Chapter 455: New Destination

A man with long white hair looked at Song Xue and Song Wenling. "So..."

"The situation is a bit tricky, Sword Saint."

"Well, I can’t make a move because that will also provoke Joker to make his move. However, what about his ability?"

Song Wenling glanced at his daughter.

Song Xue stepped forward and said, "I’ve accompanied him for the past two days, and I can only say that his abilities are unprecedented, Master. You said to me that I’m guaranteed to become a Rank 7 human in the future, but all I can say is that if he himself doesn’t feel he can reach Rank 7, I don’t believe I have that 100% guarantee."

"That much, huh?" The man before them was none other than one of the seven stars, the Sword Saint.

Despite his youthful appearance, his white hair didn’t come from his element like most people. Instead, it came from his old age. He was already close to a hundred years old, which was why he was quite happy to have Song Xue as his disciple since it meant that there would soon be another Rank 7 born in this country.

Auric’s appearance had changed that narrative, especially with how Song Xue described him.

Song Xue continued, "His senses might be more special than any evolution master I know of. He made it look like restoring the collapsed ruins was possible. He removed all the attacks from a Rank 4 human. I don’t know what I will see in the next five days."

"Hoh?" The Sword Saint smiled. He suddenly glanced at Song Wenling. "So..."

"Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem we can buy him off. I thought when he came with Mathias Relesha, it meant that the Relesha family had gotten a hold on him. After seeing him today, I realize that even Mathias Relesha has a hard time getting him."

"Interesting." The Sword Saint crossed his arms. "So what do you suggest?"

"I suggest that we make an offer first, one that he can’t refuse. Unfortunately, money or power doesn’t seem like something he seeks. After all, there are a few other families such as the Astler family who can get him. Regarding his power, it’s too unique for us to even arrange a teacher for him."

"But he has a teacher, right?"

"Maya Relesha? No. After observing him, it looks like the arrangement with Maya Relesha is temporary. From what I’ve heard, Auric has repaid her by simply clearing her name of the massacre."

"I see. What do you suggest?"

"I’m thinking about using unique experiences to get him. Places or anything that will excite him other than money or strength. I’ll go back and list out things that might entice him."

"All right. Do that." The Sword Saint nodded.

...

The next day.

Song Xue had returned in the car. "Good morning. I hope you’ve got a good rest."

Obviously, Auric had been getting chewed out because of the ruins. Maya didn’t want any more trouble while Katarina had gotten used to it but still reprimanded him. Stella was just enjoying the show since she kept her job simple. Even if Auric made a mistake, she would stop anything that put his life in danger. The rest was up to the others.

Auric sighed. "Yeah. Good morning."

"So where are we going today?" Song Xue asked.

"Going back to the ruins doesn’t seem likely." Auric looked up before taking out his phone and showing a picture. "How about this place?"

Song Xue frowned. "You do know that is a quite dangerous place, not to mention it’s quite far from the city."

"Yes. I want to go to another city tomorrow. Isn’t that what a vacation is all about? Exploring things and just enjoying the scenery?" Auric nodded.

Song Xue fell silent for a moment. Her father had told him that the Song family would help Auric go anywhere he wanted as long as it wasn’t a top secret facility or a forbidden place.

"I understand. We’ll take the car to the first checkpoint, and then we will go on foot. Still, we might have to fight, so have you brought your gear?"

"Of course." Auric nodded. Then again, other than Stella, none of them used a weapon. So they didn’t exactly need any more equipment.

"How about you? That place is quite dangerous. Even though we have a Rank 6 human with us, I still don’t think your pistol will be enough."

"I can get my equipment at the first checkpoint. Please don’t worry about it."

"Very well." Auric smiled. "Let’s go then."

While moving to the first checkpoint, Song Xue explained, "The current destination is the front line, specifically a military base.

"This is the base that handles the expansion of the territory by killing the beasts and retaking our land.

"I’ve just received word from Brigadier General Ling. He has allowed you to go there, but there are three things he wants you to know first.

"First of all, you need to sign a waiver because you don’t want the soldiers to accompany you."

Auric nodded in understanding. "Considering I’m a tourist, it’s only understandable for me to sign a waiver."

"Good. The second thing is that we’re only allowed to go west. The northern part of that land is filled with too many beasts. Provoking them has a very high chance of causing an outbreak, so you can only go west. You’ll still find soldiers here and there, and the beasts are still quite a lot."

"Understood. I’ll be extra careful."

"Last but not least, the moment anything weird happens, we are to follow General Ling’s instructions whether it’s evacuation or resistance."

"That’s all fine by me."

"This is just me, not General Ling, but please don’t go too far. The deeper we go into the beast territory, the fewer allies we can encounter. It also means more beasts will be around, which can surround us easily."

"I know. I’m not someone who likes to play with my own life."

"Thank you." Song Xue was trying to figure out why Auric wanted to visit this place, considering the danger. She couldn’t think of any landmark that would pique his interest.

Since they had to fight, her assumption was that Auric wanted to see her strength. On the first day, Auric challenged her to a duel, but since he had to fight Ming Tian instead, he couldn’t see her power.

It looked like she had to shed a little blood because of what happened in the past two days.

Katarina had been quiet all this time, but she secretly rolled her eyes.

...

The previous night.

"You want what?"

"I want to visit the wilderness, specifically this place." Auric smiled, showing the picture. "It is a famous site where a building remains sturdy in the middle of nowhere, despite the danger from beasts."

Katarina was speechless. "Can I know the reason?"

"It’s just my suspicion, but I think this is another ruin." Auric smiled.

"Another ruin? There’s no record about it, though."

"I’ll explain it to you later. For the time being, I believe that this place is a ruin, but it might not be activated or something might have gone wrong, or maybe I was wrong."

"This..." Katarina scratched the back of her head. Auric actually wanted to put himself in danger just to test his theory.

What Katarina didn’t know was that Auric had been thinking a lot after restoring the temple.

His father wanted him to go to the facility owned by the Kaufa family and the Delimore family to find out where he was supposed to go next. The answer was the Dead Village.

However, he still had a lot of questions in his mind after visiting that place. He wondered if it was actually another clue from his father. Since he had seen a collapsed ruin, he wanted to see the opposite.

If all the ruins originated from a temple, why wouldn’t all the ruins appear at the same time? The answer was simple. There might be some sort of trigger to activate the ruins. That explained how ruins emerged from time to time.

Even his first ruin, the mall, appeared not too long ago. Ellia was fortunate enough to find it first.

He knew that the temple was filled with more energy, and that the core of the ruin was this temple—a building that didn’t collapse because of beasts or elemental turbulence.

In other words, it was safe to assume that a building that was still intact even after fifty years of the apocalypse might be another ruin. But because there was no record of it being a ruin, it might still be inactive.

He wondered if this theory was correct. If it was true, then he might find out something else about this place. He might even be able to activate the ruin.

That was why he wanted to visit this place, but he couldn’t make it obvious.

Katarina pinched the bridge of her nose and stopped thinking. "Since you want to go there, I will help you with everything else. Still, we can’t make it too obvious, so..."

Katarina took another look at the location before saying, "Actually, I think we can camouflage our intentions by going to this place."

"What’s that?"

"A military base. I can set up the route. Still, this is a military base. While it’s not exactly a top-secret facility, its level is still quite high. You can’t hold any grudges anymore if the Song family gets it for you."

"I have no problem with that."

"All right. I will start making the route for this."

...

Katarina just looked at Song Xue, who didn’t know about the true destination, but even Katarina wouldn’t have expected what kind of reaction the world would have to what Auric was about to do there.