Evil Samurai In Cultivation World

Suddenly, his eyes opened with surprise visible in them. He had noticed something!

He then turned his head towards the cupboard, which had a portrait of a girl, most likely that of Elizabeth's, on it, and he slowly began walking towards it. "Well, well, well… Look what we have here!" He stood in front of the cupboard and grabbed the portrait with his hands, and pulled it closer to his face as he began inhaling once again.

As the air surrounding the portrait entered into his nostrils, Gaston could identify various types of odour that were present on this picture. There was odour from the marketplace in Soderberg, body odour of Elizabeth herself, as well as someone else's…. Someone who's odour was fairly recent.

A devious smile appeared on Gaston's face as he muttered to himself, "Found you!"

With a satisfied expression, Gaston turned around and shifted his gaze towards the small desk, and began walking towards it.

KZZZ!

He then knelt down in front of the desk and pushed it aside, and then pressed his finger on a specific spot on the wall, which resulted in a small portion of the wall being flung open, revealing the small keyhole inside.

He then took out another small key from his pocket and pushed it inside the keyhole, and the wall opened up, revealing the hidden section to Gaston, who stared at the secret cabinet with furrowed eyes.

He then closed his eyes and inhaled, trying to study the scents that were emitting from the cabinet.

"I knew he was here…" He muttered to himself as he opened his eyes and he lowered his hands and began rummaging through the hidden cabinet. 

"I can still feel the scent of a few documents that aren't present inside the cabinet right now…" He whispered softly as he placed the pile of paper that was left in the cabinet back in order.

After going through the documents and papers that were left inside the hidden section, Gaston then closed up the secret cabinet and pulled the desk back to hide the section once again, and he left the room, closing it while leaving. 

------- EVIL SAMURAI IN CULTIVATION WORLD -------

Soderberg city. Underneath the Azure Lion Clan Mansion, inside the sewers.

The giant with a long beard, Barris, was waiting outside the giant hole for Gaston to arrive. 

"Gaston, where…" Feeling impatient about waiting for Gaston for so long, Barris began whispering softly to himself as he tried to think of ways to spend time.

Barris, who has always been a metally challenged person, only had a close relationship with Gaston. Although Gaston was mean to him most of the time, Barris always tolerated him, as he was the only one whom he felt attached to.

Barris was afraid of being alone, and so, even if Gaston was mean to him, and even if he doesn't apologize or show remorse for his actions, Barris would always forgive him in his mind, as he was the only one who was there for him.

"God damn it! Not this again…" All of a sudden, a soft voice began echoing through the sewer, and Barris immediately became alert. He looked around to see where the voice was coming from, only to realize that it was coming from the giant hole. The same hole that Gaston had gone through!

Barris was always a bit slow, but once he was able to figure out the situation, he relaxed a bit and his eyes sparkled, as he missed his dear friend too much.

Splash!

A figure shot out from the hole and landed right into the dirty water inside the sewer, and Barris waved his hands innocently at the person who was lying in the sewage. "Gaston! Gaston, it's me, Barris…" He said as he pointed at himself.

"Shut up, you idiot!" Gaston, who was visibly disgusted by the situation that he was in, was irritated by Barris's words and snapped at him, causing Barris to lower his head as he muttered softly, "Yes, Gaston..."

"God damn it! I hate my life..." Gaston got up from the water and began trying to get rid of the waste materials that got stuck to him when he fell into the sewage water, but after a few minutes of struggling, he found that it wouldn't make any difference and just gave up. 

He wanted to throw up, but realized that throwing up right now would only make things even more worse, and decided against it.

"Why am I even sitting here? I should get out of this sh*thole as soon as possible!" Gritting his teeth, Gaston turned his gaze around to look at Barris and with an annoyed expression on his face, he said, "Let's get out of here!"

Barris, confused by his words, tilted his head to the side and looked at him with an innocent expression, which simply irritated Gaston even more. 

"What the hell are you looking at? Huh?!" He clicked his tongue and spoke to Barris in a dissatisfied voice, and continued. "I found the guy's scent. He's somewhere in the Clawferry Prefecture, most likely a resident in Dawsbury city but I'm not too sure about that part. Oh well, I guess we'll find out soon enough!"

"Gaston found man?!" Barris's eyes widened with surprise and Gaston massaged his temples, trying his very best to keep himself in check. He was having a very bad day, and he felt like Barris's antics were testing his patience. "What the hell were you listening to? God! Yes, I did find out the man's location. Try to keep up, alright? Now don't just stand there, follow me!"

"Yes, Gaston..." Barris nodded his head as he followed Gaston close behind, and together they exited out of the sewers, heading out into the darkness.

At the same time, inside the Azure Lion Clan Mansion.

BAM!

An explosion burst open the door to Elizabeth Carter's room, and a black robed figure entered the room, turning his head to survey the interior before making his way inside.

He then waved his hands around in the air, and all of a sudden, multiple strands of light particles shot out from his fingertips, and spread through the room.

The man wearing the black robe then raised his hands high into the air and began mumbling something, and all of a sudden, the strands of light particles began to shine brightly, enveloping the entire room in a thick white light, before snapping back to normal brightness in a split second.

The man furrowed his eyes and after a brief second, he said, "So it is as I've feared… there's been a leak of information."

*****************

"Wait… so you're telling me that they stood in front of you and tried to bully you?" Senior Wilfred Beldon, who was watching Claude train inside the training grounds sector, asked out loudly with surprise.

"Yup!" Claude nodded his head as he summoned his katana and began swinging it towards the ground, causing a loud explosion as the ground began to shake violently. "He actually thought that he could get away with it because he had support."

"Didn't he see you fight alongside their- I mean our master back in Josenheim?" Beldon asked, and Claude nodded his head in confirmation. "Apparently, I only stood around and did nothing."

"Wow.." Beldon whispered quietly to himself as he listened to Claude's words. "That is one messed up kid right there. Is he delusional or something?"

"Who? Ian?" Claude thought for a second and replied. "Probably, yeah… Although I do think his sentiment is shared by many within the Grand Astral Faction."

"Thinking that you did absolutely nothing but stand around during the fight back in Josenheim?" Beldon asked jokingly and Claude let out a short chuckle and shook his head. "No, no… I meant that there are people looking down on us because we're from a different faction."

"Oh yeah, that's pretty common." Senior Beldon nodded his head, agreeing with Claude's words. "It was there back when our faction was intact, it's still there now." 

He shrugged his shoulders, and continued. "It's to be expected, that was how fierce the rivalry between the two elders were. But I guess the only thing that we can do is to show them our strength and force them to submit."

"I guess..." Claude nodded his head after a brief period of contemplation, and he continued with his training. Senior Beldon continued to watch Claude train, and after half an hour, Claude stopped his practice to cool off for a few minutes.

"Taking a break so soon?" Senior Beldon asked, and Claude nodded. "I wasn't planning on pushing my abilities to the limits today. It may be a good strategy to break through a bottleneck and to reach the next rank, but it's simply too tiresome to drain all the spiritual energy, especially with all the high energy draining techniques that I have in my arsenal."

He then stopped for a second, looking at his summoned katana and continued, "That said, I do need to find a way to extend my energy. These summoned weapons drain too much energy continuously."

"How do you plan on doing that?" Senior Beldon asked, and Claude said with a smile, "Of course, by using a real sword!"