630 Delivery
Once morning came, I had already set up to leave the Sea of Demons. Staying here would bring us nothing but trouble, and we had already managed to obtain a few good things from the general.
If they needed anything from us, they'd have to ask the soldiers and the captain that went with us. They followed us all the way so they all saw and know what we did and how we navigated the Dark Garden.
"Are you ready?" I asked old Fu.
"I got nothing to ready for, let's leave," he said.
I nodded to the old man and the two of us headed out of the city toward the gate.
A few soldiers noticed us leaving and they probably went to inform the general. And once we reached the gate, they were closed.
"What's the meaning of this?" old Fu asked, his tone didn't seem to be a tolerant one or one that can handle any bullshit that the guards would spout to keep us here.
his Qi was already rotating preparing for a fight.
Another guard who seemed to be wearing a fancier tier of clothes shouted, "We can't let you leave! The general ordered martial law, please return to the palace!"
"Is that so?" I muttered.
"Yes!" the man replied with sweat drippling down his forehead.
"Then tell your general, if he wants to stop me, he'll be dealing with one of the Suns, after all, I'm on an important errand, you don't want to anger one of them now do you?" this message was sent directly into the man's head via Divine Sense.
The man opened and closed his mouth.
Rumors do spread fast, and they spread in a nasty way, almost always inflating. And soldiers with nothing to do must have spread the rumors of us having met with one of the Suns, the Dusking Sun. And now that I mentioned one of them, a mere guard would not even dare cause any issues with an entity that can raze this entire area with something as simple as a fart.
The guard looked perplexed and terrified at the same time, he hesitated between giving the order to open the gate and save his city, or ignore it and risk ruining the entire Sea of Demons.
The small gears in his mind spun for a bit until he shouted, "Open the gate!"
We didn't hesitate to leave as we took the flying board and rode on it, blasting away from the city that seemed to have turned the heat down from its walls.
The walls were not harmed by the incinerating heat that was used to drive off the scorpion, they were still clean as the day I first saw them.
As for the surrounding sands, most of it was caved in in a massive crater that was the trail for the scorpion. The sheer size of that thing was enough to completely bulldoze though the city if it wanted to, although it was nowhere as close to the size of the Primordial Serpent God. This one was big enough to be a cause for worry and powerful enough that it caused sandstorms.
Our path was to head back to the western regions, where the Ant Cave was and meet with the ant queen again.
And we didn't hesitate in pressing the accelerator and leaving the area. As far as we could see, in the great distance beyond the city were several carriages and horse riders rushing toward the city.
They had small flood dragons too that carried a flying palanquin. Which clearly meant royal business.
"We made it in time I suppose," said old Fu.
"We indeed did, but I think it won't be that easy, they'll definitely come looking for us if we dally too long here. I'm pressing the accelerator, buckle up," I said and charged forward.
Allowing the board to use the maximum of its capacity, although dangerous and will probably cause it to blow up. It was good enough for us to make as much distance with the convoy that reached the city behind us.
Several hours later, we were far too deep and away in the desert, and I made sure to take a different rout from the one we took to get here, although it will take time to get to the ant cave, as long as we make it there, we can easily hide in the tunnel system.
"We're being followed," said Old Fu.
"Damn, they really are fast," I replied as I looked behind us.
An old man wearing nothing but brown robes was flying toward us with incredible speed.
"Juniors, please remain where you are," said the old man via Divine Sense.
"I apologize, but I don't know who you are, and have no intention of stopping," I replied using my own Divine Sense.
This caused the old man to have a look of surprise on his face. After all, the distance was still too great for someone at my cultivation level to cover with mere divine sense. Especially here in a location that hampers Qi so much.
"I have been ordered by his majesty to take you back, he has many a thing to ask. Please refrain from making my task any more difficult, I still wish to solve this peacefully."
"That is not my problem," I replied to the old man and pressed the pedal once more. The thrusters seemed to be struggling and were about to start throttling and if that happens we'll be sitting ducks.
"I'll try and stop him," said Old Fu.
"No need," I said as I threw a couple cannisters behind us.
"Please do not do anything foolish, whatever you're doing your cultivation level is far too low to cause me any damage, you will only incur my wrath, junior."
11:19
"You can't be calling me a junior and still bully me like this, now can you, also that's not to harm you," I smirked as the cannister blew up right next to the old man.
The man created a protective barrier to stop the spray of the matter inside the cannister only for his entire body to instantly drop and dig itself into the sand.
"Sea water?" asked old Fu.
"Yep, I made that yesterday when I was fooling around, it's in very small dose, so it would only seal his cultivation for an hour, but that's more than enough for us to escape, look, you can already see the shore," I said as in the distance the ground was lusher and had dirt and rocks instead of sand.
An hour later, we both felt the surge of Qi behind us, the old man probably regained his cultivation and was using all of it to chase after us. However, we were already inside the cave system. Both me and old Fu continued on foot running through the caves and following the map that the Ant Queen gave us.
"We're pretty safe here, the farther we go forward, the harder it'll get for him to keep tracking us," I said.
Old Fu nodded as the two of us continued heading forward.
More time went by and you could feel tremors echoing in the far distance, I smiled as I realized what was happening.
"He must be pissed."
"I feel like he is expressing his anger by destroying the entire area behind us," said old Fu.
"Well, he can try, but I doubt he'll be able to locate us. Also, we're already there," I said as we went through the final set of tunnels and arrived at a vast underground area where hundreds of people were moving about.
The area was dimly lit with torches and some crystalline stones on the walls. Merchants that sold all sort of things on carpets in the grounds, and other hagglers and passengers buying and selling goods.
Our arrival didn't pique anyone's interest as we moved about the market place and headed to the upper area.
Soon, we arrived at the exit and were right in front of the very same exit we used last time to escape the Red Sun's herald.
The door was opened as if expecting us. And as soon as we walked through the ant queen was already seated in front of the exit.
"Waiting for us," I said.
"I caught wind of your return," she said.
I immediately pulled out the scroll, "This was not easy to get," I replied.
She jumped up from her chair giddily like a kid having obtained a well sought out toy and said, "You actually did get it!"
I sighed as I looked around, "Who's that?" I asked.
"Oh that's the herald from last time, he… was adamant on waiting on you two."
"What is the meaning of this?" I said as I felt like I was caught in a trap.
"Don't take it the wrong way, apparently another messenger arrived soon requiring the former holy verdict to be dropped. The Herald however wishes to see you for their own reasons," she said as she opened the scroll and instantly closed it.
Within that moment a powerful surge of blood lust seemed to emanate from that scroll.
"It really is the real deal!" she said.
"Why you expected me to cheat you or something, now give me what we talked about," I demanded.
"That will no longer be needed," said the Herald as he approached us. "Please, follow me," he said and headed to the hall where many dancers were preparing for a show.
"We need to talk," the herald stated as he took a chair. Waiting for us to join him.
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