Chapter 984 Ruthless Intrusion
Somewhere in the Valaran Territory, not far from the Geyser Kingdom's border wall, a large group of Transcendents traveled together after crossing the border.
The group belonged to none other than Duke Flugerd and his people from the supremacist faction.
Their original goal was to head straight for one of the designated cities near the heart of the empire, which they had marked as strategic cities.
However, Duke Flugerd came to a sudden stop as they were passing through the first city of the Valaran Territory.
"Why did we stop, Lord Flugerd?" Marquis Raygor inquired.
"You don't sense it, Lord Raygor?" Duke Flugerd replied while casting a short and casual glance at Marquis Raygor.
"Spirit energy from the World Tree hasn't covered this region, but the air quality around this city is much better than any parts we can find back in the kingdom. Don't you think there's something special about this city?"
"Something special about this city…?" Marquis Raygor muttered with furrowed brows.
Marquis Raygor and the other nobles and Transcendents quickly focused on the city ahead of them after hearing from Duke Flugerd.
However, they didn't notice anything special about the city in and of itself.
The city was not very populated.
Furthermore, the buildings lacked just about everything, whether it was art, design, maintenance, or even quality materials used in their construction.
Marquis Raygor and the three other earls could see that it was a poor city and frowned when they failed to see what made it special.
After studying the poor city in-depth, looking past just its appearance, they started to see the peculiarities.
Just as Duke Flugerd mentioned, the air quality was much better despite the absence of spirit energy.
"The foul energy in this city is very faint. But this could also be due to the World Tree's spirit energy pushing all the foul energy away from the region," Earl Blavier speculated.
"Oh?" Earl Bendro narrowed his eyes with a sharp look and thought, "If that's the case, wouldn't that mean the World Tree is at fault for the high concentration of foul energy in our kingdom?"
"Isn't that another reason for us to demand sky-high compensation from the Crawford Kingdom?"
Earl Almeric rubbed his chin thoughtfully and said, "I reckon they will quickly give in to our additional demands if we pressure them with a show of force."
"Perhaps. However, I think you all missed the main reason for this city's air quality," Marquis Raygor informed.
"If you look observed more carefully, you'll notice that the foul energy isn't being pushed away. In fact, it can't be pushed away by spirit energy if there's no spirit energy to push it away in this area."
"Oh? Lord Raygor is right. The foul energy is actually… gathering towards the city?" Earl Blavier was surprised upon realization.
"Let us enter the city and figure out the source of this phenomenon," Duke Flugerd calmly stated before adding, "If the underlying cause is due to an artifact or treasure, it will benefit the kingdom greatly once we bring it back."
Although Duke Flugerd seemed calm on the surface, his heart was set ablaze by greed.
If Duke Flugerd could really bring back an artifact or treasure that resolves the problem back in the kingdom, his public image would improve in the eyes of all Transcendents in the kingdom.
"Halt! This area is off-limits!"
A Preliminary Accession-stage Earth Transcendent quickly stepped out and obstructed Duke Flugerd's large group from approaching the Demon Gathering Array as they arrived.
"Step aside, insect. Who are you to block this Duke's path?" Duke Flugerd nonchalantly replied.
In the next instance, Duke Flugerd casually waved his hand, but the Earth Transcendent felt like his inner organs were slammed by a sledgehammer.
All the fluids in the Earth Transcendent's body flowed in reverse, causing his face to pale as his body flew out of Duke Flugerd's path.
The Earth Transcendent coughed up blood and laid weakly on the ground, having suffered multiple tears in his organs and ruptured meridians.
In a single instance, the Earth Transcendent had suffered severe injuries, and death loomed over him.
Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't have been easy for Transcendents to control the elements in another person's body due to the clash of their wills.
Unfortunately, the power difference between the Earth Transcendent and Duke Flugerd was too significant.
"Oh? This is perfect. It's an array. The kingdom will be able to mass-produce this array once we hand it over to the runemasters to study." Duke Flugerd's eyes quickly brightened after a close look at the Demon Gathering Array.
"However, seeing as this array is guarded by a Transcendent, the array clearly has some importance to the Crawford Kingdom. I'm afraid they will take kindly to our actions once they learn what happened here," Marquis Raygor mentioned.
"It doesn't matter. We are just grabbing interests ahead of time," Duke Flugerd calmly stated.
"So what if the Crawford Kingdom doesn't take kindly to our actions? What can they do about it? It seems like they have grown a fair bit to designate a Transcendent all the way out here. However, they are still incomparable to our Geyser Kingdom."
"They have no choice but to give in to our demands. This is what it means to be strong," Duke Flugerd said overbearingly.
"Nevertheless, it will diminish what we can extort from the Crawford Kingdom if they were to learn what happened here. Thus, the best course of action is not to let them know what happened here."
Shortly after saying that, Duke Flugerd shot a cold look at the Earth Transcendent on the ground.
Duke Flugerd clenched his fist mercilessly, causing the severely-injured Earth Transcendent to erupt with countless blood and other fluids shooting out of his body.
The Earth Transcendent did not live past that.
Swoosh!
The other Earth Transcendent, who had been hiding nearby, failed to contain his shock due to his partner's gruesome death and accidentally exposed his location.
As such, the Earth Transcendent immediately chose to flee.
"Kill him," Duke Flugerd issued the cold command.
The Earth Transcendent did not make it far before Marquis Raygor, who acted the quickest, mercilessly hunted the person down.