As Leonardo approached the Levi Sector through the uncharted wilderness, he quickly noticed the high activities of hidden sects in the area.
He felt it to be expected as most liquid assets that flowed into the pockets of these hidden sects were the extra tax revenue from the Qing Sector's trade routes.
If Leonardo wanted to sneak into a place that didn't have a 9th-tier cultivator, no one could really stop him.
Thus, no one noticed that a 6th-tier young cultivator in casual white clothes and a silver mask slipped through the defensive arrays of the outer region, and inner region, and eventually followed a fleet of servants into the core region.
Having discarded the disguise of Attendant Ye, his white hair flowed freely behind his back as his pitch-black eyes stood in contrast with his soft, impeccable white skin.
Even while Leonardo knew that this place was potentially under the control of a powerful 7th-tier cultivator, Leonardo didn't care. He flashed high into the skies of the sub-dimension, settling down in the midst of the stirring clouds.
After he made himself comfortable, he released a hint of his 6th-tier aura in a discreet manner, allowing only the 7th-tier cultivator in the depths of the sub-dimension to sense it.
Unlike the isolated, almost barren architecture of the Qing Sector's core region and the mountains and pavilions of the Renhuang Sector's core region, the Levi Sector's core region was a bustling modern metropolis.
Not too secretive like the Qing nor too strict like the Renhuang, many small cities and towering buildings were established in the core region. The dealings with the Freya Sector brought them a lot of wealth as reflected in their opulent structures and relaxed flow of not only soldiers but also cultivators from hidden sects.
Leonardo wasn't the least bit surprised that these cultivators could huddle their way into the core region after thousands of years of business.
In one of the mansions deep into the central city, a group of middle-aged cultivators gathered.
Among them were three 5th-tier cultivators, two 6th-tier cultivators, and a few 4th-tier servants who tended to their needs.
One of the 6th-tier cultivators was in a military outfit while the other was dressed in taoist robes, clearly, the latter was from a hidden sect.
"Have you found the girl yet?" asked the man in a military uniform with the badge of a lieutenant on his left shoulder, his brows locked into a tight frown.
The cultivator responded in confusion. "What girl?"
Then, seemingly recalling something, he cried out, "Oh! The Holy Maiden of the Interstellar Supreme Court?"
The lieutenant waved his hand dismissively. "What Holy Maiden? That's just a ruse executed by the imperial family. She's a wanted criminal, their only grip on that vermin from the lower realms."
"Yeah yeah," the cultivator rolled his eyes. "Our hands are tied, they've somehow ended up in the buffer area between the two dynasties. Let alone the fact we can't get there without trespassing into the territory of your rivals, but we've also encountered a lot of troubles lately trying to maintain order on our turf, much less have the manpower to stretch our range of activity."
The lieutenant furrowed his brows. "The war is about to erupt once more, we can always make use of the chaos and sneak a few squads behind the enemy lines to capture the woman. Even though we have some conflicting interests with the imperial family, it's always a good thing to leave a way out. Not just us, but some of the other houses have the same thing in mind…"
In the study room of the same mansion, a young woman in handsome military garb stood by the window, though her spiritual sense tuned in on the conversation carried out by the group. This young woman was another cultivator from Emily's generation and her name is Sierra of House Levi, the Commanding General of the sector.
As she carefully listened with a cup of wine swirling in her hand, something seemed to catch her attention as her beautiful eyes of sparkling ivory pierced through the walls and space alike, observing the young man high in the clouds.
"Hm?"
Her spiritual sense slammed into his silver mask only to drown therein, as though sinking into a gateway of no return. Behind the mask, a pair of pitch-black eyes with a pair of swirling white triangles reflected her intrigued gaze, further astonishing her. fr eeweb novel
At first, she assumed this was another cultivator escorting the hidden sects delegates. However, that look in his eyes seemed to match with a particular piece of intelligence, resulting in a drastic twisting of her expression before it settled into calmness once again.
"Whatever…" Sierra washed her throat with wine before resting the glass gently on the desk. Then, with a sigh, she bundled up her loose hair into a high bun, picked up her sword from the side, and stepped out of the mansion as though it didn't exist.
…
Leonardo had just gotten himself comfortable when space shuddered and a woman no less prettier than Emily stepped out, her eyes cold as she watched this wanted man from the Memento Mori.
"Is this a planned-out assault? How many of you are here? How is the situation outside?"
Her first thought was that the Memento Mori managed to break into the sector after finding out about their involvement with the hidden sects, especially since the brotherhood had been wreaking havoc all across the realm by hunting down hidden bases of the court and hidden sects all the same. She also thought that the outside was already a bloodbath, while the lack of information might be because of some array that separated both sides.
Leonardo gave the woman a confused look. "What do you mean? I'm all by myself here." His head tilted to one side even as he spoke.
Sierra didn't believe it at first. With a frosty glint in her eyes, she spread her spiritual senses past the array of the dimension— to her surprise, there wasn't any hindrance whatsoever.
She scanned the entire sector with her senses and found everything to be running smoothly.
"Am I in some kind of an illusion?" she could barely believe what her senses are telling her.
Leonardo was shocked, "How did you find out?!"
"I knew it!" Sierra's eyes sharped as she slashed out with swords conjured from her spiritual sense, only to find them whizzing away without an iota of resistance. Just as she was shocked, Leonardo couldn't hold it in anymore and started laughing, hugging his stomach while at it.
Sierra was confused for a split second before it dawned upon her; she was tricked.
She immediately felt ashamed and enraged! Though, who would blame her for being cautious with the brotherhood running rampant? Also, why would the most wanted man of the Jin Dynasty pay a visit to one of the prestigious families in charge of an entire province?
"I just want to talk, no need to be so pedantic about it," Leonardo shook his head, not having expected this woman to think too much into things. He said, "I know you know of my identity; you can't keep me here if I wish to leave. At most, we would have a fight that would cause the dimension to collapse and damage the sector's foundation. Sure, you might injure me and I would also injure you, but that would only benefit other fishermen."
"You're quite bold," Sierra lifted an eyebrow before she visibly relaxed. In fact, she was simply worried that Leonardo found out about their plan to hunt down his supposed partner in elopement, hence it wasn't far-fetched for him to rain down his wrath on the Levi Sector.
From the looks of it, however, this young man was clueless, and clueless he was.
With that thought in mind, she cast an isolation barrier around the perimeter as she asked without a hint of her previous anger. "Aren't you worried I might have reported your presence to Interstellar Supreme Court?"
"Why should I be worried?" Leonardo rolled his eyes. "Instead, you should be worried this place might turn into a battlefield of three fronts; the Seven Sectors, the Jin Dynasty, and Memento Mori… Everyone knows how the Jin Dynasty's imperial family thought themselves smart by capturing a brother; look at the results."
Just as Leonardo said, no one wanted to be caught in the crossfire of two behemoths for no good reason. Every faction in the dynasty might seem 'cooperative' with the Interstellar Supreme Court on the surface, but no one was an idiot.
Unbeknownst to Sierra, as her nerves were in a mess and before she locked down the region, Leonardo tossed out an invisible blade of spiritual force guided by his spiritual sense into the mansion far away.
That spiritual force traced to one of the 5th-tier cultivators in the mansion at an impeccable speed and shot into his third eye, right between the eyebrows. Just as he was about to say something, a headache assaulted his mind but faded in a flash. freewebnov(e)l.com
Although somewhat confused, he shook his head and continued to listen as the lieutenant and the cultivator discussed.
…
In the Commanding General's Pagoda of the Qing Sector, Emily had just entered the fifth floor and was about to make her way to the sixth when her spiritual sense jerked a little, her eyes dazed as a subtle sensation of branding someone's soul surfaced in her mind.
R𝑒ad latest chapt𝒆rs at freew𝒆(b)novel.c(o)m Only