William was a hoarder, so parting with the Twin Starmetal Shortswords that he had just forged was painful, but he wanted more Mana Stones for the future. He was almost forced to get rid of the shortswords, since keeping them would paint a target on his back anyway.
He wasn't stupid enough to think that just because he was inside a Capital City he was safe. No, it was quite the opposite. All his pursuers had to do was prepare an ambush for William the moment he left the City.
Even in the Five Elements Sect, someone in the Golden Core Realm managed to sneak into his own residence and attempted to assassinate him. William was very weak then, and only survived because of Atticus and a powerful trapping Array that he had come up with on the spot.
"T-This...Are you sure, Mr. Yuming?" Rodger asked with undisguised shock.
William nodded, "I can't use these."
Rodger accepted the two Silver-Ranked Element Roots and stored them carefully with the Twin Starmetal Shortswords in a specialized Space Ring. He handed William a communicator that would allow him to speak with Rodger at any time, then took his leave to take care of some other tasks.
Since the lobby of the Night Market held many portals to different locations, William decided to visit the Five Elements Sect.
The security in the portal room was just as high as the rest of the Night Market, which was normally enough to deter anyone from entering a portal they weren't supposed to. In William's case, however, he still had the Five Elements Sect's badge that registered him as a Disciple, albeit modified so he couldn't be tracked.
With this in hand, William was able to enter the portal without an issue. Just in case though, he briefly used the invisibility mode to pass through, then kept it active for a few more seconds while he moved to a location in the Sect where no one would see him appear.
He stole a larger-sized Disciple's uniform from a nearby shop before appearing, then wore it over his Illusionist's Cloak. William changed his face to look like a younger version of his altered appearance, then disabled his invisibility mode.
The entire process took less than a minute, since he knew the layout of the Sect like the back of his hand.
Now...where would they be? William wondered.
He walked to the training ground first, since it wasn't yet time for dinner. The area was very crowded, and many Outer Core Disciples were gathered around a single pair of Cultivators whose abilities greatly outperformed the others.
A combination of various Ice Magic Spells approached a moving dummy that flashed from left to right. An Ice Ball narrowly missed the dummy as it jumped, but a wave of ice spread out and attached to the dummy's right leg.
Slowed by the Ice, the dummy couldn't move away fast enough to dodge a high-powered kick that struck it directly on the chest. The dummy's color changing from purple to dark orange in an instant, signaling combat power at the middle stages of the Golden Core Realm.
As the dummy lit up, the nearby Outer Core Disciples cheered, "It's a new record in the Outer Sect! They might just be stronger than Hanzu now!"
"Ha, not quite. I'm sure they're close though! How long have they been in the Sect? Their growth speed is insane!"
William looked at the duo responsible for the cheering and smiled. It was Gunther and Tia, who both sported Cultivation at the Peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Neither of them were smiling, as if it wasn't nearly enough to meet their goals. They waited for the dummy to reset, then went for another round with the training dummy.
Tia didn't look any bulkier than she did before, but her muscles were more toned as if they had been sculpted by an artist. Her physical strength was probably around the same as William's A-Rank Strength Talent, which attested to her dedication to training.
Gunther wore a white and blue set of Disciple's robes that were covered in small snowflake designs. If someone didn't pay much attention, they might think it was just a detail that accentuated his status as an Ice Manamatus, but William was different.
He could tell at a glance that the snowflakes were actually dozens of small Arrays at the Advanced level, most of which purposed to further strengthen his Ice Magic. William asked the System to evaluate Gunther's Ice Affinity, to which it replied that he was already B-Rank.
He had awakened his Ice Affinity at D-Rank, which meant that he had the potential to climb to S-Rank someday. William noted down the various Arrays that Gunther used, planning out how to do the same with his own Artifacts.
I can add the function to my Belt, but it might take some time...
While William waited for the duo to finish their training, William focused with his Life Sense to track the others he was looking for. His eyes glowed a light-green as the range of his Life Sense was extended to cover the entire Sect.
On a few cases, his detection was picked up by a few Elders and even the Sect Master, but the Arrays on his Illusionist's Cloak disguised him perfectly, making it seem as if he was just a normal Disciple scanning the Sect.
This wasn't an unnatural occurrence, since there were many Disciples tasked with maintaining security. Most of the time the healers were placed on this duty, but many of the basic Elements also had various detection abilities.
For example, the Wind Element could detect disturbances in the air, while the Earth Element could check for tremors in the ground. These were the two weakest detection Spells, but they were quite effective when detecting waves of Magical Beasts or enemy Cultivators in large groups.
With the Plant Element, one could communicate with the various plants to gain information on the situation. The Lightning Element was used to check the situation at very high altitudes, and the Darkness Element was almost as powerful as the Life Element, able to read one's shadow and even see one's complete appearance.
William was most proficient with the Life Element, so he preferred to use this over the Darkness Element. Not to mention he could see one's vitality, which was useful when looking for someone you know.
His primary focus was to find Charlotte, but he also looked for Yuming, Filipe, Carl. He also decided to look for Natsu Mori, but he didn't know the man too well. If he couldn't locate Natsu, then William wouldn't bother to keep searching for him.
His attention was drawn by a group of semi-powerful Cultivators in the Golden Core and Nascent Soul Realms, who were being treated by a group of healers in the medical center. Among the group was Carl, who was similarly injured. Get full chapters from novel(ꜰ)ire.net
William couldn't see their expressions from such a distance, but he could tell that they were all in great pain from a recent fight. He wondered what had happened to them.
Not long after, William detected Yuming in the Alchemy Hall. He was brewing a set of ingredients together into a Tier 5 Pill of some sort and was joined by Elder Arthur who seemed to be administering a test.
He spent twenty minutes or so searching for the others, but his Life Sense couldn't pick up anyone else. They were probably outside the Sect on a mission.
His eyes refocused just in time to see Tia and Gunther finishing up with their training. When the gathering of Disciples dispersed and they started walking off, William used a precise amount of Sound Mana to carry his voice directly to their ears.
With his Sound Element at B-Rank, this task was almost too easy for someone like William. He created a tunnel of Sound Mana, allowing him to also hear their conversation.
"Tia, where do you want to go next?" Gunther asked the girl walking next to him with a light smile. He reached out and locked his fingers with hers.
Tia pulled her hand away from Gunther's, a light blush appearing on her face, "Gunny, not out here!"
"Okay okay, but where do you want to go?" he laughed a little as he responded.
"I don't know...are you hungry?"
William's original voice jumped into their conversation, "Hey you two lovebirds, meet me at Wild Clover in an hour."
Tia and Gunther didn't expect the sudden interruption and jumped. When they recognized the voice as William's, their expressions changed to a mix of surprise and joy.
"William, is that you?" Gunther asked softly.
William nodded, then realized they couldn't see him, "Yes. Are you going to rat me out?"
Tia looked at Gunther, who stared back and nodded.
"Never in a million years, where have you been? Did you know that you're wanted now?" Gunther asked.
William laughed inwardly when he heard the last question, "Wanted? That's the least of my problems."