"No movement on the border?" Yao Ai asked.

She was sitting on her throne, overseeing the arena fights below as usual. Standing behind her throne was a tall and lean man. His skin was as pale as a corpse. His face looked as if it were just skin over a skeleton.

This skeletal man answered, "No movement, Your Lordship. There has not been an assault since the Cryanid’s retreat one year ago. There are occasional sightings of small groups of Cryanids that wander out of the misty border, but they don’t pose a threat."

"Hm... Perhaps that slayer Amon did achieve a miracle," Yao Ai muttered. "You can learn a thing or two from him, Diu Cay."

Diu Cay’s face turned a bit unpleasant from the remark. Yao Ai, however, didn’t see it since he was standing behind her throne.

Diu Cay quickly controlled his emotions. "Forgive me, Your Lordship, but didn’t you plan to get rid of him once our Flesh Alterers successfully clone his genetic marking? From what I heard, it has been completed."

"It has. However, he had proven himself too useful by resolving the Cryanids’ issue. That’s why I continue to monitor the situation at the border. If it turns out to be false, I will hunt him down and take his ring as I originally planned. Never mind that, I can take his ring any time. I will do it once he is done helping me defeat Hai Di and Lang Man."

"You truly think he is capable of that?"

"I didn’t think he could truly pull off my demand on the Cryanid plague. Yet, he did, didn’t he? We will see if he is truly as capable as he claimed himself to be. If he is not, well, then we will do what we originally planned. Speaking of which, you will not be accompanying me to the next Lords’ meeting. I will bring him instead."

"Your Lordship, do you think that is wise? Each lord has always brought only one companion to Lord Mo Wang’s Castle, and everyone always brings their strongest follower. If you bring someone as weak as Amon, the other lords may use this chance to do something to Your Lordship."

"Hah! I want to see them try!"

Diu Cay sighed. He should have expected Yao Ai’s response. Though she had the lowest cultivation level among the domain lords, her haughtiness was not less.

"I will be ready with our force at the edge of Lord Mo Wang’s territory. Please send me a message in case of emergency, I will rush over with haste."

"I don’t think that is necessary, but you do what you have to do. Speaking of which, do you know where Amon is right now?"

"I have sent people to search for his whereabouts, but no trace of him so far. He is very good at hiding his tracks."

"I agree. The people I tasked to tail him after my last chat with him also lost him after tailing him for three weeks."

"All I got are the rare reports when he requested aid from our faction, but he was gone again when I sent people there. He never stayed in one place."

"I have myself to blame for giving him this freedom. Well, never mind. I’m sure he will turn up when it’s time for the Lord’s meeting. I can see him harboring a huge ambition. No way he will miss this opportunity. He practically begged me for a chance to prove his worth and to be involved in taking down the other domain lords."

"Such audacity. Aren’t Your Lordship worried that such an ambitious man will eventually mean you harm?"

"Oh, I don’t doubt it. Men such as him will never be satisfied until they sit at the top. Even so, I have dealt with many men such as him. He will end up the same as the others, a mere stepping stone for my path to total domination of this realm."

"When the time comes, I am eager to be Your Lordship’s blade in carving him into a suitable stone."

Yao Ai chuckled at Diu Cay’s remark. "Enough about him. If you have no more important news, then you are dismissed."

"There is one more matter, although I don’t know if it is worth bringing up."

"You have mentioned it, so spit it out."

"There have been reports of ley nodes under our control that run dry."

"What’s so strange about it? Ley nodes form and disappear all the time. Ley nodes are interactions between the convergence of the ley lines and the natural elements. Ley lines are permanent, but the flow of the natural elements isn’t. If the elemental flow changes, then the ley node will slowly dissolve."

"That’s true. The problem is that there have been four ley nodes that dissolve within this one year, and all of them are ley nodes that contain the darkness elements."

Yao Ai turned to Diu Cay. If the reports were true, then this matter was highly unusual. The dissolution of a ley node took a long period. It’s not something that would happen within a year. There would be a report of a ley node that began deteriorating many years before it actually ran dry. It was even more unlikely for multiple ley nodes of the same elements to dissolve simultaneously.

"You suspect foul play?" Yao Ai asked.

"We can’t rule that out," Diu Cay answered. "Ley nodes aren’t any better for cultivation than a place where normal convergence of ley lines occurs, but the elemental advantage of a ley node is an excellent source of tool-making materials. Talismans or weapons produced using the energy of a ley node will outclass the other normally produced tools. This is probably another domain’s covert operation against ours."

"But why only the ones with the darkness elements?"

Diu Cay went silent. He had no hypothesis for the question.

"Tell our people to increase the security on the other ley nodes," Yao Ai ordered. "All of them, not only the ones with the darkness elements. Whoever is responsible may alter their targets to nodes of a different element when they notice us increasing our defense. We can’t get tricked by them."

"Your Lordship is wise. I will relay your instructions," Diu Cay replied.

---------------

The perpetrator responsible for the dissolving of the darkness-element ley nodes was, of course, Amon. Thanks to his status as Yao Ai’s special agent, he could acquire the information on known ley node sites. He took out the guards, had Lin Li disguised as one of them, then sneaked in and absorbed the energy from the ley node.

With his Infernal Divine Absorbing Art and Law of Darkness, his cultivation level increased at a rapid pace. Of course, the normal ley node couldn’t be compared with the anomaly that had created the ancient battleground. The darkness elements contained within the gateway were so vast that it required Amon eight years to drain. As for the normal ley node, it took Amon only one week on average.

During the week when Amon was absorbing the ley node, some faction members sometimes visited to draw the elemental energy. Lin Li would warn Amon, and he would stop his cultivation and hide. Sometimes, the members would ask Lin Li why there was only one guard. She fed them lies that the other guard was not feeling well or was taking a break.

If the faction members showed suspicion of her lies, she used her new ability, mesmerizing voice. She gained this ability after evolving. She now had a ninth tail. Her ninth tail, however, was much shorter than her other tails, much like when her eighth tail appeared. It would take time and a regular consumption of the Primordial Blue Lotus’ nectar before this ninth tail fully grew.

Her mesmerizing voice allowed her to enthrall those who heard it. She could put them to sleep, soothe them, or suggest that they take a certain action. This ability mostly only worked on those with weak minds or low cultivation. Thankfully, most faction members tasked to collect the ley node’s energy were such people.

After more than a year targeting ley nodes, the Mercy Faction finally took notice of Amon’s deed. The faction members guarding the next ley node he targeted had tripled. Not only that, but these guards were also rotated on a daily basis. Before, the guards were a permanent post. Unless they were fired or requested a transfer, they remained the same.

"They don’t look too strong. Let’s kill them," Lin Li said. She and Amon were watching the guards from a hiding spot far away. Aside from having a ninth tail, her normal disguise had also changed. She now appeared as a fully adult woman with a sensual body.

"No," Amon said. "They have increased the security. I bet they have also prepared a way to call reinforcements. If I don’t have enough time to absorb the ley node, there is no point in breaking in."

"So, what should we do?"

"We look for a new harvesting field."

"New harvesting field?" Lin Li didn’t understand Amon’s words.

"The information I have gathered not only tells me the location of ley nodes in this domain, but it also provides intel on suspected ley node locations in the other two domains."

"We are leaving the Mercy Domain?"

"For now," Amon answered. "There are also many things I need to check in the other domains. The data crystal Yao Ai gave me provides much intel, but it is always better to validate it myself. Let’s go. We will return when it is time for the domain lord’s meeting."