Death... and me

Roan did say that they would stay there for at least a year. But just to make sure, he decided that they shouldn't leave for another six months. Just as a reminder, the twins had already saved a huge amount of time by taking a ride with Trika and Filauria. Even after cultivating for a year and a half, they were far ahead of the schedule they predicted.

Well, that was considering they wouldn't take any teleport formations. If the teleport formations were available from the start, they could have reached this place much earlier. It's just that it would have cost them quite a few Divine Stones.

Rean, Roan, and Kentucky then stepped out of the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm after they thought they had cultivated long enough. Back when the twins received the Rank Three Divine Stones as payment, Sister Orb predicted the time necessary for them to breakthrough through each stage. Of course, that would only be the case if the twins, Kentucky, and Celis were all focused on cultivating.

She said that it would take six months for them to reach the Middle Stage, another nine months to reach the Late Stage, and one more year to reach the Peak Stage. With that being said, the result was pretty obvious. The twins had reached the Late Stage of the Saint Realm while Kentucky and Celis reached the Late Stage Seven level. They broke through together, as always.

"Out! I'm finally out! Hahaha!" Kentucky couldn't help but stretch his body with glee as he felt he was finally free. "One year and a half of cultivation, cultivation, cultivation! Fuck that! I'm not cultivating again anytime soon!"

Roan glanced at the idiot bird, saying, "Stop complaining. Thanks to that, we broke through two entire stages and a little more. Now, let's leave this place as soon as possible. I don't think there's anyone looking for us at this point. However, I would rather not risk being caught in this place, even though we've already changed our appearances."

Rean and Roan definitely wouldn't use the same appearance as they showed to Trika and Filauria. Now that their cultivation had advanced two stages, it would be even more impossible to relate them to the twins who disappeared eighteen months ago.

Rean agreed with Roan, saying, "Roan's right. The next city should be the one called Cantio, more or less 500 kilometers from here." He and Roan then jumped on Kentucky's back after that. "Let's go, Kentucky."

Kentucky was more than happy to comply. "Anything is better than cultivating. Hahaha!" He quickly spread his wings, and with a powerful flap, he took to the skies.

Kentucky obviously became faster thanks to his advancement in cultivation, so it took less than thirty minutes to cover the distance to Cantio City...or so it was supposed to be. When they had arrived where Cantio City was, there wasn't a city to be found. Well, to be more precise, there was a city...in the past.

From what they could see, the entire city had been razed to the ground! Rean's group could see many cultivators walking around the rubble, trying to find something useful. However, compared to the hundreds of millions of people that the city had before, those cultivators were nothing.

"Kentucky, head down," Roan said.

Kentucky immediately dove into the destroyed city before landing on a patch with quite a few cultivators around. Roan then came down from Kentucky and began to analyze the rubble. There were obviously many bones everywhere. It was proof that everyone who once lived here was now dead. "It hasn't been long since the city was destroyed."

Rean agreed with Roan, saying with a serious expression, "Indeed. It's been a year or two, at most." Rean could tell that by simply analyzing the mortal remnants in the place. Soon after, Rean walked away until he got close to one of the cultivators exploring the city. Naturally, the guy had his guard up as this place wasn't under any kind of rules or laws anymore.

Rean just smiled at the man, though. "Hello, friend. My brother and I are travelers who have just arrived in this place. Do you know what happened here? It doesn't seem it has been long since this city turned out like this."

The guy was surprised to hear that question, asking in response, "You really don't know? Where have you been living? Under a rock?"

Rean nodded, replying without any change in expression, "Believe it or not, we were very close to that statement."

The guy narrowed his eyes after hearing that but decided to explain anyway. "Well, it's not like this is a secret. Anyone here would be able to tell you that. Cantio City wasn't the only one to turn out like this. Another eleven cities in the surroundings got wiped out. Not only them, though. Any possible kind of settlement was destroyed, and everyone inside was killed. All the cultivators who were in the vicinity of the twelve destroyed cities were also killed. For an entire year, not a single soul dared to step into this place. It was only six months ago that people realized that it was safe to step in once again."

Rean obviously thought it to be too much of a coincidence. He and Roan had entered the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm around the time the cities were destroyed, after all. 'They couldn't be that crazy, could they?'

Rean then asked the guy, "Such a massacre happened? Why? Who did that?"

The guy shook his head, replying, "That's the thing. No one knows. No, to be more specific, no one dares to look into the information. For your own good, you should not ask who did it either, lest you might find yourself buried somewhere very soon."

Rean looked at Roan, asking him, 'Do you think it was the Croste Clan?'

Roan nodded, thinking that it could only be them. 'It does match the timing, doesn't it?'

Rean agreed with him. 'Indeed. Then again, would they really wipe out so many cities, especially considering we're close to the center of the continent, just to make sure we're dead? That doesn't seem possible.'

Roan shook his head, giving Rean a piece of his mind as he told him, 'You're still thinking on a planetary scale. For a single country in the Realm of Gods, a few billion people mean almost nothing, even for the country itself. They couldn't find us, but they knew our cultivation. They believed we definitely couldn't have traveled much far, not that we had the Divine Stones to use teleport formations. For them, destroying these cities and other settlements, where we were most likely hiding inside, was probably their safest bet.'

Rean's expression went dark after that. 'They are sick!'