A Demon's Journey

The Heretical Paladins decided to stay in Granca Town for some time. This seemed like a peaceful town, and Noah wanted to gather information regarding the Qin Empire.

Noah gathered all his subordinates and declared, "I am truly delighted to see you all here. After numerous challenges, we have finally entered the Great Qin Empire. We must build a name for ourselves in this Empire and become the strongest army in the world!

"However, I know you have been through enough warfare, and it's time for a break. So, I will give you this one month. Go and enjoy," Noah spoke.

His subordinates were truly excited and cheered enthusiastically! The last couple of months were filled with nothing but battle.

There were nearly 2000 members of the Heretical Paladins. Most of them were originally soldiers, so their lives centered around warfare even before joining Noah's faction.

They all let out a relieved sigh as they received this well-deserved rest.

Aria and Luna were very happy to hear this declaration. Actually, Noah didn't make this decision randomly.

He received reports from the group captains that the soldiers were getting weary and were frequently losing focus.

Noah decided that he would give them a long break after reaching a safe location in the Great Qin Empire.

Granca Town fits that description perfectly.

Only a small part of the Heretical Paladins remained behind with Noah while the rest split up and explored this town.

This was a relatively medium-sized town. There was a market in the central region, while the cornered regions were residential areas.

The market wasn't very large, but it contained all the utilities required for a typical citizen. There were shops for clothing, fruits, vegetables, herbs, blacksmiths, armory, weapons, alchemist, and so on.

There was also a red-light district area next to the market. This area would be filled with men and some women during the nighttime.

After receiving a break, most of the members of Heretical Paladins visited this area to satisfy their sexual desires.

The women in the red-light district area were very experienced in their jobs. But they were surprised when a group of hot-blooded men suddenly flooded all the brothels in the town.

All the managers and owners of these brothels understood that someone possessing a high rank or special identity had visited their town. Or something was occurring in town that attracted many visitors.

However, after investigating a bit, these people found out that no event was occurring any time soon. The nearest event that would occur in Granca Town was nearly two months away. An Auction was going to be held, which would present two rare things. One of those two rare artifacts was the Heartless Devilwood Staff.

The Heartless Devilwood Staff was created using the wood from the Heartless Devil Tree. This staff cuts off the user's emotions and allows him to maintain a calm heart regardless of the situation. It boosts the user's attacks by adding the Demonic Element to them. Moreover, an enemy struck by this staff's attack would be temporarily blinded.

Thus, this staff was considered an extremely rare and dangerous weapon.

However, the value of this staff couldn't be compared to the other thing put up in the auction. The second was an array formation known as Strike of the Mad Phoenix!

This array formation was built by an extremely famous array master known as Xie Hai, also known as Eccentric Infernal Emperor.

The Strike of the Mad Phoenix was a Flame Elemental Array Formation. It had to be set up beforehand. This formation passively absorbed Flame Laws from the atmosphere and condensed it to create a single attack.

The strength of this array formation greatly depended on its capacity to store the Flame Laws. And the capacity greatly depended on the materials that were used to construct this array.

This implied that if 6 Tier resources were used to set up this array, it would hold the potential to kill an Emperor-Ranked Warrior. If 7 Tier resources were used, it would hold the potential to kill a Demi-God Ranked Warrior.

The power of this array formation has already made it exceptional. However, its uses increased further as it could be scaled up and down according to the user's wishes.

A user could set up this array formation by using 5 Tier resources! This array would still hold the potential of killing a King Ranked Warrior!

[Demi-God is a cultivation rank for those warriors whose cultivation is fixated at the peak Emperor Rank with no hope of advancing further while their insights in Laws have already progressed to the God Rank. This reason for their cultivation base stagnation could be a flawed Cultivation Technique, weak vitality, internal injuries, too much medicinal waste in their bodies, and so on.]

Thus, this auction was considered a big event because of these two rare things.

All the high-ranking people in Granca Town were investigating these people. They soon found out that this group had appeared in Granca Town recently. It would hardly take time since the Heretical Paladins booked an entire hotel after arriving in Granca Town.

This showed that the leader of this group was not only influential but also financially strong!

All the high-ranking people in Granca Town sent their envoys to the hotel Noah was staying to set up a meeting with him.

Noah received meeting invitations from nearly 20 individuals. All of them seemed very reputable and influential within this town.

Noah didn't know what he should do about these invitations and decided to consult this matter with his comrades. He was sure that Sargan and others would give him good advice.

Noah soon used his Mystical Spiritual Connection Ring to contact Azaroth's other retainers.

All of their spirits connected through their rings, and they could hear their voices.

"Heya, everyone! How is it going?" William spoke first.

"It's been good. I am climbing this really tall mountain. There are so many terrifying beasts around me, and if not for Zena's assistance and my sharp senses, I would have died countless times," Ralph spoke with a bitter tone.

"That seems adventurous. I am still in the old Glerian Kingdom's territory and gathering all my wealth secretly. This new Royal Family has targeted some branches of the Misty Flower Pavilion, and I believe its time to shift my base," Yrellea spoke.

"…I have a feeling that this new Royal Family in this kingdom will target me soon enough," Tiana added.

The Glerian Kingdom's original Royal Family had been entirely slaughtered, and the Sinyalian Kingdom's Royal Family had taken over this Kingdom's territory.

After taking over the Kingdom's territory, they decided to destroy all the rebellious factions in their new territory. Unfortunately, Tiana and Yrellea's factions fit that category. They planned to restart everything from scratch, with their own men inside these factions.

Tiana was a bit on the safer side since this new Royal Family had a lot on their hands, and the Mist Formation around the Sacred Ice Aurora Valley Sect greatly confused the warriors scouting the base of the Arctic Summit!

"That's still exciting in comparison to what I'm doing. I'm on a merchant wagon, hidden in one of the large baskets, trying to pass the borders and reach the Lamhilhan Theocracy. After that, I need to figure out a way to travel to the Kingdom of Cemetia in the south," Laura spoke softly.

"…I will be shocked if you can cross borders through such a method. Be prepared for a battle," Sargan advised Laura.

He then added, "It's been somewhat tough for me lately. The Spatial Portal threw me in Purgatory near the territory of the Shadow Hounds. I had to slaughter a majority of these Shadow Hounds before they were intimidated and left me alone. Soon, I came across a group of demons who belonged to an unfamiliar clan. We fought for some time before I created a smokescreen and escaped successfully. I have been on the run ever since. My clan is nearly three months away from my current location. I just hope I don't encounter a Demon King or Demon Emperor on my way."

"Hmm…Interesting. Meanwhile, I just participated in some Colosseum and won great prize money along with some cultivation resources," William spoke.

And soon, Noah began to narrate his personal experiences and the reason why he used the Mystical Spiritual Connection Ring to contact them all.