The morning sun over Ember Fall was entirely obscured by the thick canopy of industrial smog but the mood at the city gates was surprisingly bright.

The heavy wagons of the merchant caravan were lined up and ready to depart. The massive Ash Rhinos were stamping their feet impatiently against the dark ironstone road. Near the lead carriage, the family gathered for their final farewells. At least for the time being.

Tuwark stood in his leather apron and was having taken a brief respite from The Second Strike forge to see his sister and father off. The soot smeared across his broad forehead did nothing to diminish the bright and completely unburdened smile on his face. He looked like a man who had just set down a boulder he had been carrying for a century.

“May the roads be smooth and your profit margins wide, Lana,” Tuwark said as he pulled his sister into a fierce and suffocating hug that lifted her slightly off the ground.

“Put me down, you brute,” Lana laughed. She patted his thick shoulder affectionately before he set her back on her feet. She smoothed out her travel robes. “And may your hammer never shatter a nearly finished product, Tuwark. Don’t let the guild masters underpay you.”

Tuwark chuckled and turned his attention to Malos.

The Demon Lord didn’t look like a Sovereign of the realm currently. He looked like an overly enthusiastic traveler. He had explicitly adjusted his crimson cloak so that it draped perfectly behind him but ensured that the longsword hanging at his waist was entirely visible to anyone who possessed eyes. Right next to the bone hilted sword hung the small and finely embroidered bag containing the crimson healing pills Lana had refined for him.

“I shall write to you,” Malos promised his son as he was reaching out to grip Tuwark’s broad shoulder. “And the next time our paths cross, I expect to see you challenging the forge masters of the inner rings!”

“I will do my best, Father,” Tuwark beamed back. He couldn’t help but glance down at the sword hanging from Malos’s belt with a quiet pride and happiness. He then looked at Li Yu and offered a bow. “Safe travels, Li Yu. Thank you again.”

“Keep the furnace hot, Tuwark,” Li Yu replied with a nod.

With the farewells concluded, Lana climbed onto the platform of her carriage and signaled for Vane to begin the march. The heavy wheels groaned against the stone and the caravan slowly rolled out of Ember Fall. They were leaving the deafening clang of ten thousand hammers behind them.

Li Yu walked near the rear flank as his pace was steady and relaxed. He glanced over at Malos, who was practically strutting down the road. Every few minutes, Malos would casually rest his hand on the pommel of the sword or subtly adjust the small bag of pills. He was focused on entirely ensuring that the items were perfectly situated.

Li Yu noticed the constant adjusting but said nothing. He only smiled to himself.

Malos was indeed an incredibly interesting man. He was an apex predator of this realm. A being whose mere gaze could unmake armies and alter the course of destiny here. Yet, he was currently deriving more joy from a Soul Formation sword and a bag of restorative pills than he likely ever had from the supreme artifacts in his vaults. Li Yu respected that.

Li Yu took a deep breath. He was happy that fate, whether manipulated or entirely accidental, had brought them back together. They all clearly needed the time apart to appreciate one another even more. Now, they could start to become a family once again, even if not immediately.

He had learned a staggering amount from the Demon Lord during their travels. Not just about the esoteric laws of the universe but about the complicated nature of the people who inhabited it. Traveling with Malos was interesting, unpredictable and undeniably fun. This, Li Yu thought to himself while looking out at the harsh beauty of the volcanic ridges. This is what the open road is all about.

For the next four days, the caravan traversed the increasingly treacherous terrain of the outer rings. The dark ironstone highways gave way to narrow, winding paths carved into the sides of bottomless ravines.

Their destination was the city of Zephyr’s Maw. It was a settlement that defied all conventional logic of architecture. When the caravan finally crested the last ridge, Li Yu paused. He was taken back by the sight. Zephyr’s Maw wasn’t built on the ground. It was suspended over a massive caldera that constantly vented highly pressurized and superheated air from the deep earth.

The city consisted of dozens of flattened islands of a porous pumice stone. They were all chained together by links of metal the size of houses. The natural updrafts from the caldera pushed against immense wind arrays carved into the bottom of the floating islands and kept the entire city suspended in the sky.

The air here was filled with the constant roar of rushing wind and the sharp tang of ozone.

“A marvel.” Malos shouted over the howling wind as the caravan carefully navigated the primary suspension bridge leading onto the main mercantile island. “The updrafts here are so pure that wind attribute cultivators from across the continent make pilgrimages just to sit on the edge of the rocks!”

Lana didn’t waste any time marveling at the scenery. The moment the wagons were secured in the heavily warded merchant plazas, she immediately set out to conduct her business. Zephyr’s Maw was famous for its rare wind attribute beast cores and ores. The cores were harvested from the avian predators that lived in the thermal columns.

Li Yu and Malos accompanied Lana as she walked through the bustling markets. The stalls were tethered down with heavy chains and the merchants had to speak loudly to be heard over the rushing air.

Lana was currently standing at the edge of a wide platform overlooking the abyss of the caldera. She was negotiating fiercely with a weathered merchant over a crate of high tier Gale Hawk cores. Vane and three other Core Formation guards stood a respectful distance away and continued to keep a watchful eye on the crowd.

Malos was standing a few paces behind his daughter and was embodying the role of the silent, imposing bodyguard. But beneath his calm exterior, the ancient Demon Lord’s senses were fully expanded.

The ambush in the ash plains had stripped away his casual complacency. He was no longer relying entirely on Li Yu’s blind spot to afford him a peaceful journey. He was actively and meticulously scanning the environment. Analyzing the flow of Qi in every single person walking past them.

Which was why, when the air behind the merchant distorted, Malos reacted before the assassin even fully materialized.

It wasn’t a spatial tear like the previous ambush. It was a masterwork of stealth. The assassin had utilized a supreme wind attribute cloaking technique to perfect their approach. They blended flawlessly with the howling wind and were striking with absolute silence.

A translucent blade aimed directly at the back of Lana’s neck materialized from the thin air.

Lana didn’t even register the killing intent. Vane and the guards were completely oblivious. Even Li Yu, whose Divine Transformation senses were incredibly sharp, only caught the disturbance a fraction of a second before the strike.

But Malos was already there. The Demon Lord reached out with his bare hand and pinched the air.

CLANG.

The translucent blade stopped dead and was caught effortlessly between Malos’s index finger and thumb. The howling wind around the platform instantly ceased.

The assassin, draped in wind woven camouflage, became fully visible. The killer’s eyes were visible through a slit in their mask. It widened in terror that its attack had failed. It tried to pull the blade back and tried to detonate their own soul to escape capture just as the previous group had done.

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“No,” Malos commanded.

It wasn’t a physical strike. It was an overwhelming assertion of a Sovereign’s soul attack. The assassin’s entire system shut down instantly. Their Qi stagnated, their soul froze and their body went entirely rigid. Malos ripped the translucent blade from their grip and casually tossed it off the edge of the platform into the caldera below.

Lana was finally able to react and spun around. Her eyes widened as she realized how close she had just come to dying.

“Father?” Lana gasped from the shock while stepping backwards.

Malos didn’t look at her. The cheerful father who had proudly shown off his new sword and pills that morning was completely gone. The entity standing on the platform was the Lord of Foresight, and he was violently angry.

Someone was persistently trying to murder his child.

“Li Yu,” Malos said as his voice echoed with a terrifying resonance that made the heavy metal chains of the floating island vibrate. “Guard her. Do not let her out of your sight for a single second.”

Li Yu stepped forward instantly and his staff appeared in his hand. He placed himself directly between Lana and the rest of the market. He expanded his senses to the max and was carefully identifying everything. That attack just now would have most likely gotten him too. The assassin was once again someone within the Soul Transformation realm.

“I will protect her. You have my word.” Li Yu confirmed it seriously.

“Good,” Malos growled. He grabbed the paralyzed assassin by the collar. “I have played the blind and wandering merchant long enough. It is time to see exactly whose threads I am going to sever.”

Malos stepped off the edge of the platform and was plummeting into the howling abyss of the caldera as he was dragging the assassin with him. As he fell out of the immediate radius of Li Yu’s aura and the blind spot was lifted.

The terrifying weight of his foresight crashed back into his mind as he began to peer. Activating his ability this time forcefully and as best as he could. Something he rarely had ever done before.

Back on the platform, Lana let out a shaky breath. Her hands were still trembling slightly as the adrenaline flooded her system. The sudden violence of the attack had pierced the illusion of their peaceful family journey twice now.

She knew the world wasn’t safe but to be attacked by such powerful beings twice in such a short amount of time had broken her nerves. Clearly someone was really out to get her and she didn’t even know who it was.

“Are you hurt?” Li Yu asked with his eyes constantly scanning the crowds of merchants and travelers who had frozen in terror at the sudden attack within the city.

“No,” Lana whispered back. “I… I didn’t even feel the wind shift.”

“They are professionals,” Li Yu said grimly as he admired the caliber of the stealth arts. “And they are exceptionally powerful and skilled.”

Vane and the other guards had snapped out of their shock and had already formed a defensive ring around their employer. With their business forcefully concluded, Li Yu escorted Lana directly back to her more secure pavilion in the center of the merchant plaza.

Night fell over Zephyr’s Maw. The floating city was illuminated by thousands of glowing lanterns that swayed violently in the endless gales.

Inside the heavy silk walls of the pavilion, it was quiet and warm. The arrays completely blocked out the roaring wind. Lana sat at the low wooden table and was staring blankly at a cup of tea that had long since gone cold.

Li Yu sat across from her with his staff resting across his knees. He remained in a state of absolute and hyper vigilant readiness. Not only was he honoring his promise to Malos, he was also using this as a learning opportunity. He was scanning and analyzing everything with his spiritual sense. Trying to see and push his very limits as much as he could.

“I used to resent him so much,” Lana said suddenly. Her words broke the silence of the room. Her voice was quiet and lacking its usual merchant edge. Li Yu was actually startled by her words because he had been so focused.

Li Yu looked at her and smiled. He gestured that he would listen if she wanted to talk about it further.

“When I was younger, I thought he was just a tyrant,” Lana continued. “I thought he watched my threads because he wanted to control me. I didn’t understand the sheer terror he must have lived with. To see the exact blade that might kill your child, decades before it is ever forged… it is a miracle he didn’t lock Tuwark and me in a vault and throw away the key to keep us safe.”

“He let you go,” Li Yu reminded her gently. “Because he knew the vault would kill your spirit just as surely as a blade. From what I have seen, you all just seemed to have misunderstood each other.”

Lana nodded slowly. She looked up at Li Yu and her eyes reflected the soft light of the floating pearls in the ceiling.

“I am so incredibly thankful that my father found a friend like you, Li Yu,” Lana said suddenly. This caught Li Yu off guard but her tone carried a deep and unshakeable sincerity. “Before you arrived, our relationship was a cold war of unspoken boundaries. I wouldn’t visit him and he wouldn’t look at my future. We were estranged by necessity. But you… your presence gives him peace. It gives him the ability to just be a father. He seems so much happier. Our family was able to reunite on such great terms entirely because of you.”

Li Yu shook his head with a self deprecating smile touching his lips.

“I didn’t do anything, Lana,” Li Yu deflected. “I simply exist. The joy he feels, the pride he has in you and Tuwark… that was always there. It’s probably just stronger now. It just needed a quiet space to breathe. The three of you just needed time apart to realize the truths that was always there and your own feelings.”

He looked down at the table and his mind was reflecting on the recent travels in this world.

“But I will admit,” Li Yu added softly, “I have grown quite fond of traveling with him. The realm is a brutal and unforgiving place. To find a companion who appreciates a good meal, laughs at terrible jokes and values everyday life… it makes the road significantly less lonely.”

Lana smiled, a warm expression that perfectly mirrored her father’s. “He is definitely unique.”

They talked long into the night but Li Yu never once let his guard down. The conversation drifted from the terrifying realities of assassinations to the mundane joys of merchant life, culinary recipes and stories of Tuwark’s youthful stubbornness. Li Yu found Lana to be exceptionally grounded. It was a refreshing contrast to the apocalyptic personalities he had been surrounded by lately.

It was nearing midnight when the arrays at the entrance of the pavilion chimed softly. Li Yu was on his feet instantly but he relaxed the moment the heavy silk flaps parted. Malos stepped into the room.

The Demon Lord looked perfectly immaculate. There wasn’t a single drop of blood on his crimson cloak, not a speck of ash on his boots and his breathing was entirely steady. But the aura radiating from him was heavy with the unmistakable, metallic scent of destruction. He had not just killed an assassin. He had eradicated an entire faction.

Most likely those behind the faction and those that asked them to do it as well. This was a reminder for Li Yu of who he was traveling with. Malos was a being of immense power and Li Yu had nearly forgotten that since he never acted that way around Li Yu.

“The situation,” Malos said while his black eyes went to Lana, “is taken care of. But there are a few things that I am confused about… There is a powerful force behind them though… Powerful enough to cloud my vision when I am trying to peer. Oh well, it is taken care of now.”

Lana stood up. She didn’t ask who had hired them. She didn’t ask how many people Malos had just erased from the tapestry of the realm. She simply looked at the man who had torn the world apart to ensure she could sleep safely. She walked around the table and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist as she buried her face against his chest.

“Thank you, Father,” Lana whispered to him. Her voice thick with emotion. “Thank you for protecting me.”

Malos froze at her words.

In all the centuries before she left and after leaving, Lana had never thanked him for his protection. She had always viewed his interference as a violation of her autonomy. To hear those words. To feel her willingly accept his shelter, hit him harder than a physical blow from a peer.

Malos’s breath hitched. He swelled with an overwhelming and monumental pride. A massive, radiant and impossibly happy smile broke across his face. He wrapped his arms around his daughter. He was holding her close and his dark eyes were shining with joy.

After a long moment, Malos gently pulled back. He reached into his robes and pulled out four ornate storage rings. They practically hummed with the condensed wealth of a highly funded, elite assassin guild that no longer existed. He tossed the rings onto the wooden table. They clattered lightly against the wood.

“The spoils of war,” Malos said to Lana. His tone shifted back to that of a cheerful and slightly boastful merchant. “I believe there is a substantial amount of refined metal, of high grade spirit stones and several crates of rare herbs in those rings. A modest contribution to my favorite merchant’s inventory.”

In the past, Lana would have immediately rejected the wealth. She would have cited her independence, proudly declaring she didn’t need her father’s charity to run her business. But Lana looked at the rings, then looked back at her father’s hopeful, smiling face.

She reached out and scooped the storage rings off the table and seamlessly slipped them into her own spatial ring.

“Thank you, Father,” Lana smiled at him. “I won’t use this to add to the profits of the merchant group. Instead, I will use it to fund my own cultivation so I can get stronger..”

Malos beamed, a look of triumph settling over his features. The Lord of Foresight had successfully navigated the most complex and unpredictable tapestry in the universe: the heart of his own child.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep