The Grand Patriarch of the Hope family, Fait Hope, is a proud man who had walked throughout the continent when he was younger and met few worthy opponents in his time.

For the majority of his life, he had spent without the safety of home as a wandering adventurer, and his instincts and perception has since been honed to extremely high levels.

Although for the past hundred years, he had curbed his wanderlust to enjoy the comforts of the merchant empire that his son had created, he could feel his blood racing in excitement when he felt Kairos’ presence.

“Perhaps I have become less intuitive than before after resting for a century. Age sure is catching up. If I am younger by fifty years, there is no way anyone could have snuck into my home without rousing me,” he grumbled as he ran down the many levels.

He did not know that it was Kairos’ formless style martial arts that allowed him to sneak in unnoticed.

The martial art is, in fact, only a low-grade skill that the boy had found among the many manuals at the trade fair. However, he instinctively purchased it after feeling its potential. The effects of the original formless style are somewhat limited, and any other cultivator would have turned a blind eye.

Yet in the hands of the boy, it turned into a mouldable, evolvable technique. Just like the skill's name, it is formless, and therefore ever-changing, taking to whichever characteristic that Kairos gives it. To blend in without being spotted wasn’t difficult. Unfortunately, there is too huge of a gap between the boy and the patriarch of the Hope house, and he was eventually found out.

“Ah, this tiresome structure! I can’t understand the young people nowadays. What had happened to practicality? These many twists and turns just to get out of a damned house. And that whelp of mine will give me another earful if I broke his precious walls,” the Grand Patriarch complained ceaselessly, but still came down through the proper corridors.

The walls of the Hope mansion are actually sturdy even for practitioners, but it doesn’t mean anything in the face of the might of a double S ranker. Of course, he could have just broken the windows and jump right out, but this would be a worse option because every single glass panel is made out of expensive colourful spirit crystals melded together to form pictures.

This luxury is for the sole purpose of showing off the wealth of their family. Just the cost of one of those windows would be enough to rent a small house for a year in the Capital and is considered extravagant for most nobles. Yet one has to wonder how within all these richness, Jim ended up with the group.

Perhaps it is fortunate for Kairos because unlike how Canot Hope treats Jim, the Grand Patriarch is, in fact, a doting father and decided to go to the ground level by taking the stairs.

But on the other hand, this is also because he is utterly confident that with his cultivation, catching one intruder is simple as breathing.

“Hmm, such clumsy concealment technique and his Ki manifestation seemed between B to A rank. This wouldn’t even make me break a sweat.”

It is not the first time that an intruder has come to their mansion, and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

Therefore, for every person who dared to venture uninvited into their home, he makes it a point to turn them into examples. Dead examples.

The Grand Patriarch is someone who had lived alone all his life until he met and fell madly in love with a young girl from Rutea village. Since then, he had settled in this land and actually have a long history with the villagers. After sixty years of marriage, they finally had a baby boy.

At his age, having a son was like a blessing from the heavens, and he loved the child as he loved his wife.

The son, Canot Hope, also proved to be extremely talented in doing business, a trait that takes after his wife.

For the next forty-odd years, he had watched him grow up day by day till the boy became man and finally created a powerful merchant empire with his own hands.

Since then, the enterprise attracted many rivals. However, Fait Hope is confident that no one will be able to wreak havoc in his house, under his eyelids as long as he has a breath left in him.

…..

By the time Kairos exited the mansion, the Grand Patriarch has already arrived at the second level. He shot out of the exit like a blood-thirsty beast and jumped off the top of the stairs to the soft grassy ground below.

Feeling the powerful aura of the Grand Patriarch right behind him, the tiny hair at the back of Kairos’ neck raised in alarm.

“Damn, that’s quick!”

He could feel the man behind him is closing the distance rapidly. Much quicker than what he expected a human being could.

In just the blink of an eye, the Grand Patriarch closed the gap between them using the gliding style unique to double S rankers.

He reached out with an outreaching hand, the Grand Patriarch created a tiny whirlpool before him that pulled Kairos with powerful suction.

Though this is merely a rudimentary technique, in the hands of a powerful cultivator, it turned into a bewildering move.

But in that exact moment, Kairos turned around and met his palm, countering with his formless style defensive technique.

At that moment, a strange thing happened as the capture technique clashed with Kairos’ defence.

Among the different stances, he chose the redirection method.

The force that just started suddenly changed in direction and drew a gust from the surrounding air, even dragging over anything unrooted in the vicinity except Kairos.

Not a moment later, countless blades of leaves flew to the Grand Patriarch, blocking his vision.

“Hmph! A paltry trick” Fait Hope growled and then increased the power of his technique.

Whatever the boy is doing is merely a weak attempt of a lesser cultivator, and would inevitably be futile against his might.

Unfortunately, things did not turn out as expected. The leaves did gather into a ball in his hand, but as more and more leaves gathered, they started overwhelming him covering his vision.

*GA-HAH!*

The Grand Patriarch shamefully ceased his technique and spat out a mouthful of leaves.

By now, Kairos is already a distance away. He had taken the opportunity to escape.

“You little rascal!” Fait Hope roared mightily. Though he could never admit it outwardly, in his heart, he is thoroughly surprised.

Even if he could not see the face of the person in front of him, there is an absolute certainty that this is only a boy about twelve. And unlike what he thought previously, he is definitely far from A rank.

“This kid only has the abilities of a B ranker, how did he stop my technique so easily?”

For a moment, although he had no inkling of what just happened, he couldn't help feeling impressed.

At least, when he was the boy’s age, he wouldn’t dare to receive such an attack.

Of course, it wasn’t as easy as the Grand Patriarch believed.

The suction force was created by causing a wind funnel with Ki, the movement of energy spun clockwise inwardly and drew Kairos over.

In a split second, Kairos decided what to do and expended a large portion of his life energy to gather a force no lesser than A rank. For a D ranker like him, he almost died to draw out that much power, but it still pales in comparison to the most basic technique of an SS ranker and he had no chance of cancelling it out.

He spun the energy in his hand clockwise, matching the wind funnel but outwards. When the two forces met, they accelerated out of control and pulled everything over except the target, him.

It was a redirection method that took an incredible amount of skill. A brilliant anti-thesis to the suction technique.

Angry that his attack was foiled, the old adventurer did not hesitate for a second, and he reached for his weapons within his time-space rings.

He felt a deep embarrassment which he wanted to redeem himself from. Even if he did not use his full power nor any kind of combat art, the fact that he failed to capture a young boy, centuries younger than him, is a stain on his reputation.

Perhaps no other double S rankers would shamelessly reach for his weapon against a junior, but Fait Hope no longer to think of the intruder as just a target. Instead, the one before him has become an obstacle.

How things have turned out this way will become something that he could never wrap his mind around, because what just happened between the two is not much different from an elephant trying and failing to pick up a twig.

The Grand Patriarch sent a flurry of flying daggers towards Kairos’ back. The speed of his attack is quicker than anything that the boy had faced before. But even as the knives shot towards him, the man himself is already catching up to the little distance that the boy had risked his life to create.

At this critical moment, a set of forty-five talismans suddenly materialised around Kairos, forming a pyramid-shaped barrier.

His fifteen new disciples had madly dashed to him the moment their contract dragonlings informed them of the situation.

If it wasn’t because their starting location was a little far, they would’ve reached in a shorter time and could do much more. Of course, it wasn’t their fault that it was the closest they could station at without raising alarms, but they still blamed themselves, and their faces were filled with regret.

To save their Martial Teacher, they stretched themselves to their limits and activated three talismans at once.

Once the barrier is up, it can form a robust isolation perimeter that absorbs physical impacts and can effortlessly dispel A ranked attacks. Not only is the shield powered by the users, the fifteen of them, it also draws strength from the ambient Heavenly Energies as well as the opponent’s attack.

Unfortunately, when it met the Grand Patriarch’s flying daggers, the barrier only slightly altered their trajectory before crumbling like paper. Most flew harmlessly away, but the few that struck their target went through Kairos and exited quickly from his body.

Blood gushed out of his wounds as he crashed and tumbled on to the ground, picking up numerous grass blades and moist evening soil as he did so. When he stopped rolling, his body rested unmoving.

A breath stirs, and the Grand Patriarch’s lips turned into a cruel smile as he looked at the boy lying face down before him.

He is in no hurry, and by now, the people in the Hope mansion has already been made aware of the commotion happening within the compound and had taken up arms and rushed out.

Perhaps all these could have been avoided if Aisa just leaks a glimmer of her power. After all, as a primordial dragon, she could easily toss immortals around like ragged dolls. But just as she said before, even if Kairos dies, she is not allowed to help him. The only exception is against forces beyond this realm.

Of course, afterwards, to wipe the murderers off the face of Gaia isn’t prohibited.

Fait Hope had no idea how close the Hope Enterprise is to total annihilation this day.