Bab 18: Disapearance
The cup of tea scattered into broken pieces upon sudden impact with the ground as the warm liquid drenched the brown carpet.
"What did you say? Clarissa left the alchemist guild despite her position to join a sect which has yet to be officially established?"
The man questioning was Clarissa's father who was seated on an armchair enjoying his aromatic tea until his serene moment was disturbed by a sudden message from his friend.
"Tony, I tried to keep your daughter, but she was determined in leaving."
The other person was Tony's friend, the elder who had told Tony about Clarissa's embarrassing moment outside the room.
Initially, Tony thought that it was just a misunderstanding and didn't pay much heed to it, but now, he had to pull his daughter back no matter what.
Shaking his head, Tony sighed, "Tyson, I know my daughter better than anyone else. If that child like you said managed to persuade her, I might have to visit him personally."
"But your injuries, if you have to travel for a few hours, your body might suffer." Tyson persuaded anxiously but to no avail.
"You should know how stubborn I can be. Are you going to come with me?" Instead of listening, Tony invited Tyson to join him instead as he stood up from his chair.
Back in the Nirvana sect, Lancelot had already fully calmed down as he explained his past to everyone. His family was located beyond the seven continents of this realm. To be more precise, he doesn't belong here.
He was the sole survivor of the Dragon Mark family from one of the above realms. A family which consists of experts that can eliminate the kingdoms of the seven continents easily. Yet, his family was massacred one-sidedly and he was banished to the lower realm against his will.
"Sect Master, you say that you're confident of helping me seek revenge personally, but do you think you're still capable of grooming me now?" Lancelot asked, his tone was disrespectful and arrogant, but this was why Ace appreciated his talent and character.
He was a person who would never go back on his words.
"Let me ask you, what was your progress back in the Foundation realm? To be more precise, which layer of the Foundation Tower did you stop at?"
Lancelot's eyes widened in surprise. Back in his family, they would always say that the Foundation Tower is something only experts know of and only the talented ones were capable of reaching that stage.
"The peak of the fifth layer," Lancelot said through his clenched teeth. Back then, he had high hopes and believed that the ninth layer was a totally possible layer for him, but it turned out that he had overestimated himself.
His enemy had one son, who was two years older than him and it was rumoured that that son of his reached the peak of the seventh layer of the Foundation Tower.
"Let me ask you, considering the status and scale of your family? Does the number of layers awakened in the Foundation tower affect your combat strength to a great extent?"
Ace asked, knowing that he had this in the bag.
Foundation rebirth array: 1000 sect points
"Of course, it enhances our bloodline and if one day the blood in our body reaches its peak, it isn't an exaggeration to say that we'll be undefeatable in the same major realm."
"That's why I'll give you a mission. If you can complete 100 E grade sect missions and one D grade missions after, I'll give you the chance to cultivate in the Foundation realm again, without affecting your current cultivation base.
"You serious?"
"Remember this, I'm always serious about what I say regardless of the situation." Ace told Arith as he got him to brief Lancelot about the sect's current status before leaving the sect with Charlotte.
Holding Charlotte's delicate hand, he smiled as they walked down the cobblestone steps.
"Charlotte, do you have any suggestions on where we should go first?"
"Mhm, let me think...if you want to, we can head towards the town nearest to this mountain. It's only about two kilometres due south."
Ace nodded as they increased their speed towards the town, he had to settle as much as possible today. It only took them a few minutes as they soon stopped at the town's entrance.
Entering the town, he realised that it wasn't that much different from Glutton city. Bustling streets are full of people. The only noticeable difference that caught his eye, however, was that he had yet to see a single man above the age of eighteen. Appearance-wise at least.
The women walking around looked disturbed and those young boys had fear expressed all over their faces. The city was crowded, but everyone's mood was down.
Walking up to one of the stall vendors, he spent a spirit stone to purchase a map and inquired about the bizarre occurrence he's seeing now from the stall vendor who's a middle-aged woman.
"Haish, three days ago, a group of bandits came and kidnapped all the men in our village." As she said so, tears flashed in her eyes.
Light flashed in Ace's eyes as he asked further, "Do you know where the bandits are located?"
The woman knew what Ace was up to and instead of answering, she said in concern, "Don't try, even our town master who was at the peak Martial Apprentice realm was killed in one move."
"Trust me, give me the location. I'll bring all of the men back."
In the end, the woman could only concede as she pointed towards the east, about three kilometres due east from here, there was a mountain and the bandits were based there.
Before he left, she said, "If you manage to, please save my husband and son, they'll recognise this pendant."
The woman said as she took off the necklace she was wearing and passed it to Ace.
"Young lad, don't blame me if you die there." The woman sighed seeing him leave.
"Ace, even if our foundation is strong, there's no way we would be a match for those bandits. Not to mention if…"
Placing his finger on Charlotte's cherry red lips, Ace took out a bunch of grenades and said with an evil smile, "No one said that I would have to kill them personally through my own strength."
"Ah?"
Soon, they arrived at the foot of the mountain and realised that there was an open cave nearby. Sitting outside were some bandits enjoying wild meat which they had just caught.
Seeing this, Ace immediately pulled Charlotte along with him as they took cover among the bushes to eavesdrop on their conversation.
"Goddamn it! We have already captured so many men and yet that evil spirit is still asking for more!"
"You think we have a choice? It's either those men or us!"
"Argh! Is it so bad to be a bandit?"
"Of course, in your next lifetime, make a wiser choice."
Ace appeared and said as he threw the energy grenade towards the middle. Waving his hand, Ace said with a smile, "Goodbye."
"Boom!"
Looking at the gory scene before her, Charlotte wrinkled her brows and asked Ace, "Don't you think that you went overboard there?"
"If they didn't commit evil, I might have spared their lives. To make things worse, each day they live means that more innocent lives will be lost." Ace explained as he picked up the spatial rings on the ground and inspected them.
There were only some useless items he threw out as he kept the tens of spirit stones. It wasn't much but better than nothing.
"Please! Spare my life!"
"Ahhh!"
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone