A Demon's Journey

While Aria, Luna, and the other new recruits were settling in, Azaroth activated the array prohibiting them from contacting anybody via the Voice Transmission Array Stone.

If the other sects caught wind of what Azaroth was doing, they would definitely send their scouts to gauge the situation.

Azaroth had his own methods for dealing with them, but he figured why bother when he could just avoid it?

Around this time, the Dragon Tiger Palace appeared in Veninza City, blocking all routes to neighboring cities.

This was only natural. The Dragon Tiger Palace must have realized that an entire group of 100 warriors had vanished from their Palace.

This was Ralph's group that had grabbed a lot of attention within the Dragon Tiger Palace. It had reached the point that an elder was threatening Ralph to get the secret behind his group's success.

And just a few days later, Ralph and his entire group had vanished from the venue. Initially, the higher-ups of the Dragon Tiger Palace believed that Ralph had led his group on another hunt.

It was quite common for Ralph to suddenly organize a hunt with the close members of his group. So, they didn't realize the truth until a few days later.

Various groups in Dragon Tiger Palace had been tasked to find Ralph. These guys first blocked all exits of Veninza City while the other groups split up and decided to search the nearby cities for any trace of Ralph and his groups.

The higher-ups had ordered these groups to find Ralph's group and bring them back. However, several of these groups resented Ralph and his group quite a bit.

They promised the higher-ups that they would bring Ralph back at all costs. However, they privately had a deal to kill Ralph and all members of his group as soon as they were found.

These groups were intimidated by the rise of Ralph's group. They had seen how quickly the members of Ralph's group were getting stronger. Within the last three months, each one had ascended by a rank.

Moreover, their sumptuous rewards after completing those seemingly impossible missions just further increased the disparity between them.

Their groups were better than Ralph's group only in terms of a stable foundation. The group leaders possessed a lot of connections and created obstacles for Ralph and his groups all the time.

However, this could never stop Ralph. After all, Ralph had Azaroth as his background who had given him complete consent to do whatever he wanted.

Ralph used all kinds of ideas available in his mind. No matter how self-destructive they seemed, in the end, those ideas worked, and the strength of his group rose collectively.

Ralph and his group were staying near the Origin Sect Branch.

While these groups were checking up Veninza City, one of them decided to check Origin Sect Branch here as well.

Normally, the Dragon Tiger Palace had to inform the Origin Sect about this kind of check-in advance.

However, since the Dragon Tiger Palace had ordered their warriors to find Ralph, these groups were operating independently.

The Dragon Tiger Palace had issued no such notice or informed the Origin Sect about this.

Moreover, the warriors of the Dragon Tiger Palace were accustomed to bullying the disciples of the Origin Sect Branch.

Patrick was the leader of the Origin Sect Branch earlier, and he was merely a 4 Star Warrior. The warriors of the Dragon Tiger Palace were at his level or stronger. They threatened him via their strength or their association's name, which was enough to scare Patrick.

Patrick knew that the Origin Sect didn't value him at all. To appease the Dragon Tiger Palace, they might even sacrifice him. Thus, he had endured everything these warriors did and would never complain to the main branch.

As a result, the warriors of the Dragon Tiger Palace invaded the area of the Origin Sect Branch with confident expressions on their faces.

They naturally had no idea that even though Patrick was still the official leader of this Origin Sect Branch, the true leadership had passed to Azaroth.

As these warriors walked towards the Origin Sect Branch, a few warriors noticed an arrow coming from afar.

The arrow landed near the feet of the leader of a group who led his warriors into the Origin Sect Branch.

A scowl appeared on that man's face as he saw that arrow landing near his feet. He yelled with all his might, "What is this meaning behind this?!"

"Why have you entered this territory without any advance notice?" Azaroth's voice resounded in the area.

The group's leader sneered in response as he spoke, "Since when do we need to give advance notice to enter this area. We left you alone for a few months, and you now appear to be bold enough to demand an explanation from me?!"

"…Back away before we take further action," Azaroth once again spoke.

"Hehehe…Do you dare to strike us? I doubt it. You should know that the Dragon Tiger Palace will demolish this sect branch if you take any action against us!" He spoke with a confident tone.

If it was Patrick from a couple of months before, he would have been scared by those words.

But unfortunately for this man, he was talking to Azaroth.

"Fire!" Azaroth shouted the command.

At the next second, nearly 100 arrows were launched in the sky.

The group from the Dragon Tiger Palace was shocked as they saw so many arrows heading their way. They were about to pull their swords when those arrows suddenly stabbed their bodies.

It felt as though the arrows had accelerated suddenly. Laura was the one who accelerated these arrows.

These arrows were created from pure wood. And Laura could manipulate this wood to a certain extent.

Thus, she could slow down or accelerate them whenever she wanted. She had accelerated these arrows so that the opponent couldn't dodge or counter them.

Her 4 Star Ardor had also strengthened those arrows, ensuring that their defenses would be penetrated.

The group's leader was utterly stunned. Two arrows stabbed his body. One stabbed his right arm while the other targeted his left thigh.

All these warriors who had been stabbed by the arrows could be instantly killed by Laura.

Laura could still manipulate and stretch these wooden arrows before killing these warriors' bodies from the inside.

To slay all of these warriors, she would have to spend all of her Ardor. They were a long distance away from her location, and the number of arrows Laura had to stretch was rather large.

However, Azaroth didn't plan to kill them.

His voice soon resounded in the area, "This was a warning. You can return and inform your sect that they can't step into the Origin Sect's Territory without asking for consent first."

"Now, you can choose to remain here. But that choice would lead to you being buried underneath the ground you stand. Or you can return now while I am generous," Azaroth spoke with a neutral tone.

Without any hesitation, the group's leader shouted out, "Retreat! Get the injured warriors to the infirmary!"

He internally swore to make this Origin Sect Branch pay for what they just did.

The Dragon Tiger Palace was soon informed of the entire event. Needless to say, just like their warriors, the higher-ups were also used to suppressing the Origin Sect Branch.

Moreover, these warriors had returned and informed the higher-ups that they had entered the Origin Sect Branch's territory to find Ralph and his group, but the Origin Sect Branch suddenly attacked them. The injuries on their bodies counted as proof of that.

~~

A/N: I hope you all like this chapter. Vote for the novel if you do.