Chapter 416: Diversion
The battlefield stretched in a scattered shape all across the mountain’s upper areas. There were minor fights even near its base, though most of those engaging in them had already given up on the ingredients and were pursuing other forms of income.
The battle where Liam had split up with his team was the biggest, but Grace and the others had a couple of heated meetings while proceeding in the direction he had pointed out, although Lucas and Troy made quick work of them.
The problems started once the goal was in sight.
The trio spotted twelve roses on top of a tall elevation in a large clearing, violet, indigo, and blue in equal numbers. They were there in the open, and they had even been easy to find, but there were reasons why they were still rooted to the ground.
The battles around the area were the first reason. Getting there meant having the strength, luck, or both to cross the horde of experts interested in the ingredients and the magical beasts that could appear from both the ground and the sky.
The second reason was that the area was crowded. Trees and small bushes encircled the clearing, and teams and individuals had long since settled there, maintaining their positions, not daring to go after the ingredients.
Obviously, once someone moved, retaliation would happen, which led to the third reason.
The elevation wasn’t a mere piece of soil that rose diagonally by a few meters. Its vertical side had a large but shallow hole with three level one magical beasts, bears, but seemingly cubs, barely one meter tall each, sleeping curled together.
Of course, three level one magical beasts weren’t a problem, but the one standing in front of them was. Another bear, this one almost seven meters tall, stood on four paws before that shallow cave, wary of its surroundings.
That was a level three magical beast, likely the cubs’ mother, and it was unclear what kind of hell it could unleash to protect its children.
Still, there were close to twenty rooting experts around the clearing. Level three magical beasts were fearsome monsters, but much could be achieved through teamwork.
Yet, there was no solidarity among that group of cultivators, and a battle of that caliber was bound to level the area, dooming the Rainbow Roses to a terrible fate, hence the stalemate.
No one moved out of fear of the level three creature and the destructive battle that would follow, but the clock was ticking.
Booming noises still resounded in the distance, from the following mountains and their surroundings. At some point, the branching experts would come, and it would be game over for any weaker cultivator interested in the ingredients.
Truth was, some were waiting exactly for that kind of reinforcement. Not all the cultivators in the area belonged to cruel organizations. It was still better to seize the ingredients personally, but the stalemate seemed to have prevented that.
When Grace, Lucas, and Troy arrived at the clearing’s edge, they felt gazes and ethereal attention landing on them. Even the level three bear noticed them, but no one acted since they squatted behind some bushes, immediately understanding the stalemate’s unspoken rules.
Yet, before Lucas and Troy could accept the unsolvable problem, a tiny whisper resounded among them.
"May I request a diversion?" Grace sighed.
Troy and Lucas immediately turned toward Grace, catching her summoning a simple-looking flask containing white powder. However, upon closer inspection, they could sense a certain Qi signature from the item, too muffled to spread past the bushes, but specific enough to reveal its nature at that distance.
Whatever the powder was, it was a rank 3 item.
"Who even are you two?" Lucas half-cursed under his breath but glanced at his companion. Troy didn’t even nod, but his agreement stood out from his emotionless face.
"Sister," Lucas showed his empty smile at Grace, "Just tell us when."
Grace didn’t have to say anything. She opened the small container and sprinkled some white powder on her head before storing it again.
Something odd followed. Grace paled, although that had nothing to do with her complexion. Her whole figure lost color, gradually becoming transparent, disappearing alongside her entire presence.
That powder was a disposable rank 3 item from Archbishop Ignatius’ inheritance. It had cloaking properties but limited uses. It also took a few seconds to activate completely.
Troy and Lucas were quick on the uptake and jumped to their feet. With everyone so wary of each other, the sudden disappearance of a rooting expert wouldn’t go unnoticed, so they had to do something radical to make people miss the event.
Luckily, Lucas had a talent for creating problems.
"If it isn’t our cousins from the Demon Heart Cult!" Lucas shouted, waving at a pair wearing dark-red robes behind trees a few dozen meters from his position.
The shout attracted a series of gazes, but Lucas didn’t stop there. He was waving the hand wielding the sword, which suddenly flashed.
A tree to Lucas’ right saw a cut opening in its trunk, deep enough for it to creak and tilt, eventually falling to the ground.
The tension in the area intensified by several levels. Everyone was ready to jump, run away, or charge at the ingredients. That stalemate only needed a spark to explode into complete chaos, but that wasn’t it, not yet.
A deep growl resounded, accompanied by fearsome pressure. The level three magical beast cried a low warning but didn’t move from its position. However, something in its stance had changed, claiming everyone’s attention, everyone but Lucas’.
"Oops," Lucas casually said, lowering and inspecting his sword. "This thing really needs a safety."
Lucas looked to be merely handling his sword, but it suddenly flashed again when its tip pointed at a spot next to the dark-red pair. A cut opened on the ground behind them, forcing them to their feet.
"What do you think you are doing?!" The rooting expert closest to the cut on the ground, a young woman with long dark hair, cursed under her breath. "Do you want to kill us all?!"
The woman and everyone else snapped their eyes back at the huge bear, as if suddenly recalling that it was there. Luckily, despite the second attack, the creature still chose restraint. Charging ahead would leave its cubs defenseless after all.
"Hey, hey, I’m not the one doing this," Lucas claimed, flicking his sword’s flat edge, pretending to listen to the sound it made. "I think it’s broken. Is there a branch of inscriptions specific to swords? Are there master blacksmiths? Magical blacksmiths, perhaps?"
The dark-red woman had veins popping on her temples, but she soon forgot about that idiocy entirely. A suffocating presence descended upon the area and beyond, coming from the sky above the clearing.
A woman in her forties wearing the brown robes of the Mercenary Guild descended through the air. Her hair was long and grey, kept up in a bun by three interlocked hairpins. She was short and thin, but no one dared to contest her superiority.
It was game over. A branching expert had finally arrived.
The woman didn’t show it, but her skin looked unnaturally pale. Her sharp face also betrayed a hint of displeasure, which hardened when her brown eyes found the level three bear.
Through a wave of the long brown sleeves, the branching expert halted her descent, stopping in the air ten meters above the ground, entering a staring contest with the powerful magical beast.
However, the woman’s gaze darted almost imperceptibly to the elevation, immediately returning to the level three magical beast, but wearing a frown. She knew where the Rainbow Roses were supposed to be, but the spot had empty holes now.
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