Victor immediately walked towards the old mystic. The Old Man looked on impassively as Victor neared but as Victor got closer, he turned to face the wall behind him. Victor stood beside the only other mystic warrior on Nexus and glanced behind them. All eyes were on them, but the other heroes and villains were staying a respectful distance away from the two. More importantly, the Bloody Duchess’ eyes were now filled with curiosity instead of lust. Victor’s plan worked. Now, he just needs to find something to talk about.

Victor always knew they were going to meet someday, but now that he is beside the Old Man, Victor realized there were a lot of things he could not say to the old man. His knowledge about cultivation came from Reunion, and he could not speak to the old man about his System. Victor also would not be able to bullshit the old man about how he discovered Qi and formed his core. A man like Jolly Bar, who did not anything about cultivation and Qi, may accept his made-up explanation, but the Old Man of Pui was another matter. The old man was a real mystic warrior. He had decades of cultivation experience on Victor and compared to the old man, Victor was a fraud.

Hoping to buy some time, Victor looked at the numerous maps and photos on the wall in front of him. One of the bigger maps showed Victor the valley where the Invasion Gap was. The valley was surrounded by mountains on three sides and highlighted the two ways in. One was from the side where there were no mountains, while the other looks like a small mountain path between two of the mountains. The location of the Gap and the town of Glowing Falls were highlighted, and the map state that the town was only about nine kilometers from the small mountain path. From there, it would be another twenty kilometers to the Gap.

Victor guessed that would be their line of attack.

He glanced at the other maps. There was a topographic map with simple colors showing the vegetation level of the valley and another map had icons showing the different monsters seen in the various areas of the valley. Above these two maps was one with big several circles drawn on it. Each of these circles had an icon of a monster with the word ‘Apex’ written above it. Victor guessed the monsters coming through the Gap had began dividing up the territory in the valley.

As interesting as the maps were, it was the photos that got Victor’s attention.

Each photo was showing a monster that had come out of the Gap and residing in the valley. There was a gorilla-like monster with thick arms and shoulders covered in thick fur. It has small eyes, a small nose, and wide ears on each side of its long, broad head. It's mouth was huge, revealing two large canines and a large tongue. The words ‘Sharp Teeth Gorilla’ was written on the photo along with a question mark. Victor wonders if that is the name the analysts are calling the monster. The gorilla monster looked strong and tough, but it was almost normal compared to the other photos on the wall.

There was a photo of a monster running on four lanky legs. It looked like a deer, but taller and bigger than any Victor had seen before. The photo state it was almost three metres tall and it looked regal, but what first caught Victor’s eye was the majestic antlers on the monster. The monster has a crown of huge, long antlers pointing toward the sky and they looked almost metallic. The words ‘Metal Antlers’, ‘Resource’, and ‘Worth Hunting’ were written on the photo with question marks.

There was another photo of a squirrel with snow-white fur. The squirrel was looking straight at the drone taking the photo with golden eyes that sparkled with intelligence. The words ‘Name Pending’, ‘Teleportation’ and ‘Intelligent with a question mark’ were written on the photo.

Central Command had done their research and Victor wonder if these monsters also have monster cores. Reunion had given him a basic rundown on Monster Cultivation, but they have not really found a use for the monster cores yet. That got Victor thinking, and he glanced at the Old Man of Pui. He wondered if the old man had collected any monster cores. If he even knew how valuable they were. Victor suddenly realized what he could say to the old man. Something about the mystic martial arts that would be completely safe for him to mention.

“Impressive creatures, don’t you think?”

It was a soft opening. Victor wanted to take the measure of the old man, to see his reaction. He got nothing. He saw no reaction from the Old Man of Pui. After a long silence, Victor turned to the maps and tried again.

“I fought some of these monsters in Velocity City,” Victor said. “Snake-like creatures that look like Nagas. You fought them yet?”

The Old Man answered after some hesitation, “A Gap opened in the province of Pui as well. I fought, though the monsters that came out of my Gap looked like a form of tigers.”

The reply made Victor nod his head, and asked. “Master Pui, did you feel anything?” The old man turned to look at Victor. Victor had left the question open-ended to gauge the old man’s reaction, and his look told Victor what the Old Man wanted him to explain further.

“A feeling,” Victor paused for a moment before continuing, “some slight connection. Something between you and these monsters that came from the Gap?”

The old man gave Victor a small shake of the head. “I did not. Did you feel something?”

The man did not? Victor was surprised by the answer. Then, he realized the canny old man could be lying.

“You didn’t feel anything? Even after you killed one of them?”

“No,” the old man turned to look at Victor. “What did you feel?”

The question put Victor on the defensive. When he killed the monsters in Velocity City, even before Reunion explained what they were, Victor had felt an immediate connection to the monster cores left behind by the creatures. He was almost certain the old man felt the same connection, but what could Victor do if the old man does not admit it. How should Victor play this?

“Yes. What did you feel?” Someone asked from behind.