At the Medici mansion.
Chaos had escalated a notch higher with the patriarch's prompt arrival and Kale's sudden disappearance.
This took the guards and servants by surprise; none had noticed the seventh young master's absence, had it not been for Lydia, who had burst into the empty room.
"Where is he? The young master is not at the training camp!"
"Just now! Why did he have to disappear when we were so busy?"
"The knights still haven't found any trace of the young master."
In one of the rooms, there were Lydia, Sophie, and Alessia, who were pacing back and forth.
"Still no news of my son?" she asked worriedly.
"No, Lady Alessia. We already sent the gentlemen to search outside, even in the city, as he is nowhere to be found in the mansion," Sophie replied with what had been reported to her.
"Lydia, you don't know where my son might be. You are his exclusive servant," Alessia shot her a desperate look. She was very worried about her son's safety. To her, Kael was her greatest treasure; the patriarch's arrival took a back seat.
Lydia bit her lip in frustration. In these past two months, after Kael had been struck by the brood of the blue three-horned horse, she had found it very difficult to read him or even know what he had planned.
Now, she knew absolutely nothing about this new version of the seventh young master, and that terrified her.
"My lady... I don't know where the young master might be. Since the blow he received from the blue three-horned horse, he has changed too much." Her voice at first was restrained, until she said what she had observed in those two months.
Alessia, hearing this, sat with her hand on her head. Worry was killing her; with so many people targeting both her and her son, she couldn't help but think of the worst possible outcome.
Was he kidnapped, was he killed, is he all right, why did he suddenly disappear? All these questions ran through her mind. Besides, there were many mystical powers, and so Kael's disappearance could not be a coincidence.
The door to the room suddenly opened, and a knight in black armor entered.
"My lady, one of our members, Damon, is also missing. We suspect he went after the seventh young master or the people who kidnapped him," Junius reported, kneeling on one leg.
"Really? I just hope my son is okay," Alessia sighed, fixing her gaze on the dark, cloud-covered sky.
Outside the Medici mansion.
The news of Kael's disappearance had spread like wildfire.
Within hours, rumors were circulating the city:
"What, the bastard son disappeared?"
"Hahaha, maybe he ran away to avoid embarrassment at the awakening ceremony."
"Better that he disappeared; at last, the Medici Clan won't have to be embarrassed."
Those rumors reached a group of people from the Lion Kingdom who were staying at Kiran Mountain, the territory of the Medici Clan.
"Zephyr's son is missing? No one knows where he is?"
One of the group, reddish-haired, pondered, leaning back in the chair as he bit into a purple apple.
"Maybe he was the victim of a Zu Master; those guys manipulate the Zu and have a lot of unique powers," commented another with some concern.
"What does that have to do with us? This could be a golden opportunity. If we kidnap Zephyr's son, our king will give us a great reward."
The leader of the group, a nobleman from the Kingdom of Lion, looked at them without a word. His fingers tapped the table slowly as he remained deep in thought.
"Mr. Dair, think it over," insisted one of those present. "He's that bastard's son. Besides, we've been on this mountain for more than three months. This is our chance."
The room fell silent, and the weight of those words settled in the air.
Everyone knew what he was implying. They could take the boy and get a juicy reward from their king. Or even sell him to an enemy family.
"You think too lightly," replied Dair in a cold voice. "If it were that easy to kidnap a young master, we wouldn't be here. Stop these stupid ideas. Besides, if a Zu Master kidnapped him, we would only be seeking our demise."
Dair was also a Zu Master, but the Zu under his possession were not powerful enough to stand against a lone Zu Master, especially if he surpassed his power.
Hearing his words, the men sighed, disappointed, and realized that they had underestimated the situation.
"As was to be expected from Mr. Dair," muttered one, bowing his head. "His wisdom is unparalleled."
...
In the cave, someone's voice was suddenly heard.
Kael couldn't help but feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and his scalp go numb.
He had been followed!
Could it be that, as he was leaving the mansion, someone had seen him and followed him?
In his mind, he even thought about whether one of the residents of the city or a guard had recognized him and followed him.
In that brief instant, countless ideas and conjectures went through his mind, in addition to thinking of a solution.
Kael noticed that the brief sentence was laden with strong murderous intent. This made his heart clench: he had not yet awakened his mana core, and his strength was only that of a trained adult male; this equated to his combat strength being very low. How was he supposed to fight?
"Why are you so still, young master? Did you not expect to be followed here?" The voice behind him sounded closer and closer.
"But you know one thing, young master, this is a perfect opportunity. With your death, the fourth young master will reward me with becoming a knight under his ranks. I've been a nameless dog in this manor for years. With your corpse, my life will change."
Kael gritted his teeth with a cold expression. He said quietly, "What do you want? If it's the Zu, you can take it. I don't need to die for it."
He turned around slowly and carefully, taking in the appearance of the man at his back. He had black hair, brown eyes; his appearance was not very remarkable, but the aura he gave off now was very dangerous.
It was Damon.
"Hehehe, young master, you are too considerate, offering me a Zu. But why should I leave you alive? I can kill you and take it, right?" Damon chuckled in amusement, mischievously, as he stood only inches away from Kael, looking into his deep black eyes.
Damon was always a hungry worm. But I didn't remember him as reckless. Could it be that I underestimated him in my past life? Seeing that he had no escape, Kael asked a simple question, "How did you notice me?"
"It was pretty easy. I saw you as you were running past on the south lawn. At the time, I was doing it with a maid, and we saw you speeding past." Damon explained, as his gaze drifted to the ceiling, remembering how he was having sex with a maid.
The instant Damon turned his gaze to the ceiling, Kael seized the opportunity. His muscles tensed like released springs, and he launched a brutal blow aimed at the neck, seeking to end the fight in one move.
Damon's eyes widened, and the world seemed to slow down. He hadn't expected a simple carelessness to leave him so exposed! He tried to react, but it was too late.
He took a step back, but Kael's fist reached him with lethal precision, impacting directly into his chest.
BANG!
A dry sound echoed in the cave, like the sound of a hammering against a rock. The air escaped violently from Damon's lungs, and a surge of pain bent him in half. His knees hit the ground hard as he struggled to catch his breath.
Kael gave him no chance to recover. With the precision of a predator, he unloaded a barrage of punches, each impact aimed at a vital point: the solar plexus, the jaw, the ribs. Years of experience allowed him to read Damon's body like an open book, anticipating every miss, every opening.
Under the brutal assault, Damon staggered. His consciousness was clouding, his chest burning under suffocating pressure. He could not breathe. There was no room to fight back, no room even to think.
Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! The darkness dragged him, and his muscles no longer responded. He didn't even have the strength to scream.
Three minutes. That was all he resisted before collapsing to the ground, unconscious. Kael did not waste the moment. He gathered his last strength in his right leg and raised his axe like an executioner.
The impact was grotesque.
A wet crunch echoed through the cave as his heel crushed Damon's skull like a ripe fruit. Blood and brain mass splattered his black Taoist robe, staining it bright red. Teeth and bone fragments flew against the walls, sticking with a viscous splat before sliding to the floor.
Silence.
Only Kael's controlled breathing broke the emptiness. He stared at the corpse with cold eyes, without a hint of remorse.
"If you're going to kill someone... You can't be so trusting."