Chapter 71: Traitor (4)
Sector One, Inner District, City Lord Mansion.
Deep within the mansion was Lia’s room. Inside, Lia peered into her phone with a saddened look on her face.
The video now showed Grey being cornered and him eliminating the Duskwood Family evolvers.
She was both angered and sad seeing the scene, but she couldn’t do anything for now.
If she tried anything right now, it would only put both Grey and herself in danger.
She remembered the conversation Grey and she had the previous day.
...
"You..." Lia stared at Grey as he walked toward her, speechless. "Just what are you...?"
She couldn’t help but ask. What she had seen today was simply unexplainable and unimaginable.
"Are you really sure that you aren’t the reincarnation of some ancient demon?" Lia had asked this before, and she asked it again because she really couldn’t tell anymore.
Hearing this, Grey laughed out loud and replied, "What can I say? I’m just extremely talented like that."
"What sort of talent lets someone skip a few levels and reach the strength of a late-stage first-ranker a week after evolving?" Lia asked, her expression darkening.
"Well, we’re on the same boat in that aspect," Grey smiled. "You yourself have never experienced a bottleneck, have you? The only thing stopping you right now is accumulation of energy. In fact, if you were thrown into a pool of spiritual energy, you would most likely come out as a second-ranker."
"Huh?" Lia’s expression changed slightly when she heard that. "How do you know about that?"
Lia was stunned.
Immortal cultivators were more prone to bottlenecks, as it required a thorough understanding of immortality and heavenly dao to progress. Most importantly, heavy bottlenecks demanded lots of refinement of energy to break and overcome. The more talented you are, the easier it is to break those bottlenecks, but she didn’t have anything like that.
Since the time she became an evolver, almost a month ago, she had never encountered a bottleneck. She had not really spoken about this to anyone other than her own father.
"You... how do you know that?" Lia asked in shock. "I’ve never told anyone about this before."
"I’m extremely talented at guessing too," Grey said while spreading his hands.
"Did you also guess that something was going to happen to me?" Lia asked in a serious voice. "Is that why you warned me not to go outside the City Lord Mansion?"
Even without Grey saying anything, she confirmed one thing.
The guy in front of her had predicted the future.
She refused to believe it was mere coincidence.
She hadn’t taken his warning seriously at first and had already put it out of her head after getting back home.
But forgetting his warning was the biggest mistake she had made. He told her to trust her intuition.
She should have noticed the problem then and there.
"Can you see into the future?" Lia asked after a pause.
She wanted to hear it from Grey himself.
"No," Grey shook his head. "I’m a mere first-rank evolver, a being that cannot even utilize laws. What makes you think I can look forward into the river of time?"
"Then how did you predict this?" Lia asked in a rushed tone.
"I just have special eyes," Grey said after a moment. "I saw an Omen of Death on you. I didn’t predict the outbreak of the corruption field or the attack of the High Order. I just knew that you would die in the coming days."
As he spoke, a flicker of golden light flashed in his eyes. "However, that omen is completely gone now. Death no longer accompanies you."
"What are you, a fortuneteller?" Lia couldn’t help but say.
The way he worded things made it sound like he was some scammer fortuneteller.
But Grey didn’t look like he was joking.
"Death accompanying me..." Lia shook her head.
She realized that if she hadn’t picked up Maris’s call and rushed into that abandoned warehouse facility, everything that happened today would not have occurred.
Thinking about Maris made her sad.
"My friend... she is dead," Lia bit her lip and said, pain in her voice. "The High Order is behind it. They forced her hand and threatened her family and brother. I’ve known her for a long time. She places great importance on her family... she..."
Tears rolled down Lia’s face.
Seeing this, Grey froze with an awkward expression. He didn’t expect Lia to burst out crying and speaking truthfully, and he didn’t know how to comfort her.
Eventually Lia stopped crying and Grey just stood there awkwardly.
"Grey," Lia called while wiping her eyes. "I want to know about that creature that killed my friend."
"I know something about the Abyss and the High Order," Grey said. "Please tell me, Grey!"
Grey sighed slightly and then began recounting everything he knew about the Abyss and the High Order, of course leaving out matters of outer space and otherworlders.
"What? Corruption fields are created by the Abyss? An invading force that wants to destroy Blue Star?" Lia’s mind reeled from the amount of information she received from Grey.
It turned out he knew a lot more than she had thought.
"The matter of the Abyss is something your father himself probably doesn’t know about," Grey said. "It’s best if you keep it from him."
"Yes," Lia nodded. "I won’t tell anyone about this at all."
"Good," Grey said.
Then a thoughtful expression appeared on Grey’s face.
"Lia, I want you to do something for me, and I want you to do it exactly as I tell you. Can you do it?"
"What is it?" Lia asked, confused.
"I want you to fall unconscious here," Grey spoke steadily. "It’s obvious that the Duskwood family won’t let you or me go now that they know we know their secrets. Sooner or later, they will likely find out about us and go to extreme lengths to take us out. And when that time comes, the people of Nova City will choose to believe the Duskwood family. the ones who’ve guarded this city for generations, rather than me."
"That’s right!" Lia’s expression suddenly changed to terror. "The Duskwood family has a soul lamp. It can record a fragment of what a person saw before dying. They will be able to trace you with that."
"I figured as much," Grey said with a frown. "The abyssal being likely had a soul lamp with him and it won’t take long before they make a move against me. What move, I don’t know, but worst case scenario I’ll have to run from Nova City and hide for a while. Of course, you won’t be safe at all either since you were inside the corruption field with me during that time. They will hunt you down as well."
"And for that, I want you to fall unconscious," Grey said, his eyes flashing. "That way you can tell them that you only remember seeing your friend and then collapsing."
"Listen carefully, Lia. If you disobey, it won’t just be you in danger, it will drag me down too. Don’t make a move. Do nothing but stay hidden and focus on your cultivation. That’s the only way to survive. As the City Lord’s daughter, they won’t probe your memories, but the Duskwood family, once they find out, not even the City Lord can save you. Everything hinges on staying invisible for now."
...
"One day, I’ll eliminate the Duskwood family myself," Lia said, pain on her face.
Her savior, her now trusted friend who had come to her rescue, was now being hunted down like a dog in the street. Without him, the entire Nova City might have been destroyed.
Her heart burned with fury and helplessness as she saw the hate comments flowing.