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Chapter 242: Master Manipulator

Even with the scale of this storm, there should have been enough to last at least a full day, so someone is stealing our spirit stones. But who?

The culprit would remain unknown for now, and he didn\'t have the spare manpower to go hunting for them. Right now, the highest priority was protecting the residence from destruction. He didn\'t care for the stone building or the mortal servants inside. His family mattered a little more, but even they weren\'t the ones he was burning his cultivation to protect.

Noit was something far more criticalthe many arrays that ran through the entire building structure. Every array, including the Qi gathering and defensive ones, had been constructed by the family\'s array master in the past. However, the man had succumbed to the passage of time due to their family curse, which prevented them from reaching the Nascent Soul Realm and died just before the last beast tide.

So, if these arrays were destroyed, nobody in the family was trained enough to replace them. If word got out that their arrays were inoperable, they would come under attack and could not recover any spent Qi or advance their cultivation.

After expending some Qi to block another barrage of lightning, the Grand Elder glanced to his side where four other Elders of his Voidmind family stood upon ornate swords of dark steel. Two were his younger brothers, and the others were his cousins. Void Qi was known to twist people\'s personalities and make them cold and selfish to others, so he had never gotten along with any of them, but it was still putting him more at ease to have them floating beside him.

If only they were as strong as my brother, who supposedly ascended.

His eyes flickered to the white wood golem wreathed in heavenly lightning. By his estimations, it was somewhere near the upper end of the Star Core Realm, so none of the Elders floating beside him would stand a chance against it. He also didn\'t trust them to successfully block an incoming barrage from obliterating their residence and arrays, so they were locked in a stalemate.

I can\'t lose any more Elders after Dante got three Elders killed at the Darklight City Alchemy tournament. Qi can be recovered within months, but raising another Elder to the Star Core Realm will take decades and an absurd amount of resources. I\'d rather wait to see if this storm ceases and that golem loses its Qi source than send in my Elders on a suicide mission against it.

His Star Core silently pulsed as he dug deep and extracted more void Qi to block another round of lightning. There was hardly a ten-second gap between each assault, and he had long given up on wasting Qi to fight back with void lances as a dense field of lightning surrounded the golem and made hurting it from range neigh impossible.

"Elder Dimitri, has the Patriarch still not responded?" He shouted over the roaring thunder to his brother, floating on a dark steel sword beside him.

Dimitri shook his head, "The Disciplinary Committee has passed our report of the Skyrend family breaking the rules to the Nightrose family."

"And what about the Disciplinary Committee?" The Grand Elder insisted, "Will they send anyone?"

"Sadly not. I was informed that this is a matter beyond the Disciplinary Committee\'s jurisdiction, so all they can do is send someone to go and question the Skyrend family for clarification on the matter," Dimitri paused as he and the Grand Elder blocked another round of attacks from the golem, "However we will be informed the moment the Patriarch leaves closed-door cultivation."

"Good, make sure I am informed the moment we hear any news," The Grand Elder flicked his wrist to summon the most Qi-efficient defense possible to block another round of lightning. This is getting tedious. When will this wretched storm let up? There\'s no way the Skyrend family can orchestrate such an assault without me being able to perceive them. This situation is strange... too strange.

Dante\'s doubts about this being an attack from the Skyrends did echo in the back of his mind, but an ascension seemed far too unfeasible. His gaze pierced the ashen clouds overhead, and he noted that the end of the day was drawing near. Without the defensive array, he estimated he could keep up this defense alongside the other Elders for a few more hours.

I wonder what happened to that girl with the white mask? I haven\'t seen her since earlier when the golem first started attacking.

"Everyone tighten your defenses. I need to search for something." The Grand Elder said, and after hearing a round of conformation, he closed his eyes and spread out his spiritual sight. The storm suppressed his senses significantly and made everything hazy.

However, even with dulled senses, there was no way he would miss that Slymere was... empty. No matter where he looked, other than a few dead bodies that littered the burning streets, all of the mortals were missing.

What in the nine realms is going on? First, a strange attack by an unknown blonde girl and a golem, and now an entire city of people has gone missing right under my nose?

He hadn\'t particularly cared for the fate of the mortals and had been far more concerned about defending his residence and family, so he hadn\'t bothered checking on them until now. Even if they all died, he wouldn\'t care.

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But a hundred thousand people vanishing into thin air? Mortals couldn\'t relocate like that on their own. Cultivators helped them, but who and how? The Grand Elder felt a once-in-a-lifetime headache manifest from this mess. None of it made any sense. Mortals were replaceable livestock; they bred like rabbits to the point where most got left behind every beast tide cycle, so what could possibly cause cultivators to waste their Qi on relocating them?

A thousand theories born from his immense life experience and countless battles and schemes rushed through his mind, but he came up empty. None of the points connected as if they were all a series of coincidences but, at the same time, so interwoven that it was a scheme only a master manipulator with an intellect and level of control far beyond his own could accomplish.

The lightning storm from an unknown source, the girl and the lightning golem appearing out of nowhere, spirit stones going missing so the defensive array could only be inefficiently powered by the Elders, and now every mortal of his city had vanished without a trace.

I can\'t even guess my opponent\'s next move when I don\'t know what game we are playing.

"Found something, Grand Elder?"

He opened his eyes and turned to look at one of his cousins, Elder Feng, hovering beside him.

"The mortals, they are missing." The Grand Elder said simply, "Gone without a trace. All hundred thousand of them."

"What? How?" Elder Feng asked while stroking his black stubble and glancing at the burning city sprawled out into the valley far below.

"I have no idea," The Grand Elder admitted, "Though I suspect it has something to do with the masked girl who went missing right after the golem started its assault on our residence."

"Do you want me to go and find the girl?" Elder Feng suggested, and it was, in truth, a good idea. The defense of the residence was covered so long as he remained behind. His focus has been entirely on the golem, and he had deemed his Elders too weak to defeat it without risk of death, but hunting down that girl who vanished would be a safer task, considering his Elders could escape with Void Step if they found themselves outmatched.

The Grand Elder nodded to the man standing on a floating sword beside him, "If you would be so kind, Elder Feng" His words died in his throat, and both of their heads snapped to the east alongside the other Elders. It would appear they had all sensed the same thing.

A wave of spatial Qi from the east surged under the city streets and condensed to tear a monumental rift in space behind the white wood golem.

"Such a display of power," The Grand Elder muttered in awe as he tried to look past the blindingly bright golem to see what lay on the other side. However, all he could see through the unstable portal was a dark sky, a wall of mist, and the back of that blonde girl.

That damned girl glanced back over her shoulder, and although he couldn\'t see her expression through the mask, he knew it was one of mockery and scorn. The girl had played him from the start. Everything was somehow linked to her.

Elder Feng raised his hand and launched a volley of void lances at the forming portal, but flashes of lightning lashed out from the golem and blocked his attack. Frustrated, Elder Feng went to move forward, but the Grand Elder quickly stopped him. "Fall back."

"Why?" Elder Feng snapped back, "She is right therewe can\'t let them escape after what they have done here."

"You fool, don\'t get distracted by what doesn\'t matter. Your rage is what that bitch wants." The Grand Elder gestured to the golem, who had both hands raised. The crackling aura of lightning surrounding the golem, which had prevented any direct assault, was being drawn in and focused toward its arms.

"It will unleash everything it has in a final attack to cover its escape. Defeating the golem or catching the golem is inconsequential compared to protecting the arrays."

The Grand Elder rushed over to position himself directly between the golem and the residence, and Elder Feng followed close behind with a look of deep concern. The Grand Elder spread his arms and drew deep from his Star Core to spawn a hundred bubbles of void.

No idea how, but whoever is behind all this knows my weakness; someone from the family must have leaked it.

His eyes flickered between the Elders floating beside him, but then he remembered his brotherthe one that had gone to Darklight City and supposedly ascended. He was the only one missing that had insider information about the family\'s weaknesses.

Bastard, it must have been him. Even Dante mentioned he had appeared and caused the whole issue at the alchemy tournament.

"Everyone prepare to defend!" He shouted while putting those thoughts of betrayal to the back of his mind. The Elders, who knew how grave the situation had become, followed without refute. Months worth of Qi was expended to create a practical wall of void.

As the Grand Elder watched the golem step back through the portal, the darn thing grinned at him as the world went white. A spectacular display of lightning, resembling a colossal, shimmering wall, streaked across the smoke-laden sky.

Then, as quickly as the assault beganit was gone. Consumed by the void and with it, the giant portal snapped closedthe golem and girl were also gone. Despite the antagonist\'s departure, silence did not grace the land as the storm overhead continued to rage on, and without the golem concentrating the heaven\'s wrath to fuel its attacks, the lightning strikes once again bombarded the aflame city and mountain.

So they weren\'t the ones maintaining the storm? At least with them gone, I can begin an internal investigation and maybe connect more dots.

"Elders, keep up the defense of the residence," The Grand Elder said as he tilted his sword and whooshed through the smoke-filled air back to the palace of black stone. "Nobody leaves until I have completed my investigation regarding the missing spirit stones and leaking of insider information. If I hear that any of you went elsewhere, I will assume you have betrayed the Voidmind family."

***

Ashlock closed the portal the moment Zeus made his way back to Red Vine Peak. The plan had certainly gone less than ideal, but considering nobody died, and he completed his objective, he could hardly call it a failure either.

"Well, he looked rather angry," Stella laughed as she removed her mask and ran her hands through her hair to extract some of the ash. "Is Diana around? I need her to help wash out this filth."

"She left with Willow this morning to kill some monsters in the eastern forest," Ashlock said while yawning. His acts of heroism had exhausted him, and he wanted nothing more than to sleep under the nine moons, "They should be back before the opening of the Mystic Realm in two days."

"Ugh, guess I\'ll do it the old-fashioned way with a cold river," Stella clicked her fingers as a portal to the cavern below appeared. "See you tomorrow, Tree. Have a good sleep. Oh, and don\'t come looking for me; I will be practicing alchemy. So... bye!"

And with that, she was gone.

"That\'s weird. Why did Stella seem in such a hurry? And can\'t she just burn the ash away with her soul flames?" Ashlock pondered but then realized the reason.

She was avoiding addressing the elephant in the room... or town square, to be exact. There were thousands of mortals rescued from Slymere awaiting direction.

Ashlock sighed as he looked at the cloudless, darkening sky. He had a headache from micromanaging the escape of thousands of people, so the last thing he wanted to do right now was deal with it anymore. "Eh, I am sure the Redclaw Grand Elder has it under control." Ashlock made the decision that he would deal with this tomorrow and promptly fell into a deep and well-deserved slumber.