Seth and Lan Xue silently moved towards the Scorching Trade Group headquarters. When they arrived there, there was a woman already waiting for them on the outside.
She had been informed by a quick sound transmission, about the two distinguished people that would come to their group headquarters.
Seth saw that the woman who came to receive them, was a half human half demon like the man called Theodor. Actually, they had many similar traces, so she must be one of his family members. Maby this whole group was a family group, what made a bit more sense, since it would be easier to control the flux of information like that.
"Mr. Seth, Lady Lan, please allow me to guide you to the carriage we prepared for you. It's on the other side, come."
Seth nodded and followed her inside. The building was very large and occupied a great expanse of land.. This place was more like a marketplace than a normal building, since there were many merchant booths stationed inside, selling a myriad of different items.
There were many people buying and selling things there, making the whole market-place seem like a really vivid and busy area. But in reality, this place not only served as a huge source of income that came from exchanging merchandise, but as a mask to hide things that happened underground.
However, instead of stopping to see what they were offering or interfering with the shady business happening underneath, Seth chose to ignore everything and accompanied the guide together with Lan Xue, until they crossed the entire Scorching Trade Group headquarters.
Obviously, Lan Xue attracted a lot of attention towards them and wherever they passed by, people would stop to look.
After leaving through the passage at the other side, Seth saw a good carriage that was waiting by the road. Near it, there were three large carriages of "supplies" that were going to be delivered somewhere inside the Desolate Scorching Wastelands.
A quick scan with his Soul Sense, and Seth was able to identify many unconscious people lying inside them. The formation drawn around it, blocked any sound coming from inside.
Seth realized that the people lying there, were not even cultivators yet, what turned out to be even more suspicious for him now.
"Here. This is going to be your carriage. I hope Lady Lan feels comfortable inside." The guide approached that carriage and opened the door for them.
"Thank you very much." Seth thanked her and signaled for Lan Xue to go inside.
After she entered, he turned towards the guide and said: "You don't need to worry with us for now. I will be discussing some private matters with my Young Lady while we wait for the departure."
The woman found it strange that the "servant" would be entering the carriage together with his Young Lady, but she bought his speech, believing they had something important to discuss.
She went towards a group of guards stationed nearby and started to order them to do things here and there.
After Seth entered, Lan Xue looked at him through the corner of her eyes and asked: "Weren't you supposed to be the driver? Why are you coming in?"
"Come on... I thought we were at least getting closer to the friendship threshold, so why not traveling together?"
"Friendship? You know they will find it strange a servant traveling together with his Young Lady, right?"
"Don't worry, they won't even notice that."
"Hm...?"
"I can show you a secret if you agree on us becoming friends."
"..." Lan Xue kept silent while looking at Seth. She seemed interested, but she would never agree on something like that, due to her unapproachable nature. For her, even the other Palace Masters were not considered to be her friends, just colleagues.
"Hah, if you don't want to talk, I will take your silence as a yes." Seth finally sat on the seat in front of Lan Xue and extended his hand in the air.
Lan Xue didn't understand why he did that action or how he could act so shamelessly like that, but after his energy fluctuations started to form something, she wasn't able to remain calm anymore.
Seth's hands fully coated with Mana, transformed it into darkness.
"Wha..." Lan Xue didn't even had time to ask him about what was happening, when suddenly that darkness connected to his own body, essentially changing his own shadow.
From Seth's shadow, his darkness element started to create another body identical to his own; however, it was totally made of his dark element. The sheer amount of elemental mastery needed to create a technique like that, couldn't be described and even though Lan Xue was a Profound Mana peak-stage powerhouse, she was thoroughly shocked by the expertise Seth was just showing her.
Beside Seth, another Seth appeared. He quickly stood up and opened the carriage door from inside. After stepping outside, he went to the seat at the frontal part of the carriage and sat down. That "Seth" that was acting as a driver, was actually one of his Specters of Darkness.
It was so perfectly created, that it resembled Seth in every single way, even his aura remained, since it was part of him. That was a great advantage that skill had, since people with lower cultivation than him, would not even be able to feel anything was different, because their aura would never be able to penetrate Seth aura's defenses.
One thing would be creating an elemental clone that weas just a lump of elemental energy, but crating a clone that was perfect and could act by itself, was really impressive.
Lan Xue watched how he had created that clone, but she was having a hard time believing a skill like that existed. Before even asking about what the hell was currently happening, she used her super strong energy to scan the Specter of Darkness he had just created.
Impressively, she felt the same energy that was present around Seth, on his specter. There was only a minor difference, that only really strong practitioners would find out. Her Mana was a whole Realm greater than his, and because of that, she was able to perceive some elemental particle fluctuations that were present around his skill and weren't present around his body. However, that was something really complicated to be noticed in the middle of a fight and could be covered if he used darkness around himself as well.
If not for that and the prior information she had of Seth creating his clone, she would not be able to differentiate one from the other. Realizing this, her shock and amazement grew even more.
"What was that? Why are you able to use dark elemental skills?" Lan Xue looked at Seth just like any of the other times, with her usual cold look, but he noticed that this time, it was particularly more serious.
Seth already planned about telling her some things, since he wouldn't be able to cooperate with her while only using half of his skills. His movement techniques were totally reliant on his dark element and he knew sooner or later, he would have to use them.
"Well... I'm not normal human, but a human that have a devil bloodline flowing inside my veins. That's why I can use dark elemental abilities."
Lan Xue heard his words, but she looked like she wanted to know more, else she wouldn't be able to calm down.
"The reason I'm looking for the Cerberus Clan, that clan of degenerate demons, is because I was once a prisoner that had to suffer and pass through many experiments under their dark hands. One of those experiments, were the catalyst that made me become what I am today. They deserve death for everything they've done so far and for introducing me to the darkness as well; and that's why I will bury them all in the darkest abyss."
Lan Xue heard his speech and decided to stay silent, not pursuing the matter further than that. Through his words, she was able to notice genuine hatred and pain.
While they were having their conversation inside the carriage, Theodor finally arrived with a group of thirty mercenaries and hunters he had just hired. There were male and female practitioners from the human and demon races. They all were eager to start the job and receive their bountiful reward.
The woman stopped talking with the guards and approached Theodor to give her report, but before she did that, he asked her about Lady Lan.
"Where is she?"
"She is already waiting inside the carriage we prepared for them." The woman pointed towards the carriage where "Seth" was sitting at the driver position.
When Theodor saw him, he had to hide the vicious light passing through his eyes and mildly smile towards him. He approached Seth and asked: "Is Lady Lan feeling comfortable inside? That's one of our best carriages."
"She said it was a bit uncomfortable, but this will do."
Theodor awkwardly smiled and said: "Then we are going to depart."
Theodor seemed already impatient to depart, so he quickly adjusted everything and shouted for the group that he had hired.
"We are leaving!"
"Uhul!"
"Let's go!"
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