Prime Originator

The team looked at Leon with different kinds of gazes. There were doubts, concerns, hostile and even apathetic gazes. He gazes a sideward glance at Nina, who directed the hostile gaze at him.

It appeared that she had developed a favorable impression of the team leader and didn't take kindly to his accusation. Leon was trying to save their lives, but he seems to be the villain in their eyes.

In spite of their various gazes and pressure, Leon remained unperturbed and steady like a mountain. "First, let's clear up the area a bit." He said in a placid tone.

"What do you mean-?"

8th step flames gathered towards his fingers in a concentrated manner. The team members were surprised by his small reveal of strength. "What are you doing, Leo? Are you going to attack us!?"

The team took defensive stances. "We just asking what your reason for accusing the leader was."

They misunderstood his intentions, but it did not matter. He snapped his fingers and the flames billowed out in all directions like air rushing out of a popped balloon.

His flames had like a mind of its own and blew past them without harming anyone. The mist within a 30-yard radius of them had been swept away and they vision became crystal clear. A few ghouls in the area were caught and burnt to a crisp. Apart from Elias, the rest was shaken by his strength, while the mist slowly began to fill the empty area shortly after.

"You're at the 8th step!"

Leon ignored the comment with a calm expression, neither admitting nor denying the claim. He found himself a nice piece of rock to seat himself on, before he proceeding to explain, "We're already at the 1700-yard mark. If you follow the team leader in that direction for another 60 yards, you'll be leaving the safe boundary. I have been counting since we passed the 900-yard marker."

What!

"Impossible! We should still be at the 900-yard region. How can we be at 1700 yards?" Nina quickly denied.

"You couldn't even tell your directions in the mist. How can you be so sure we still are? If you weren't listening, I said I've been counting." Leon was speechless. They had gotten along well at the start, but now, he could only see her as an ignorant lovestruck fool.

"The team leader hasn't been hasn't been fully honest with us all. There are distance markers on the trees, which are important and extremely useful for keep track of our location, but team leader didn't seem to mention this. I wonder why, hmm?"

The team immediately shifted their gaze to the team leader for answers, while Jeremiah directly went up to a nearby tree to check.

"Don't bother looking. I haven't seen anymore distance markers after the 900-yard mark."

Jeremiah did not seem to hear and continued to scan the tree up close. "No, there were markings. It was just erased." Jeremiah spoke rarely, as he rubbed a certain section of the tree that did not seem much different other parts, but upon closer inspection, it had a slightly different shade and texture.

"So, it's true… What's your purpose for doing this, team leader?"

As Garry spoke, all eyes were trained on Elias. The team leader was silent for a brief moment before breaking out into cold laughter.

"I didn't expect someone to have such keen perception to notice such tiny detail. I hadn't anticipated that someone as strong as you would hide your cultivation. Why don't you guess what my goal was?" Elias squinted Leon.

"Since you only targeted us first-timers, you must have been aiming for people with weak minds because people with weak minds are easier for vengeful spirits to invade and become mutate ghouls. So, your true purpose must be to lead us to where the vengeful spirits and have us become mutated ghouls, right?" Leon said with a steady voice. "Besides, I wasn't the only one hiding my cultivation, no?"

"Bravo. Great inference. You are very correct. That was precisely goal." Elias clapped with a cold smile. "Unfortunately, There's no prize."

As he finished his words, his peak 9th step strength was revealed, along with its pressure bearing on the team members.

"P-Peak 9th step Awakener…" Elena exclaimed and felt weak in the knees. Everyone was shocked by the revelation.

"Since everyone has found out, I will give you all two choices. Enter the deep forest or die."

Once the words were spoken, everyone began to despair. Both choices were undesirable. One was death, and the other wasn't much different to death. However, they had to pick one of the two. To them, 9th step Awakeners were the strongest under the Transcendent Realm and held absolute reign over their life and death.

"I-I don't want to enter the deep forest! Please spare me, I will do anything you want!" Nina crawled over to Elias and clung to his attire pleadingly.

Nina's beauty wasn't on the same level as Aria and Rachel, but it was enough for her to be called pretty by most. If someone like her offered to sell her body, many men would be tempted.

However, Elias glanced down at her pleading self and remained unmoved. "Since you aren't willing to enter the deep forest, you can go die." His hand reached for her head and grabbed it.

Leon's expression turned serious and reacted immediately as he sensed something. His needles were shot at lightning speed, forcibly interrupted Elias from killing Nina to dodge the needles.

The stone cracked under Leon's powerful stomp as he lunges straight at Elias. "You are a demonic cultivator!"

Surprised by Leon's speed, Elias tossed Nina straight at Leon to stop his charge, while retreating backwards. "Demonic cultivator? The fuck is that?"

"Nooo~! Save me~! I'm going to die!" Nina screamed in horror. She flew with great force. If Leon evade her, she would smash headfirst into the rock behind him. Even if it doesn't kill her, it would be great enough to severely injure her into a vegetative state.

Leon caught her with the [Flowing Stream Technique], spinning three revolutions to cancel out the momentum before tossing her safely to the side. She landed on her rear with a thump. "Ouch!"

That is not how men are supposed to treat women! Nina was grieved briefly, before being relieve for still being alive.

"All of you should run away. Blackwillow Town is back in that direction!" Leon pointed. "You can take this with you as well." He retrieved his needle along with Elias's bag with metal manipulation, before tossing the bag to Elena.

Surprised, Elena caught the bag with contained all the spoils of their hunt. "What about you?"

"I will be fine."

"Okay."

The team began to flee without any disagreement. A 9th step Awakener was far beyond what they can handle with their capabilities. They wouldn't be able to help even if they stayed and would only be a burden instead.

Elias did not try to stop them from fleeing with his bag. He didn't really care for that bit of money. His eyes were focused solely on Leon with a heavy expression. "Metal manipulation… you are from the Crawford royal family!"

"You're not wrong, but since you know blood manipulation, you should also know metal manipulation isn't something absolutely unique to the Crawford royal family but based on aptitude." Leon's expression was noticeably colder.

After finding out the other party was a blood-user, it made perfect sense, why they other party want to turn people into mutated ghouls. They were rearing mutated ghouls for their own blood cultivation!

The others hadn't fled very far. They were startled by Elias's claim and Leon's admittance. They glanced back with complicated expressions filled with hesitation.

A royal member! The prince! They were all citizens of the Crawford Kingdom. Would they be charged for abandoning his highness after learning his identity? "Go!" Leon's roar swept away their hesitation as they gritted their teeth with determination and fled.

The two traded blows immediately after the others were gone. Elias was very careful and only attacked Leon probingly from a distance.

Elias was wary of Leon's explosive speed. It was too strange when he can only sense 7th step power from the other person. Was the person still hiding his strength?

"The Crawford royalties aren't as ignorant as I thought. Since you know about blood manipulation, you should also know about our great Bloodfiend Sect." Elias said as he blocked a few needles with a [Blood Wall].

The [Blood Wall] was constructed from his own blood and could become hard as iron under his manipulation. After successfully blocking the needles, the blood forming the [Blood Wall] collapsed and merged into his steel sword, becoming a big Bloodsword.

'Bloodfiend Sect? There was a whole sect of these blood-users? It seems they had to push forward some projects, once he returns to the Capital.' Leon inwardly frowned, but his surface expression remained calm like still water. "That's right. I wonder if you are alone here?"

Leon continued his cycle of firing and retrieving his needles. Leon continued to exert the strength of an 8th step Awakener, while Elias deflected his needles with his Bloodsword.

Hearing Leon's careful questioning, Elias regained some confidence. "That's right! But since you are going to die anyway. It won't hurt to let you know that my sect members have already spread throughout the Crawford Kingdom."

He began to attack more aggressively, forcing Leon into close combat. Leon looked at him like he was looking at a fool. Getting information from this person was as easy as taking candy from a child. There was no effort at all!

"I see. Then you can go die!" Leon said coldly. The black spear materialized in his hand and made a horizontal sweep with the force of a 1-Star Awakener under his threefold strength.

"What!"

Eliass's eyes almost popped out of his sockets as he blocked the blow with his Bloodsword. He felt like he was hit by a truck as the tremendous force sent him smashing into a tree. His organs churned, but did not suffer too much damage. Blood-users had strong body and vitality.

"Dammit! You tricked me! You are a 1-Star Awakener!" Elias began to turn tail and run. A 1-Star Awakener was out of his league.

"Die!" Leon tossed his black spear with great strength. Elias, who had his back to Leon, was unable to dodge such a fast spear. It teared through his heart, making his face pale at once.

Leon knew destroying his heart wasn't enough to kill him. He quickly caught up and retrieve his spear for another shot, but for the head.

"Arghhh! You've forced me to used this!" Elias cried in pain, before roaring, "Blood Explosion!"

His body exploded into haze of bloodmist and forced Leon to retreat and erect a fire wall to shield himself. He began suspicious when no force hit his fire wall.

Looking at the blood-littered ground, Leon frowned in thought.

"Did he just self-destruct? Or…?"