Unsealing Emptiness

Except for the people present here, everyone in the Neutral Lands was either hysterically running around to understand more about the situation or already sighing that they would have to move their homes now.

None of them doubted that things weren’t serious because someone weak wouldn’t be able to get their voice to spread all over the continent like that.

In short, people in the Neutral Lands were panicking. After all, no one wanted to move out from the Neutral Lands.

While the people in the Neutral Lands were in an uproar, they still waited for the most prominent factions to do something about it. These ordinary people couldn’t even in their wildest dreams think that the leaders of those prominent factions that they worked under were at moment also fearful of the person who had made the announcement.

. . .

Old Gu landed near Ozul’s seat and looked at him with the same smiling face again.

.....

Ozul stood up and approached him, “What will happen after five years?”

Since people were quiet for the fear of provoking the old man’s anger, his voice spread everywhere, allowing everyone to hear his question.

Most of them wanted to know what the old man would reply while the others were wondering how the leader of the Three-Eyed Strangers could talk with this old man so casually.

The four ancestors in the air also had the same thoughts. They noted it in their mind to ask about him from their descendants later.

For now, everyone focused on the old man, anticipating what he would answer.

“Well, things will change for a selected few. You people would be given a chance to turn your life upside down in exchange for losing everything. Gahaha!” Old Gu laughed after making the statement which gave goosebumps to everyone as they prayed not to be chosen in those selected few.

Even Ozul was confused by what Old Gu meant by getting their lives to turn upside down in exchange for losing everything. Who would want to do that?!

“Hoho~? Everyone is curious, huh? Well, I am getting late, I won’t be explaining things~ There are other people you can learn your situation from~” Old Gu pointed at the four ancestors in the air before he slowly walked away.

People made way for him from where he passed by, while he would only give them an amiable smile and occasionally stopped to scratch one of his legs with the other to ease his itch.

Just like Ozul, the four ancestors also didn’t understand what Old Gu’s words meant, but they did know what would happen after the span of five years.

Ozul didn’t need to worry about not being able to find out whatever was happening because he remembered that Alver had also bowed to that old man with black hair and called him Grandfather Kure.

So this Kure was probably the ancestor of the Ashin family.

‘Is that why Raymond was so confident to start a fight with them despite not having as many Rank-9 allies as the Church before?’ Ozul concluded as he felt the raw power exuded by this old man.

He knew that if this Kure ancestor did explain the situation to Alver and Raymond, then he wouldn’t remain oblivious for long either.

But that aside, it would still be better if Old Gu could give him some hints.

Unfortunately, just when he was about to say something to the old man, he suddenly just faded away in the air!

Not only him, but even the four Rank-10 Mages in the air tried to sense his presence everywhere, but there was not even a trace of him anywhere.

Ozul sighed and was about to return to the Three-Eyed Strangers’ headquarters together with the rest of his people. But he suddenly halted his steps when he heard a voice in his head!

‘He he~ Young Man, although you are also a candidate... Things would be quite different for you. Just focus on getting stronger, will ya?’

He suddenly looked around but noticed how no one else seemed to have heard those words.

‘Did Old Gu just send this message directly in my head?’ Ozul was surprised by it. But he quickly got over it and began to think about what the old man’s words meant.

His sudden pause caused Raven and Blaze to look at him with questioning faces, but before they could say anything, he began to walk ahead.

“To the headquarters. We have a lot to do,” Ozul said before flying straight to the town. The group followed behind him as well.

He was the first to fly away and seeing him leave, the others in the area began to leave one by one as well.

After a few moments, the only ones left there were the four Rank-10 Mages and the four Rank-9 Mages down on the ground. The four of them didn’t know how to start asking the questions.

“Tch! I hate to admit it... but that old bag of bones was right,” the ancestor of the Ashin family, Kure, spoke after clicking his tongue in annoyance when he noticed how his grandson was so fearful of him.

Hearing his words caused a thoughtful expression to appear on their faces.

Hmph!

“So what? It doesn’t matter anyway,” the old woman surrounded by the holy light dismissed his words with irritated expressions.

“You are even more irritable than before, Darcia,” commented the other old man who was called Gladis.

“Do you have any problem with that?” Darcia stared at Gladis with a blank face, threatening him to say another word in her matter.

Meanwhile, the only person who hadn’t spoken all this time was Ciro, the ancestor of the Leonhard Dynasty.

Although the four sounded as if they were old acquaintances, they kept a few meters of distance between them and were vigilant if anyone made a move.

In the end, they were all Rank-10 Mages and not at all friends.

However, it was peculiar to see the staring competition quickly turning between Ciro(From the Leonhard Dynasty), Kure(From the Ashin family), and Darcia(From the Church of Light) instead.

Gladis, the ancestor from the Mercenary Guild only watched them from the sides without taking any part in it.

It continued on for a few minutes before even the four Rank-9 Mages on the ground were starting to sweat because of the anxiety of a battle breaking out between their ancestors.

No one wanted that to happen as of now because they knew that the ancestors were more or less at the same cultivation level and if a battle broke out between all of them, it would continue on for days and maybe even weeks!

And considering their strength, the continent would be half in ruins if that happened!

Fortunately for them, their ancestors slowly began to create more distance between them, and at one point, they just flew off in different directions.

Taking that as their cue, the Rank-9 Mages sighed in relief and followed behind their own ancestor respectively.

. . .

Alver followed behind Kure silently. He didn’t dare to say a word since it had been his first time seeing his grandpa coming out of seclusion after so many decades!

Kure wouldn’t have minded it earlier, but now that he remembered Old Gu telling him how their own descendants were afraid of him, he couldn’t shake off this irritation building up inside of him.

“Say whatever is on your mind!” Kure spoke with a high voice as they both flew towards the Ashin family’s estate.

“N-nothing grandfather...” Alver replied with a stutter. He realized that his grandfather was angry, but not the reason why.

“...”

Sigh.

Kure didn’t say anything for a few minutes before he sighed and realized his mistake.

“I am not angry, Alver. Speak your mind...” Kure was going to apologize, but the words somehow didn’t escape his mouth. After all, he was not only a Rank-10 Mage with a high ego but also someone who had lived for many centuries!

His words caused Alver to almost stop in mid-air. Although he hadn’t interacted with this grandfather of his so much, he at least knew that he wasn’t so kind usually.

But his hesitation faded away when he noticed that Kure was sincere.

“I wanted to ask... who was that old man? What did he mean...”

. . .

While Alver asked Kure questions about Old Gu, Lammert and Darcia flew towards the Church. Darcia had a cackling smile on her face while Lammert couldn’t help but be nervous around her.

“Was it that boy who the old man talked with before disappearing?” Darcia asked before wiping that evil smile off of her face.

Lammert noticed her seriousness and immediately answered, “Y-yes. It was him...”

Tch!

Darcia clicked her tongue in annoyance. It would have been fine if it was anyone else. She could have gotten her hands on them, but if that person had some connection with the old man, she couldn’t hope to go near him for now.

Lammert didn’t know who the old man was, but from his ancestor’s reaction, he was sure that he was somehow even stronger than her. Uneasiness flowed in his heart when he remembered that it was that boy who had brought the old man with him.

On the other hand, Darcia was thinking differently inside her head, ‘Since that is the case, I will just have to get stronger than that old man...’

Just like that, Old Gu shook the whole Neutral Lands. Be it the Rank-9 leaders of the prominent factions or even the four Rank-10 Mages; all of them had to change their plans for the future.