Death… And Me

Frandin felt like it was quite a fitting name for such an organization. It was obvious that they had very high control over the Soul Power used around the world. For some reason, they also controlled all the trials... or so one would think.

Frandin then met Valia when he came out, who guided him to where Roan's group was staying. 

"Gian, did you find what you wanted while talking with our ancestor?"

Frandin glanced at her while keeping his proud expression. Nevertheless, the words 'I can guarantee she's still a virgin' kept playing in his mind. As bad as she might have treated him in the shop back then, it didn't change the fact that Valia was beautiful in the eyes of male Zasfins.

However, Frandin quickly put those thoughts behind before nodding.

"I did. It seems like I'll be seeing your ancestor again sometime later, so I hope your clan won't mind my presence here."

Valia shook her head as she smiled.

"How could we? After what I did to you back then, this is the least we can do."

Frandin then looked at her before laughing.

"However, your opinion about my humans hasn't changed even a bit, am I right?"

Valia was taken aback.

"This..."

Frandin continued.

"It's fine. That's how the majority of Zasfins treat humans anyway. Besides, if my humans really cause big trouble, I definitely wouldn't defend them unless they weren't at fault. What you did was along the lines of what I expected."

Valia couldn't help but sigh. It seemed like the plan of conquering Gian wouldn't work very well. So far, she was the only one allowed to try, so no other girl from the clan came out. After becoming silent for a bit, she had an idea before asking.

"By the way, Gian. Are you staying here tonight?"

Frandin didn't know what to say. He had to talk with Roan and the girls first to see what they would say.

"Perhaps, let me think about a few things first."

Valia nodded and then whispered in his ears right after.

'If it isn't a problem for you, I don't mind paying my debt in other ways.'

Frandin's heart thumped when he heard that as he looked at Valia, whose face was now bright red. In the end, as much as she knew what she had to do, she had never done it before. Obviously, it made her very embarrassed even though she was the one who gave the idea.

"Ahem... We'll see..."

After some time, they arrived at the back of the Portin Clan's residence. It was quite an inconspicuous place when one thought about how magnificent the main estate was. There were several old houses where one could see many humans with their slave collars attached.

The moment Valia appeared, all of them immediately bowed and didn't make a single sound. From the looks of it, it was obvious how nervous they looked. After all, someone with Valia's status would never step in this place. Only the Zasfin employees responsible for taking care of them would come here, and even that was quite rare.

Well, their conditions weren't bad at all. Other than the fact that they were slaves, they were being more or less well treated. They had good warm clothes. None seemed to be suffering from hunger, disease, or anything like that either. 

Frandin knew why, though. These humans would work on the main estate every day, so they had to look well not to be an eyesore for the masters or the visits. It was an issue of face, that's all.

Sure enough, Valia seemed somewhat annoyed to come here, but she hid it as well as she could. After all, she was the one who left Roan's group here.

They soon entered a house at the center, where the 'human chief' of the Portin Clan's slaves resided. He was also a butler in the main estate who helped with the management. It could be said that his status was the highest it could be, not that it meant anything for the Zasfins.

The guy quickly came forward and bowed after seeing Valia.

"Lady Valia, welcome."

Valia nodded as she asked.

"Where are they?"

"They are inside."

The butler then guided Valia and Frandin to where Roan's group was waiting. Arriving there, Frandin saw Roan lying against the wall on a corner with his eyes closed. As for the girls, they were playing with a few human kids. The girls seemed to be having quite some fun.

"Ahem... everyone, line up. Lady Valia has come to see you all."

Roan opened his eyes as Frandin nodded in his direction.

Calina, Malaka, and Qia also came forward while holding a kid in their arms. They were too cute, so the girls couldn't let them go. Valia narrowed her eyes since it looked like Roan's group didn't care much about her. Nonetheless, she kept her calm.

"Gian, here they are. Come with me so that I can show you your room. As you can see, your humans are being well treated here. If you want, you can leave them in this place until you decide to leave."

Frandin shook his head as he said.

"No, they will come with me to my room. Let's go."

"Yes, young master!"

Valia couldn't help but sigh after hearing that. If the humans stayed with Gian in his room, how could she take advantage of him? Then again, she had to comply with his wishes.

The girls then put the kids back on the ground before petting their heads. The kids obviously liked them as well, so they didn't want to separate. However, the butler immediately called their attention, which made them give up straight away.

As Valia guided them, Frandin talked about what he and Ye Portin discussed.

'I see... So they don't know where it's located. However, they should be able to call them forth if you find a human with high enough Soul Purity.'

Frandin nodded, saying.

'Exactly. You will need to think about how you want to approach this. That Sister Orb of yours said that you and Rean have the purest soul possible, so you can definitely use this method.'

Valia and the others soon arrived in front of a room. It was quite a luxurious one, obviously prepared for important guests. Before she left, she whispered in Frandin's ears once again.

'Don't forget, I'm always available.'

Frandin let out cold sweat but nodded nonetheless. After that, Valia stepped out of the room as she mentioned that she would come by later.

As she did that, Roan asked Sister Orb to look into the room to see if there was any harmful formation laid down.

[There are a few formations, but they're just formations related to the entire state, not only this room. I can't exactly tell what they do without analyzing them first, but it isn't hard to guess. They're protection and anti-Spiritual Sense Formations. In fact, I think one of them is a formation that blocks Soul Power Scanning as well. Unfortunately, they have Soul Runes, so I can't help much with it.]

Roan nodded, not minding it too much.

'Can you see any monitoring formation?'

[Unless I'm wrong about the Soul Runes in this room's formation, then no.]

Roan nodded. He was still using Rean's Light Bending Skill, so he could tell that no one was using Spiritual Sense to check them. Of course, he didn't drop his guard. After all, there was a chance of these Zasfins checking on what they were doing with a simple Soul Power Scan. Frandin had the highest Soul Power in their group, but it was nothing compared to their elders' power. It wouldn't be a surprise if he couldn't feel their presence.

To make things safe, they decided to not send or bring anyone out of the Dimensional Realm. They would only talk through Spiritual Sense as well.

Qia then took the chance to talk first.

'Roan, are you and Rean planning to use that testing equipment to catch the Soul Rulers' attention?'

Roan nodded together with Rean. They already knew that Rean had a connection with Roan and that he could hear everything Roan did as long as Roan allowed it. The opposite was also possible. Rean also used it to tell Agis, who was in the workshop with him, about what was happening.

'It seems like one of the possible options.'

'In fact, the original plan was to have them inviting us inside, right?'

Calina then thought about something else.

'However, you shouldn't come together. Instead, it would be much better if only one of you was caught while the rest of us stays inside the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm.'

Roan agreed with Calina. Having both of them being captured wouldn't be a good idea. If things turned bad and they put one of them to sleep or something like that, the other could drag the other into the Dimensional Realm. As long as there was no resistance, it would work.

Qia was still worried, though.

'I also want to save those kids. But wouldn't it be too risky?'

Malaka shrugged her shoulders as she replied.

'We don't have much of a choice since we don't know where it's located. Besides, we already discussed that the number of experts there will be too big. Trying to infiltrate it as we did with the Rank Five Bloodline Trial would probably be akin to suicide. Unless, of course, we suddenly increase our cultivations to the Saint Realm and above.'

Everyone immediately shook their heads. Such a thing was obviously impossible in the long term.

Rean then mentioned.

'We can use this method. However, we should first try out other options. Don't you have an invitation from the Asume Clan? You might as well go there and see what they have to say.'

Everyone agreed with that and decided to go pay the Asume Clan a visit the next day.