Monarch of Darkness

Evan scanned the entire tavern with his soul consciousness and found out that there was no Profound transformation realm cultivator among the customers but what roused his curiosity was the fact that how tranquil and calm the environment of tavern at the moment.

Generally a tavern was filled with hubbub of noises as it was the gathering place of people who gathered to relax in the tavern. But Evan felt surprised by the lack of loud noise in this tavern. Everyone was talking in a hushed voice to each other. Evan spread his soul consciousness to listen some of their conversations.

"Hey Cain, what do you think about the award today? Is it going to be higher than our previous mission?", one bald looking cultivator asked to the man sitting opposite to him.

"Although I can't guarantee it but I feel that awards will be better than before. If they want us to hype up the things for them, then there must be better awards than before. Otherwise why should we rogue cultivators risk our life for them?", the man next to the bald man replied.

"Cain is saying the truth. There most be equivalent rewards to the risks we are taking but we can only speculate here. Let's wait for the end of the meeting. Once leader returns, we will be clear about everything", a burly looking man who sat at next table spoke. The group of bald looking man nodded their head after listening to the burly man. 

Evan changed his attention towards other direction. Almost everyone was talking about rewards and danger. He became certain that the tavern was some sort of gathering place for rogue cultivators and everyone was waiting for their so called leaders. He retracted his soul consciousness as he heard the voice of Ramos. "Little brother, drinks up. You most prepare yourself for tonight's mission".

Evan didn't think much and drank up a mouthful of wine. Something warm slided down from his throat and he felt more energetic for some reason. He drank up another mouthful and thought, "Now I understand why uncle always drinks wine. According to him, true joy of life lies in women and wine."

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Evan waited there while drinking wine. The colour of liquid was deep red under the dimlight of wooden cellar and it managed to relax his anxious mind. He let down his burden for a moment and immersed himself in the rich flavour of wine.

He didn't know how much he had drink but the approaching footsteps managed to bring him back to reality. Evan spread his soul consciousness and surprised to see the approaching group. Almost every Profound transformation realm cultivators of the border town were part of the approaching group.

Earlier he had detected forty profound transformation realm cultivators within his soul sense. Although he managed to cover the most part of this tiny town, there were still outskirt areas of town which he had not scanned. So, he didn't know the exact number of Profound transformation realm cultivators gathered here but forty Profound transformation realm cultivators was still a massive force where ever they went in the Northpeak empire.

In the entire Thousand swords kingdom, there wouldn't be more than two hundred cultivators who had reached the Profound transformation realm. Most of the cultivators stayed in the Meridian opening realm for their entire life and they made the most of the numbers in a kingdom's army.

Anyone who had managed to reach the Profound transformation realm in the Thousand swords kingdom, considered as an expert and it was same even in the Northpeak empire. Cultivation was like climbing mountain and each step mas more tedious than before. Most of the cultivators took almost three to five year to reach the middle stage of Meridian opening realm and further stages took a much longer time. So, reaching the Profound transformation realm in their entire life was considered as a huge achievement for cultivators who strived hard to become a powerful warrior. As for Core Condensation realm, they were like moon in the sky who stood tall amidst the mass of cultivators.

Evan felt surprise because gathering of such a huge numbers in a single group and they were heading towards his direction. He thought about the mission everyone was talking about and guessed their motive. The Black ridge kingdom or one could say their backer the Golden orb kingdom was planning something massive against the Thousand swords kingdom by gathering such a huge number of experts.

The door of the cavern pushed open from outside and Profound transformation realm cultivators entered the cavern. Evan saw excitement and anticipation in everyone's eye after seeing the entering people.

"Leader, look over here", the bald looking man was first to shout. Soon many followed after him and called out to the newcomers. The quite atmosphere turned noisy for a moment.

"Be patient everyone.An esteemed person is coming here to directly talk with all of you", one of the Profound transformation realm cultivator spoke. Evan looked at the person who was speaking now and found out a tall and muscular looking man in uniform. Signia of a snake was printed on his uniform. A hissing snake was the symbol of Blackridge kingdom and Evan immediately found out the identity of the speaker.

Surprisingly the noisy atmosphere died down after listening to the voice of the uniformed man. The voice of crowd recedede like a tide retreating after erupting violently. Everyone waited for the esteemed guest with anticipation in their eyes.

Evan kept scanning the nearby areas with his powerful soul consciousness and after some wait, he finally detected two powerful aura approaching the tavern. He expanded his detection range a bit more and the appearance of the two approaching person came to his mind.

One of them was in black robe and the other one wore a majestic looking golden robe. Evan looked at their cultivation base and felt shock. The black robed man was at the middle stage of Core Condensation realm and the golden robed man was surprisingly a Nascent soul stage cultivator. From his golden robe, Evan easily guessed his identity - A cultivator from Golden orb kingdom.

"Be ready guys. The esteemed guest is coming with one of our Blackridge kingdom's general", the uniformed man shouted again. The next moment two person entered the small tavern. Upon seeing their arrival, the cultivators present slightly bowed toward them.

"I hope all of you are doing well here. Let me go straight to the point. I have come here to announce an important mission and this should be the last mission from us. This mission is far more important than previous missions and rewards are also many times better than before", the Golden robed person announced after entering the tavern.

Hushed noises came from everywhere in the tavern after listening to the Golden robed person. "I don't want to spoil the fun but let me give you some hints about the rewards".

"This time one can get a earth grade pill depending on his performance. There are still many more but I will not elaborate on them", the golden robed person spoke with a smile. 

"Whoa! It is an earth grade pill this time. I will try my best to get a hold of it".

"The Golden orb kingdom is surely generous this time. I wonder what will be the difficulty level this time."

"Who care about the difficulties. As long as there are such rewards, we will gladly complete our missions". The quite environment turned rowdy in a moment after the announcement of reward.