"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN!?" Katherine screamed, her eyes flickering with deadly intent.

"Some-someone broke into the professor's room...and stole the energy within the gem," the same guard muttered, shaking uncontrollably.

"YOU DUMB GUARD! WHERE WERE YOU?!" Katherine kicked the guard in the face, sending him flying a few feet away.

"ANSWER ME!"

"I-I had a break," the guard didn't even bother to wipe the blood from his face and bowed to the princess.

"!!!" Katherine's face contorted after hearing the guard's response. No longer able to control her emotions, she hurled a short dagger towards his neck.

The guard was unable to even let out a scream before his neck was splattered with crimson blood. With a soft thud, his body fell to the ground.

"Has the thief been caught?" Kelton, who was standing in the corner of the hall, asked quietly.

"We have closed all the gates and placed guards throughout the kingdom. Unless the thief is already gone, there's no way for him to get away" Katherine pulled the dagger out of the guard's neck and cleaned it right after.

"Who knows? Maybe he has some divine powers that would allow him to get past the defenses?"

"Tch! Why are you so calm! Don't you realize that we're doomed once my brother comes back?" Katherine's aura rose again, enveloping the entire hall in the gloom.

"I think you misunderstand something. It's not us who are doomed, it's just you," Kelton spoke calmly as a faint smile formed on his face.

'That bastard!' an even darker aura formed around Katherine as she replied, "That's true, my brother won't harm you... But aren't you worried about the energy being stolen? Perhaps they understood how to extract the power from the beasts as well"

"You're just neurotic, Princess Katherine. Even if they stole the energy, they still have no idea how to convert it into actual divine power," Kelton replied.

"Either way... it's bad news for both of us. The fact that someone broke into the kingdom without being detected means that it was a job of an expert....you know what I mean?"

"War?" Kelton sighed lightly. "It's already conceded that there was an information leak and someone knew about our plans. As I predict, they wanted to stall the process of research. However, I wonder why they didn't take notes from the lab."

'This is all just bizarre ... it's like someone appeared, absorbed the energy, and then disappeared' Kelton thought as he listened to Katherine's response.

"Anyway, just go and do something useful, Kelton. I'll take care of it myself" Katherine put her hand on her forehead, tired.

"Then I will excuse myself" Kelton instantly left the hall, leaving Katherine standing all alone.

Suddenly, her gaze sharpened as she looked to the window at the side.

"Hahaha...I'm so dead!" Katherine laughed out before hitting the floor, causing a jet of cracks to spread further down the hall. A bit of blood fell from her hand and she quickly wiped it away.

'I need to calm down before my brother gets back' Katherine walked down the building, each step causing a soft thud.

-

'What the hell is that?" wondered Cale, looking at the screens that kept popping up.

-

[Name: Cale ]

[Current Condition: Satisfied]

[Divine Powers: None]

[Qi: Early Rank Dispicle]

-

"A screen that displays my information? But what's the use of it?" Cale wondered as his eyes scanned the data once more until they stopped on the "Qi" part.

He had controversial emotions at the screen's display. If what it said was true, then Cale had truly lost all of his powers.

However, one thing bothered him... now that he was a skeleton, how did he manage to break through to Early Rank Disciple?

Although it's only the lowest rank in Qi mastery, it's still not such an easy achievement that requires a few weeks or even months of continuous training.

As every Qi cultivator knows, with each improvement, their mastery rank increases accordingly. It was incredibly easy to tell the rank a cultivator had achieved by feeling their QI, especially for those who had made a major breakthrough.

The fact that the screen in front of Cale was portraying his Qi mastery was already an unusual phenomenon.

"Since I'm at the Early Dispicle Rank...Can I use Qi?" Cale couldn't help but wonder. After all, he didn't have a real body, just a pile of bones, meaning that controlling Qi was practically impossible.

However, considering that he was able to speak, walk, and stay conscious at all, lead him to think that there was a small chance that he actually could develop.

"Well, since there is nothing to lose then let's test it out" Cale tried sensing Qi around him, and to his astonishment, he managed to perceive a slight hint of energy in the air.

He couldn't feel it as clearly as before, but that was probably because of his frail condition.

"So I can feel Qi...But there's no way for me to improve my rank," Cale sighed. Cultivation was deeply related to training and absorbing the surrounding Qi into one's body, an aspect that Cale did not have at the moment.

"I wonder how I managed to reach an Early Disciple Rank" Even after breaking through to this stage, it still didn't make much difference in his strength. He also couldn't strengthen his attack with Qi, as that was only possible at the expert level.

"It probably has something to do with this stone," Cale looked at the transparent stone on the ground as he formed his hand into a grip, "I need to get out of here as soon as possible."

Cale knew that the current situation was disastrous for him, but simply waiting would only delay the inevitable. Besides, if Katherine's brothers came back, it would simply mean death.

"I need a weapon" Cale muttered as he looked around the room. Fortunately, it didn't take him too long to find a replacement for his usual sword. A spear lay in the other corner, Cale immediately picked it up.

Surprisingly, the spear wasn't of bad quality at all, and could easily be managed by Cale, who had only a fraction of experience wielding one.

Tap! Tap!

Again, the familiar footsteps sounded from the other side of the door, and Cale dropped into the corner, placing the spear under his body.

"Finally" Kelton sighed after he entered, closing the door. His expression turned solemn as he placed his hands on his forehead, "So many months of work, and yet it was all destroyed in a matter of seconds."

"Damn!" Kelton kicked the transparent stone into the wall, which bounced right back to him. Although he tried to appear calm in this situation, deep inside he was extremely angry at both his carelessness and the uselessness of Romulus Kingdom.

"I should have made such an agreement with another kingdom. I bet they wouldn't be so useless" Kelton smiled bitterly before returning to the bloody table. He placed the transparent sphere on the desk, and just as he was about to....

Knock! Knock!

"Hello, Professor Kelton. I'm your newly appointed guard!" a person rushed into the room.

"Another useless prick" Kelton sighed slightly, his gaze not moving from the orb, "Leave the room and do your job right".

However, just as the guard was about to leave, Kelton's gaze sharpened, "Wait, help me."

"What do you need help with?" the guard asked.

"Just detach the leg of that skeleton," Kelton replied before turning back around.

"Yes sir," the guard quickly took hold of the skeleton's leg, beginning to push it. To his surprise, a sudden pain stabbed into his bondmen as soon as he began to move it.

"Huh...what the hell?!" the guard quickly looked down, but when he saw a skull staring back at him, his heartbeat stopped.

Cale launched two more attacks, hitting the most vital spots.

"What's going on?!" Kelton finally responded, but when he saw a skeleton piercing into the guard's body multiple times, his eyes almost fell out of his head in shock.

Thud!

The guard fell to the ground, his blood splattering all over the room. On the other side, Cale rose up as he calmly drew his weapon.

"!!!" Kelton tried to storm out of the room, but Cale reacted first, slamming the professor's thin body to the floor.

"Shall we have a talk, Professor Kelton?" said Cale, staring at the Professor's trembling body from above.