As Libertas saw the father coming out of the carriage, he quickly raised his hands innocently in the air. Then, further intimidated by the voice, he hastily said, "Nothing!"

Hearing this, the father turned even more displeased. He tilted his head, and his neck cracked like his knuckles. Following, he yelled the same words again. "What did you just say?"

The anger in the voice sounded obviously less suppressed than the last time. Frightened by the torrential rage of the father, Libertas took a step back. Stammering, he repeated himself, "I, I said, no, nothing."

Enraged, the father took a step forward. However, suddenly two coachmen stepped in his path. The father frowned as he raised his hand. Then he shouted, "What are you two doing?! Get out of my way! Now!"

Instantly, the two coachmen replied at the same time, "Boss, we are sorry, but we can't do this. If we did this, you would certainly regret it at the end."

Irritated, the father pushed them away before he resumed to step towards Libertas. However, in the next second, someone grabbed his feet and yelled at him, "Wait, look at your daughter!"

Annoyed, the father kicked the hand away, only to continue step forward. Nonetheless, he quickly glanced around to look at his daughter, and instantly his anger froze for a second. Only for a second. In the next, his rage flared up even more. What had this boy done to his lovely daughter?

Maria has fallen to the ground, crying. Her little hands tried to wipe the tears away, despite its futileness. One drop of tear after another fell against the ground. As the father turned his gaze back to Libertas, his expression distorted. He saw Libertas staring at his precious daughter.

Just as the father raised his foot to take a step forward, had Libertas already done it. A frown emerged as he saw Libertas directly glaring in his eyes. It was an entirely different picture from earlier. Where did the meekness go? His hand raised as it balled to a fist.

Seeing this, Libertas took a half a step backwards to get a firm stance before he raised his hands like the Chinese martial artist in the movies. However, they didn't immediately fight instead had Libertas first spoken up, "Do you know what you are doing?"

The father sneered, "Do you think a child like you can oppose an adult?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Between us two, don't you know the reason the best?"

Libertas frowned as heard it. Then he carefully asked, "Is it because of your daughter? If yes, I think we have a misunderstanding here! You should ask your daughter about what has happened here."

The father took a deep breath and glared at Libertas. Soon following, strands of blue mist gathered in his hand. Swiftly the strands formed several complicated runes. They danced around as they quickly rearranged themselves in a circle. The last strand of the blue mist drew a circle, connecting every single rune. Instantly, everything vanished.

Immediately, the ground under Libertas shook, and the earth moved. Two snake-like ropes made out of dirt quickly climbed Libertas' legs up while they nimbly twisted around it. Despite them having halted to advance once they have reached the waist, they restricted Libertas enough to stop him from moving away.

Sneering once again at Libertas, the father turned around to walk towards his daughter. However, as Maria saw her father coming towards her, she retreated on the ground. The father ceased to walk as he noticed her frightened expression. He frowned as a hunch came over him. Was it due to him? What did he have done?

After a moment of hesitation, he gently asked his daughter, "Maria, what is wrong? Did I do something wrong? I am sorry."

"No, no. Da, daddy did, didn't do wrong."

The father heaved in relief before he asked, "Can you then tell daddy what has happened? Don't fear. Daddy is always there to protect you. You won't need to have fear from anyone."

Maria sniffed as she tried to put intelligible sentences together, "Ma, Ma, Maria and bi, big brother. W, we pee, peeped at da, daddy. The, then-"

The soothing voice of her father resounded once more, "Take your time. I can wait. There is no need to hurry."

Maria nodded as gradually her hurried breathing calmed down. Then after a while, Maria began to speak anew, "Maria and big brother peeped at daddy. Then big brother told Maria from his home and the shadow world. Suddenly father popped out to violate big brother."

"Eh, then what did he mean with taking you with him?"

"Maria wants to see big brother's home."

The father starred stunned at his daughter before he sighed in relief. No one was taking his precious daughter away. With everything cleared, he sat relaxed beside his daughter down. Following he asked mildly, "Really? Then can you tell your old daddy what you know about your brother's home?"

The tears stopped to fall from Maria's eyes, as she wildly gestured with her little hands to vividly retell him everything she supposedly knew about Libertas' home. However, as the father heard about the supposed home, the last shred of doubt flew away, and he laughed loudly. What ancient cultivation family? What mysterious secret cultivation technique? What shadow world? He had never heard of them!

The coachmen similar heaved both in relief at the same time as they saw the father and daughter pair smiling happily together. Then they laughed too before they approached Libertas. Reaching him, they patted each vigorously on one of his shoulders.

Instantly, Libertas bent forward due to their vigorous pats. Finally, as they finished to pat, Libertas straightened his back once more. Gloomily, he glared at the two coachmen. On the contrary to his mood, the two coachmen were happily laughing while they spoke.

"Boy, you did it!"

"Yeah, the boss usually wouldn't rest before he had beaten you up!"

"He said it! You have done a miracle!"

"Wait! No! Didn't this already happened once?"

"Ah, now once you have said it I remember it! But hasn't this already happened several times?"

"Yes, yes. Around eight years had it started!"

"Hah? Why would he suddenly he change?"

"Do I need to tell you everything twice?"

"No! More than twice!"

"You are too annoying! It is because of his daughter! Remember how old she is?

"Wasn't it eight?"

"Yes! Eight!"

A coachman, A, slapped his forehead as he exclaimed, "Ah!"

As their conversation was getting on Libertas' nerves, he waved his hands annoyingly in front of their eyes. Then he said, "Could you two first help me to get out of this?"

The two coachmen glanced at each other before they gazed at Libertas. Then they pointed at the two snake-like ropes around the legs of Libertas. Dumbfounded, they asked, "You want us to release you from this?"

"Yes!"

Hearing this, the two coachmen shrugged their shoulders. Following they blinked their eyes at each other. Then as if they had instantly forgotten that Libertas was still there beside them, they continued to speak under themselves.

"Have you heard what he just said?"

"Yes, yes. Isn't that ridiculous?!"

"How could we break the spell made by our boss?"

"Yeah! If we did, I bet he would beat us kaput!"

"Not only that! Didn't you see the rune?"

"Of course! Wasn't it one of his essence runes?"

"Yes, it was!"

"Yeah, and now?"

"Are you stupid, or what? Ah, wait! You are stupid!"

"What? Jealous? Not everyone can be as stupid as me!"

"I don't think you shouldn't be proud of this…"

"Why? I am proud!"

"Alright, then please help that boy out of the ropes."

"Well, I need a shovel."

"Just pull it away. Although the ropes are out of dirt, they are still ropes."

"Can I really do that?"

"Yes. Trust me."

"I trust you."

The coachman A grabbed one of the ropes and began to pull on it forcefully. Suddenly, with a loud shout, A had successful ripped a part of it out. Even as he fell to the ground due to the force of his pull, he still raised the piece triumphantly high in the air.

The other coachman, B, secretly snickered as he held his arms around his stomach. However, as he saw two new ropes climbing up from the ground and dragging Libertas' face to the ground, B broke out laughing.

Coachman A was still laying confused on the ground. Why did B break out laughing? When he sat up, he stared dumbfounded at Libertas. What happened? Why did that boy press stupidly his face on the ground? Was he stupid? Besides that, why are there now four instead of two ropes? Furthermore, didn't he rip a part of it out? Why couldn't he see it any longer?

Libertas glanced angrily at the two as the ropes firmly pressed his face against the ground. After he clenched his teeth and balled his fist, he irately shouted, "The heck! What the hell are you two doing!"

And all of a sudden, the ropes vanished. The father approached Libertas while he scratched his chin. Then he wryly smiled before he coughed lightly in front of Libertas, "Won't you stand back up?"

Libertas remained laying on the ground and silently glared at the father. Following, he quickly glanced to Maria. He sighed as he saw her happily skipping towards the carriage at the rear of the two. With a push of his arms, Libertas stood back on his feet. Raising his head, he glared directly into the father's eyes.

No one spoke until the father coughed once more awkwardly, "Yeah, I am sorry. I did think you were trying to take my daughter away. I am a bit sensitive about her. I just overreacted once I have heard you saying taking her with you. I am sorry."

Seeing the father like this, Libertas let out a deep sigh, "Cheer up. Nothing has happened. Your daughter would be sad seeing you like this. Cheer up. Smile. Nothing has happened here. We should just carry on our travel, right? Besides that, you still need to show me magic!"

At first, the father's expression brightened, and a smiled emerged. However, the instant he heard magic, his smile stiffened right away. He waved his hand dismissively in the air as he coughed heavily, "Let us carry on travelling! As for magic, I will show it too you later. Now isn't the time. Now I need to cultivate the mysterious secret cultivation technique!"

Quickly turning around, the father hurried to walk away. The coachmen laughed out loudly as Libertas stared stunned at the father. No one noticed the faint smile on the father's face.