28 Shadow Sec (1/2)

One month passed, and the village at the bottom of the mountain rapidly developed. With Emily's efforts, the village walls were expanded and reinforced. Hundreds of merchants from all around had been alerted to the changes and moved to quickly gain benefits. The little village was reaching the golden time of production.

At that moment, Emily was sitting in meditation in one of the mansion rooms, in front of her were scattered papers with various symbols on it. Standing by the side with more papers was a burly man wearing black attire with a longsword on his back.

On one of the papers was a depiction of a young man in black robes with eyes as dark as night. He gripped a bamboo umbrella with a pink hue on the base.

His expression was cold and heartless as if all life in his eyes was insignificant. The princess' eyes flashed open from meditating cueing the man in black to speak.

”On Gulan's territory was a ritual, one that offered the whole village to a demon. The demon caused mayhem and later Ji Shu found the ritual grounds. Retrieving the gourd that Gulan was entrusted with.” He said as he put down a report in front of her. This was a report that was filed after Ye Yuyan entered the capital.

The goal of giving Gulan the gourd was originally used to lure out Illathar and convince him to show the way to the inheritance grounds.

There they would seal Illathar and extract his secrets slowly and open up the realm. This was the task that Han Yi was entrusted to by his father and the one he had drastically failed.

”After that, he went to the order meeting Cui Lu. Gaining access to two codes, both of which were fragmented 1 essence codes.” He put down another paper, this was another report filed by Feng Shu the Arbitrator of the order.

”He then met Han Yi joining their group and becoming their guide. Eventually guiding them back to the ritual grounds.” The man in black continued as he put down the final report which was filed by Knighted Vermillion.

”The biggest conflict through in the reports lies at the ritual ground.” The man in black said certainly piquing the princess' interest.

Noticing her interest he started to depict on what he had seen when he scouted the area: ”There are frost claws all over consistent with Illathar, and Han Yi's lightning is scattered about. Some big battle happened, yet they came here right after and drank as friends.”

”Something happened at the ritual ground and after that, the trail goes cold.” The man in black said finally completing his story.

”Thank you, Thomas. That will be all, go back to preparing the city.” Thomas saluted the princess before leaving the room.

Emily sat in the near darkness contemplating as she looked over a few the reports. Her eyes went cold as she scanned over them.

'Something caused a big deviation in Han Yi's plans. Ji Shu set it off, but there are other things hidden in the background.' Reading through the report she constantly saw inconsistencies in the narrative.

'Han Yi cooperated with Gulan's Li Clan, per father's request. But someone or something killed him and it can't have been Illathar!' Her eyes flashed with deeper enlightenment as she remembered the recovered corpse and sword scar on the mountain.

”Someone killed him! Someone killed the frost demon and Ji Shu knows who did it!” She said with a knowing smile as calculations passed through her mind in an instant.

'The last clue is that battlefield at the top of a mountain. There are traces of demon sealing magic...' The final report was from Cardinal Black, he noticed the strong aura of a demon sealing ritual. The arcane focus had disappeared with only traces left behind.

'Regardless I'll soon be upon the entrance to the realm. As long as I'm first I'll gain the most benefits!' She thought as a grin spread across her face.

*********************

Near the precipice of a verdant mountain, a group of cloaked figures was gathering together. Every one of them wore black cloaks with an insignia on the back, it was a black turtle with a serpent coiled on the shell.

At the front of the group were two people, the first was a young woman in heavy armor. She had blue eyes that glistened like the moon and blonde hair that flowed down her back.