Chapter 259: A Familiar Scream

With Neville revealing all he needed to know and with the Confessor chain in hand, Thoren did not linger in the manor main hall any longer.

He had obtained what he came for, and staying longer would only invite unnecessary trouble.

He left the ruined manor and searched other parts of the crumbling structure, but he found nothing else of importance among the debris.

Thus, without any hesitation, he made his way out of the manor and through the rest of the ruin.

This time, his journey was surprisingly smooth without any creature attacks.

As for Neville, Thoren left him lying on the cold floor of the main hall.

Since the man was not the mole planted by the Slave Trade Guild, Thoren was too lazy to kill him outright.

Thus, he decided to let fate be the ultimate judge of his survival.

If he survived the ruin, that could only mean his luck was truly good. If he died, he could only blame his own bad fortune.

Coming out of the core of the ruin, Thoren discovered many fresh footsteps on the ground, footprints that were not present when his party had first arrived at this place.

“I guess the ruin location has already been exposed to others,” he muttered, making his way toward the exit with steady steps.

To him, there was nothing left of value in this ruin. Even though he had not managed to explore every inch of the structure, that was not important to him anymore.

He had gained enough experience, enough items, and enough power from this expedition.

Right now, his main priority was to find the Jackal Beastmen Chief and find out what was truly going on with the mysterious jade pendant in his possession.

Also, he needed to find the exact location of the Slave Trade Guild’s headquarters in the Jackal town.

Now that his old enemies had resurfaced to hunt him, he could not act as casually as before.

With the deep grudge between him and the Slave Trade Guild, he knew that only when one of them was completely obliterated could there ever be true peace.

Coming out of the ruin entrance, Thoren halted in his tracks and stared at the dense crowd of people gathered outside.

Before he could even react to the situation, a group of eager merchants rushed toward him with wide smiles.

“Do you have anything you want to sell? We buy items at a premium price,” one of them shouted.

“Do not answer him. Our store will buy your items at ten percent higher than the market price,” another merchant interrupted.

“Sir, you do not need to sell any of the rare items you found. You can auction them through our prestigious store instead,” a third voice added.

Looking at the aggressive group of merchants, Thoren was completely dumbfounded.

These were supposed to be awakeners, so why in the hell had they turned into sales representatives?

Thoren shook his head in disbelief and forced his way out of the encircling group.

Many of them tried to pull at his clothes, but a sharp, cold glare from him forced them to stop immediately.

Looking at Thoren’s departing back, one of the merchants could not help but mutter loudly.

“What a poor guy. I guess he found absolutely nothing in the ruin,” the merchant said with pity.

“I bet you are right. He must have been too scared to go deeper into the ruin,” another merchant agreed with a laugh.

Thoren ignored their ignorant rambling as he made his way back toward the Jackal Beastmen town.

Even though he could feel many greedy gazes still lingering on his body, he paid them no mind whatsoever.

He was not afraid of trouble from anyone. If they decided to cause him trouble, he would gladly oblige them with lethal force.

After walking for a moment, he looked over his shoulder and expected some group to have followed him for an ambush.

But to his disappointment, no one had followed him at all.

“At least some of them still have a bit of common sense,” he chuckled softly.

He climbed over the large dune that separated the ruin location from being seen in the distance.

His boots left deep footprints on the hot ground with the gentle desert breeze swaying his silver hair like a banner.

Whoosh!

The undead Iron Roar Komodo appeared before him in a flash of dark energy. He leaped on top of its broad back and took his comfortable seat.

With a silent mental command, the undead Iron Roar Komodo shot forward across the sand like a broken arrow released from a bow.

A thick cloud of sand rose high into the sky as the undead beast raced across the sand dune at incredible speed. In less than ten minutes, half of the journey that should have taken an hour by foot had already been covered.

Seated comfortably on the back of the undead Iron Roar Komodo, Thoren enjoyed the rare moment of peace as mirages danced on the distant dunes.

Just then, he heard a loud, desperate shriek coming from somewhere ahead of his position. He creased his brow and thought for a moment about the familiar voice.

“I know that voice,” he whispered to himself.

“Is it possible they are being assaulted by someone?” he wondered.

Even though the voice was familiar to him, he had no real intention of going there to help.

He intended to continue his path back to the town when he heard another desperate shout.

“Captain, I never would have thought you were such an evil person,” a desperate female voice cried out.

And then he heard another sharp voice, this one filled with firm determination.

“Just because you are stronger than us, do not think you can bully us. We will fight until our last drop of blood to protect what belongs to us,” the voice declared.

For a moment, everything went quiet on the other side of the dune. Then a voice filled with disdain and arrogance echoed across the sand.

“Fine. You two have been dragging our team down from the very beginning. Cressida has advised me many times to remove you from our team, but because of my kind heart, I could not watch you perish in the desert alone.”

“But now I see the truth,” the arrogant voice continued.

“I realize you are such ungrateful bastards. Why can you not share what you found in the ruins with me, your teammates?”

“Since you seem not to think about the bigger picture, then I would not mind taking what you found by force,” the captain threatened.

“Why all this useless talk? Do you think we do not know how you have sacrificed many of our teammates for your own selfish motives?” the determined voice spat back.

“Now you are trying to steal from us in the middle of nowhere, and you dare to lecture us about the bigger picture?”

“What bigger picture ? A scoundrel like you should have been devoured by a desert beast long ago,” the voice finished with pure venom.

Merely listening to the heated conversation, Thoren could already guess exactly what was happening on the other side of the dune.

“The fool should know where that snake Cressida is hiding,” Thoren thought to himself.

He changed his direction and urged his mount toward the source of the commotion.

****

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