Roughly another hour later, when the first rays of sun sprouted ahead of them, the person in the hooded robe had enough, or may be he just didn’t want to get caught in the desert during they day.

“Here should be fine, we can chat a bit without anyone disturbing us. You should know by now you can’t escape me.” The trio heard an old man’s voice behind them.

‘Sigh, it’s really him.’ Nick’s last hopes disappeared.

He raised his right hand and raised three fingers – the trio immediately stopped and surrounded the old man, but the latter didn’t seem to mind and took off his hood revealing an old wrinkled face.

“My apologies. It was impolite from us to let an elderly like master Sonor follow us around.” Nick said. Despite running for over two hours, he was not out of breath and, even though his face was covered with mask, one could hear he was smiling while speaking.

“Oh, you know me?” Elder Sonor smiled back, but now there was a sword in his hand, “To think the younger generation knows of this old man. But to think that there are three such capable lads …”

He suddenly stopped and deeply inhaled and then continued with wide grin spreading over his old face, “So that’s how it is! One lad and two lasses. I guess one doesn’t have to be genius to recognize your identity, sir Nick and princess Li Yun. Although I’m not certain who the third person is … hmm ... could it be princess Min came to visit our continent as well? I have to say, you are quite the stud, Nick, saddling two beautiful sisters.”

Although it sounded rude, none of the three youths cared about these words. It was the oldest and simplest tactic in the world to destabilize opponents mental state before battle with few words.

But what came next shocked not only elder Sonor, but even made the two cousins blush deep red.

“Do you think I give a fart what an old dog from the Holy Order thinks? … Actually, I changed my mind! I’ll give you a fart – the biggest fart I have!” Nick said in a loud confident voice.

Of course, after the events in the Nestri empire, the Holy Order paid a lot of attention to Nick and investigated him thoroughly, or at least as much as they could. But the current behavior didn’t fit at all the intelligence elder Sonor received on this youth. He should have been highly intelligent and very polite, a person who respected elders. On the other hand, even if the girls blushed at Nick’s words, what startled them was not the rudeness, but the meaning behind his words.

Before entering the Lori kingdom, the three of them played out tens of different situations they could find themselves in and practiced their formations and cooperation in each of them. But it was unimaginable to think Nick was so desperate and had to resolve to his final trump card from the very start.

Still, as soon as girls heard who the guy in the hooded robe was, Nick’s choice was understandable. It was unlikely the three of them could win in fair fight against this man. It would be the same as going against king Alexander Maxwell, queen Hua or YunYun’s mother, queen Hu. The best thing they could do now was to pay attention to Nick’s movements and make sure they retreated to safety at the right moment.

The main problem was – the person they had ‘surrounded’ was not only known for his peerless sword arts, but for his lightning speed as well.

“My apologies, I was out of line.” To elder Sonor’s surprise Nick immediately continued, “Before we start, I would like to ask you a question. You probably wouldn’t mind answering that since one of us will die here anyway, right?”

Elder Sonor looked at the youth who was dressed in black attire covering his face. There was obvious hint of amusement in his eyes, “Alright, ask. But you will have to answer my question as well.”

“Of course! My question is – how did you notice us?” Nick asked in serious voice.

“I guessed you would wonder about this.” Elder Sonor was still smiling, “Actually that old bastard bishop noticed you already when you entered the temple grounds. He has some weird connection to his subordinates – even I’m not clear about specifics about his technique. Well, truth to be told, I don’t care either. The only thing I know is that the technique he practices is one of a kind and he developed it since before he became Qi master. Alright, my turn. How exactly were you planning to assassinate goddess Lori and get away with it? From what we know you are very methodical and it is not like you to wonder around aimlessly. Just don’t insult my intelligence and say that you were out for a stroll there – I answered your question honestly after all.”

There was a level when two experts, even if they stood on the opposite sides, had enough respect for each other they could exchange their secrets honestly. That, of course, would be followed up by a fight to the death.

Elder Sonor obviously treated Nick as a person worthy of his respect – not everyone could kill emperor Osman in his bedroom and successfully escape, with a bunch of helpless girls as a luggage. In addition he already saw the youth’s skills himself, at least stealth, running and endurance. If this kid didn’t die here, he would grow in to this world’s powerhouse without a doubt.

It was a good thing Nick’s face was covered with a mask since his current expression could only be described as ‘stupid’. After a split second of confusion, the gears in his head started to spin at increased speed. In those couple sentences elder Sonor provided him with too much information.

‘First of all – since the bishop was the one who noticed us, my earlier assumptions were partially incorrect and as it turns out I just had a ‘lucky’ guess we were followed by elder Sonor! It could've been any other extremely fast Qi master, although I don’t think there are any at this level in the Holy Order besides him. Second, and what is more important – there really is a goddess Lori in the temple?! And since she could be assassinated – she is a live goddess with a flesh body? Wait! She must be related to the Holy Order since elder Sonor knows her existence and most likely has met her! And he suspects us to be her assassins since I have killed some of their people, including emperor Osman. But a live goddess … oh my god! How could I have missed this? Trinity! She is the one of the Trinity bitches! Most likely she is practicing the same technique Osman and the grand elder did, hence the tons of sacrifices every year. She probably is much older than them and has to absorb people’s life force daily!’

Nick felt like slapping himself. He should have been able to put these things together even without meeting elder Sonor! Fortunately it took him only few seconds to calm down and organize his thoughts to come to these conclusions. From the side it looked as if he simply contemplated on how to formulate his answer.

“There is nothing much to say, really.” Nick shrugged and awkwardly scratched his head as if he was embarrassed, “There is very little information on the temple. We only know the layout of the temple grounds as well as the two main floors. We basically came in blind and this was more of a reconnaissance attempt. We would proceed with assassination in one or two weeks after the situation in the country calmed down. It is too hard to get to the top of the pyramid inside, not to speak about killing Lori.”

“Hahaha! You thought that she is on top? That means Maxwell doesn’t know sh*t! Hahaha!” Elder Sonor suddenly started laughing, but the two girls looked at Nick in amazement. To them it was no secret he could think and speak a lot of nonsense in critical situations, but this time he even managed to pull out more crucial information from the overconfident opponent. The bait with the ‘top of the pyramid’ was way too subtle and, probably, the fact that elder Sonor mentioned king Alexander Maxwell had other meanings as well.

“Holy Order is a secretive sect after all. If we knew everything, there wouldn’t be any secrets, correct?” Nick said with a smile.

“That is true. Alright, kid! I like you, therefore let’s finish this quickly. You three can come at me at the same time.” Elder Sonor turned serious, took a short step to his right and bent his knees. His right hand holding the sword pointed at Nick. Even though he was confident of taking the three people on by himself, he was not going to fight with half strength.

Nick turned serious as well and Wakizashi appeared in his hand. He inhaled deeply and took a step forward. The next few seconds will decide if the girls could get away. Weather he will survive this encounter was hard to say, but he knew the chances were slim.

Girls grew solemn as well. Even though they wanted to help, they knew that in current situation they would only get in the way. In addition, it was highly unlikely to defeat this old monster in a sword fight, even if it was three of them attacking at the same time.

There were tears in YunYun’s eyes and her hands trembled, but she knew she had to fall back for Nick to do ‘that’. Also she knew it was very likely for him to loose his life within the next minute.

Zia, on the other hand, was more furious than sad. She really wanted to battle it out with this old freak and it took all her willpower to act according to Nick’s instructions. For some reason she didn’t even think that her best friend could die here – she simply had too much of a blind confidence in him.

Elder Sonor wasn’t surprised when Nick attacked first. The surprise was when the moment Nick moved, the two girls immediately dashed in opposite directions without looking back. Elder Sonor roared in anger realizing he was tricked and slashed towards Nick. He had to finish this in an instant to be able to catch up to the two escapees.

Nick, of course, was already prepared and didn’t intent to attack at all. He used all his power and focused on evading. Madly channeling Qi into his feet, he jumped back, then mowed to his right and went behind elder Sonor who, within split second, performed over dozen slashes missing the youth by a hairs width. Looking at the old man’s attack speed, Nick threw the idea on fighting directly or parrying out of his mind. Since elder Sonor recognized him, it already showed that the Holy Order has done some investigations. That also meant Wakizashi would never meet elder Sonor’s sword or body – the old man was definitely weary of Nick’s weapon and knew its characteristics.

While feigning some his own attacks, Nick evaded for five or six seconds when suddenly elder Sonor stopped. There was confusion and shock written all over his face. They stood only three meters apart and Nick’s life could be extinguished with a slightest movement, but elder Sonor seemed to be paralyzed. Unfortunately Nick missed this opportunity.

Elder Sonor stared at Nick with stern look and it seemed the two escaping girls didn’t matter anymore.

“Where … were did you learn this movement technique? Who taught you that?” He already had this familiar feeling when chasing the three, but since they were running in straight line, the footwork was not that distinct and thus he didn’t pay much attention to it. But now elder Sonor was absolutely certain it was his own movement technique that Nick used. More importantly – he was the only person in the world who knew it because it was his own creation! The thought he taught it to ‘Primeval demon’ never crossed his mind since demon’s body should have long died, even if it managed to escape the Holy Order.

When elder Sonor stopped in shock and Nick didn’t use the opening, the latter already started inwardly kicking himself for being slow, but hearing Sonor’s question and seeing elder’s facial expression Nick’s eyes lit up. An opportunity!