“What did Mathias mean before?” Ace asked, turning to Wukong as the group of five made their way North. “When he mentioned being uo take an active role in helping us if things go south iure.”

  “Why are you asking this king?” Wukong snorted. “This king hates politics the most!”

  “I’ll expin,” Milianna sighed softly from Leo’s back. “I don’t kly what happened between Master and O’Brien after we fled, but whatever happened, it was enough to scare him enough to form some sort of alliah Catherihe High Priest of the Yun Empire.”

  Ace didn’t have to be there to uand that Arianna’s strength would be genuinely frightening to just about any Demi-God. Their decision to form an alliao protect their empires made sense, but it still didn’t answer his inal question.

  “At the end of the sele, both O’Brien and Catherine made an appearan an attempt to not only force the pavilion to hand you and me over to O’Brien but also to get their hands on Master’s family legacy,” Milianna expined calmly. “Fortunately, though both of them returned with all of their saint-level disciples and subordihey had uimated the true power of the Pavilion.

  It was only when they appeared that Cesar made his appearance, revealing that not only was he now an official member of the Yin-Yang Pavilion, but also that his strength had also improved signifitly.

  As soon as Catherine made a move to attack, Cesar instantly beheaded her eldest disciple, who, like Fain, was also a prime saint.”

  Hearing that, even though he knew everyone was alright, Ace couldn’t help but listen with bated breaths as a sense of worry began to creep up inside him.

  Although he knew Cesar was strong, he also khe King of Killers was far from enough to deter two deities in a situation like that. And as powerful as she was, he doubted even Arianna would be able to fight two Demi-Gods on her own.

  “Thankfully, Senior Brother had already foreseen a situation like this arising,” Milianna tinued. “As soon as it looked like Catherine and O’Brien were willing to forsake their subordinates for what they came for, Senior Brother threateo make a breakthrough right there and then.

  I should probably mention that during his fight against O’Brien’s disciples, his prehension finally broke through to the deity level. So had he really broken through as he threatened, he would’ve leapt straight over the peak and prime saint level and directly bee a Demi-God.

  Catherine and O’Brien both instantly uood that point, and although Catherine arently the stronger of the two Demi-Gods, it wasn’t by enough to ighe presence of a newly promoted Demi-God. Had the two carried on, it would have been a simple matter of Mathias blog Catheriil Master finished with O’Brien allowing both Mathias and Master to suppress Catheriogether.

  Still, it was impossible for the two Demi-Gods to leave just like that after making such a public spectacle; as such, Senior Brother promised them that not only would the Pavilion not make any attempts to expand its curreory, should an apostle fay danger from external influences, no active member of the Pavilion will make any attempts to help them.

  Unfortunately, O’Brien, reising the threat you posed to him and his empire, forced Mathias to promote you to the position of an apostle in advance, as your strength had clearly far surpassed that of an expert at the eighth rank.

  Mathias didn’t want to. He wao give you as much time to groossible, but I was the oo agree on your behalf,” Milianna expined, her face still the picture of serenity, despite her as effectively throwing her own son to the wolves. “Don’t bme Master or Senior Brother for not telling you earlier; I told them that it was best ing from me.

  Do you bme me?”

  Even though Milianna still looked perfectly calm, Ace could sense a hint of guilt mixed iherwise warm ale aura.

  “Of course not,” Ace shook his head decisively. “Had I bee at the time, I would’ve made the exact same choice. Everyo the Pavilion has already done more than enough. I ’t expect them to protect me for the rest of my life.”

  A ge resolute smile suffused Milianna’s otherworldly face as she proudly met her son’s gaze. “I’d expeo less from a desdant of ol family!”

  A knowing smile appeared on Ace’s face when he heard that, but he didn’t say anything more oter. Instead, he brought the topic of versation ba track. “So was that it, or did anything else happen whilst I was out of it?”

  “Well, after Catherine and O’Brien were forced to retreat, the Pavilion’s position as one of the ti’s major forces was firmly established,” Amira shrugged as she flew beside Ad Wukong. “But the pressure the Pavilion put on the rest of the ti arently too much to bear as all the top schools began to emute the blueprint of the Pavilion, choosing to focus on both paths of cultivation instead of limiting themselves and their students to just one.

  The most surprising was the fusion of the Ernst Institute and the War God’s Academy. You have to remember that although the Ernst Institute was the only school with a direct pipelio the Yun Empire’s College of Light, ultimately, it was an institution that was founded and beloo the Radiant Church.

  Apparently, Catherine made some sort of deal with the Church, and although no one knows the details of the deal, judging by how the Church migrated their HQ to the Yun Empire, it’s fair to assume that they too have made some sort of alliance.”

  Ace calmly nodded, not too bothered by that particur development. He had no particur gripe with the Radiant Church or the Yun Empire; he was far more ied in the fusion of the War God’s Academy and the Ernst Institute.

  “The fusion of both institutes is still ongoing, but apparently, their neus is in the middle of the Anarchic Region, with that Byrius fellow and a number of the saint-level personal disciples of both deities there to preside over it.

  It was because of that, that the Anarchic Regioered into its first period of pea over a millennia, although everyone knows that it will iably be short-lived. The only thing that’s still unknown is what the Anarchids will look like after the Yun and O’Brien Empire are doting it up between them.”

  “I guess that is the only way they could hope to have their students even think about peting with us at the Pavilion,” Ace replied with a smirk. “But it’s still far from en…”

  Before Ace could finish his sentence, his eyes stricted into pinholes as he suddenly exploded with his fastest speed, leaving nothing but a trail of fmes in his wake as he shot into the distance.

  .

  .

  .

  At the same time, a few miles away, a small but seemingly well-anised army stood in despair, watg as seven mortals were forced to face off against a mountain-sized Rainbon at the early stages of the saint realm.

  Scattered around them were the corpses of soldiers as alike, but at that moment, whether it was man or beast, as long as they were alive, they were all focused on the saint-level battle taking p the sky.

  “Why the fuck is there a saint-level beast?!” A young but undeniably imposing teenage girl dressed iher battle armour shouted unwillingly as she tinuously unched spear after spear of the earth at the giant dragon’s ots. “This was just supposed to be an ordinairy beast tide!”

  Her attacks did absolutely nothing to hinder such a beast, but she persisted heless.

  “I don’t know,” A young woman replied as she too tinuously bombarded the dragon with e after e of ice. “But it looks almost as though it’s after Uncle Lance.”

  “Who cares why it’s here,” The you of the mortals voiced coldly, his tone ced with a thick killing i as he fired ssh after ssh of wind at the beast. “All we o focus on is killing it.”

  The group of sevehe remainder of Ace’s cssmates – minus Alissa – along with Cirulus.

  The beast tide had been fairly ordinairy in terms of power before that, with the stro being a blue-eyed tiger mastiff of the ninth rank, which Killian had unsurprisingly made quick work of.

  He had previously beeant in his ability to take on warriors of the ninth rank, but now after a year, his progress could only be described as bzing!

  Not only had he reached the middle of the seventh rank as a warrior and mage, he had even prehended [Impose]! Unless one had the power of a general, you could fet about fighting Killian.

  Still, things took a sudden and pletely unforeseen turn for the worst when a saint-level dragon suddenly appeared and made a beeliraight for Lance.

  Unfortunately, even with all his training, Lance, who had been easily sughteri after beast, was far from a match for a beast of that level.

  The only reason Lance was even still alive right now was because it appeared to be more ied in Lance’s spear than the man wielding it.

  It was only after sniffing and studying the spear that the colourful rainbo out an enraged roar and turs attention back to the man formerly wielding it, whom it had previously sent flying.

  Had it not been for the pressure of a saint-level beast attempting to kill the man Killian had grown to see as something of a father figure stimuting him enough to finally prehend a trace amount of his first Profound Mystery, there would’ve been no one capable of stopping the beast.

  Still, even with his suddehrough, Killian was far from a match for the dragon. It was only with the assistance of his cssmates and the presiding city lord of the city of Gol – Cirulus Reacher – that Killian was relutly able to hold the dragon off.

  Unfortunately, even with the seven of them w together, they were still slowly being suppressed.

  “KILLIAN!” Faye roared when she saw Killia flying by the beast’s gigantiife-like cws.

  The eyes of her and the others went red as each of them watched unwillingly peared to be a sure death for their cssmate when…

  “[HIKEN]!”

  A furious yet familiar roar of a young man once again brought the battlefield to a deafening halt as a giant fist-shaped pilr of fire desded from the clouds, engulfing the enormous figure of the dragon.

  P.S. Support me oreon listed below to read ahead - The release rate is at least 2x as many chapters every week! XD

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  P.atreon./ACoilingDragon

  Book 12: Part 9 – Left Behind