some first-tier spirit stones."

A depressing silence weighted down on Yui. She wondered if that was really a good thing to do.

"Don't kill them." she said after a while. "Just drain them until they are no longer able to cultivate and then let them go. A bunch of mortals should not be any more of a threat."

"Ah, what a kindhearted soul you are Yui. I'm sure this will turn rather annoying and come back to bite us in the backside at some point in the future."

Tora raised her hands in an annoyed manner but did not really argue with Yui much. In the end, she did not really care enough. The power they provided even if she did not kill them off, would still be substantial.

"Fine fine, have it your way. At some point we will have to repaint the pavilion all in white with such an innocent master like you. Heck, you're the first master I had in aeons that wanted to spare some assassins who tried to kill their subordinates."

"Get some sleep Tora." Yui laughed and was quite happy about the decision now.

"We deal with it when it tries to bite, even if that’s the case, there are some things that should not be done. Killing them in a fight is one thing but killing them when they are no real threat … it's just not something I want to do."

Rinomi meanwhile just stared at Tora and Yui, wondering what exactly had happened to their attackers.

Yui seeing Tora going back to bed already, not planning on informing their spy master about the situation at all, decided to explain things herself.

"Rin, they were caught by Tora and will soon be drained of their powers to the point where their cultivation is gone, leaving them with nothing but a body that has a little bit longer of a lifespan than mortals. We can just throw them out then and no longer worry about it."

"Will this not become a problem in the future miss?"

Smiling, as Rinomi was still not used to just calling her Yui, she just shook her head.

"We are no group of assassins or evil cultivators. If there are problems in the future, that is just the price to pay for sleeping without feeling all guilty every day, I guess."

"Kill if you have no other choice and if there is a risk you or others we want to protect might be harmed, but don't kill anyone who is helpless."

Yui said it as if it were just some recommendation, but Rinomi realized there was much more to it.

It was still not much more than advice, but to Rinomi, it might as well have been an order, it was a moral pillar that somehow felt important. Maybe Yui herself did not realize this yet but having her make such a decision seemed like an important step.

In a way, this was the first time Yui acted as a real ruler, different from the simple play-acting she usually did to impress someone. There was no majestic pose, no powerful show of force this time. Just a request.

A powerful sovereign's wishes though, might as well be laws.

"Is that it? Did we just … neutralize a group of Core stage cultivators without them even getting the chance to really fight back?" Rinomi asked after some time of silence.

"They decided to wake up Tora when she wanted to sleep, what did you expect?" Yui smirked heading back to her own room to get some sleep as well, letting Rinomi just stand there in awe.