After the initial death stare exchange, the two women suddenly changed their attitude when Liam winced a little from a mixture of pain and tiredness. After all, he had only just now used [Soul Splice] and the backlash wasn't going to disappear anytime soon.
And the moment he showed weakness both Alex and Shen Yue forgot everything else and came to his side and started fussing over him. Alex gently supported him on one side while Shen Yue did the same on the other side.
Rey, Madan, and Lan Deming saw this sight, and their eyes hurt from the PDA. They too had returned from a huge ordeal and yet there was no one waiting for them.
Everyone silently climbed onto the now happy fox who teleported the whole group in a jiffy to the guild base. Speaking of which, Liam was pleasantly surprised to see that the guild base had undergone a tremendous transformation.
Actually, it was not just the guild. Now that he had a moment to observe and take in everything around him, the entire world seemed to have undergone a monstrous transformation.
"Five years is a long time. There is a lot that has happened." Alex smiled.
"Five years, huh?" Liam chuckled. It still did not feel like five years for him. While he was practicing the soul technique time flew by in what seemed like mere moments for him, but the physical world clearly did not pause."So what happened here while we were away?"
Knowing him, Alex started with Mei Mei first. "Your sister is doing good. She is currently occupied with something important which is why I did not want to disturb her yet."
Liam nodded. "Thanks." Of course, he had already checked up about her with Luna and the fox had also assured him that his sister was doing great.
This time around everything was different. There was no Crawford and no other threat looming over their heads and there was also Eldrin to take care of anything that the others couldn't handle.
So just like Liam hoped everyone was doing well and it was only good news all around. It was even better because Alex and Shen Yue were clearly at a higher level than when he had previously seen them.
Alex was at level 230 and Shen Yue was at level 150. This was amazing considering how they had never stepped out of the planet. Just as Liam was about to talk to them about it, Alex suddenly told him something unexpected.
"The guild disbanded." She blurted out. "Well, sort of." She then pointed to Eldrin and added. "He is responsible for it. He also announced that you were dead."
"I am dead?" Liam raised a brow.
The elf immediately trembled a little. "Alex! I mean my lady Alex, you are leaving out a few important details."
Liam rubbed the bridge of his nose. Now, what did these two do to his guild?
"My Lord, please. We need to go somewhere private immediately. There is a lot I need to talk to you about."
Liam wanted to visit his sister first but he decided to take the meeting with the elf as he needed to know everything that happened in the last five years and more importantly, everything that was related to integration that they were currently going through.
Their world was going to open up to the myriad realms any day now. The first five peaceful years were already gone and it would be foolish to believe that the few years that they had left would be equally peaceful.
Eldrin took Liam to a secluded cave in one of the mountains on the outskirts of the guild home base. Clearly, several enchantments had been placed on the cave and the barrier strength was nothing to scoff at. It was a very respectable secret spot. Of course, Liam would have no trouble obliterating it.
"This is our usual meeting place," Eldrin explained. He then gulped and added. "Just as Lady Alex was quick to inform you, I was the one responsible for your guild to break up. Please sit down. Let me give you the specifics."
Eldrin clapped his hands and a couple of women rushed over to serve everyone some refreshments. Liam took a sip of the drink served, something similar to coffee but clearly not coffee. However, the taste and the effect it had were acceptable, to say the least. The moment the liquid entered his system, his mind cleared up a bit giving him a refreshed feeling. It was not too much of an effect, almost negligible but it was definitely there.
"Someone made this?" Liam enquired and the elf nodded with some pride. "Yes. I will explain everything to you now, my Lord." The elf began.
"As you know, I was extremely anxious when I teleported alone and all of you were missing."
"For many days I scrambled to find your whereabouts and attempted to reach out to you but unfortunately I was not good enough to accomplish that. I failed every single time. Please forgive me for my incompetence."
"Go on." Liam nodded, taking another sip.
"Since there was nothing I could do to help you out, I decided to take over the administration of your world and try my best to secure and protect everything in your empire. By doing this, I was hoping to beg for your mercy when you eventually returned home."
"However, only after talking to some of your guild officials, did I come to know the full details of your feud with the divine temple and the divine temple high-priestess."
"Taking everything into consideration, I thought that perhaps your absence was a good way to separate your world and you into two different entities so that maybe the enmity between you and the divine temple wouldn't extend to your world."
"We are going to become a C Rank or perhaps even a B Rank world. And if we take the divine temple out of the equation, we can very well seek the protection of one of the ten great empires."
"We can also not do that. It is entirely up to you." Eldrin quickly explained.
"With this, I decided to split up your guild into multiple smaller empires. I followed our elven tradition and created an atmosphere where competition would forge progress and power."
"Matriarch Ning has moved out with her disciples to the south to create a path for themselves."
Eldrin then turned to Lan Deming. "Your sister and your father, along with other Asian high-level rankers moved to the East. A few notable names would be Shin-Soo, Kang Minah, and Hiyun."
"The westerners have moved to the west with a part of the guild force, leaving behind a paltry force in the north, a mere fragment of the previously glorious Crimson Abyss."
"Apart from these many independent factions have also started emerging."
Liam frowned. He could understand why Eldrin had done this but at the same time, the world was evolving at a rapid rate. Was it really wise to split up the entire strength of whatever population they had left?
Liam had already sensed several strong auras of beasts around the settlement. They were quite far away but he could still detect their presence with his massive field of perception. Even if one of these beasts decided to take a walk, it was enough to crush the entire settlement. It looked like he would have to do some cleanup first.
"My Lord, I understand what you are thinking but this is necessary. Because of my actions, we have already received an acknowledgment from the system. The elites of your world have been invited to a system-related event, a pre-integration training session."
"Hmmm?" Liam raised a brow. He did not expect this. "Tell me more."
"Well, it's sort of a system-sanctioned treasure hunt. Something that occurs in many of the newly integrated worlds. The prerequisite is that these worlds must have enough system-recognized competing factions which we recently managed to satisfy."
"No one knows the details yet. The treasure hunt is set to occur in 6 months time and my guess is that we would receive the details as we get closer to the date."
Liam pensively nodded. 6 months was good because right now he had other important matters he needed to focus on. He finally knew where Derek was and he needed to figure out how to get him back. Treasure hunt or no treasure hunt, this took the most priority.