More than a dozen Magi had gathered near a tall waterfall situated in a certain part of the secret plane. The common similarity amongst the Magi—except for them being Rank 1, of course—was that they were all humans.
A lot of the Magi present were wearing hooded, orange cloaks, indicating that they were students of the Murphy Academy. While some of the other Magi were middle-aged men and women, donning the emblem of a particular Magus Family.
The Gracie Magus Family!
Kevin, who was standing with his arms crossed, spoke to the Magi subordinates of his family in a commanding tone, "That bastard must die, you hear me? I don't care if you have to sacrifice your life. Kill him at all costs!"
"Yes, young master!"
"Leave it to us."
"He's just a Bone Stage Magus. How hard can it be?"
"Just a Bone Stage?" Kevin coldly looked at the subordinate who had spoken last and scoffed. "When he was just a Muscle Stage Magus he was able to survive the assassination attempts of two Organ Stage Magi."
The youth paused for a moment, looked at all of his subordinates in the eye, and then spoke through gritted teeth, "It is still unknown whether those assassins are alive. They most likely aren't. Do not take this lightly!"
Kevin's subordinates thought that he was simply being paranoid. After all, there was no way a Muscle Stage Magus could fight two levels above and defeat not one but two Organ Stage Magi.
If anything, they thought that Adam must surely have received external help. However, they didn't dare to voice out their opinions in front of their young master.
While they were talking, another group of Magi approached them from a distance. Kevin and the rest of the Magi turned vigilant, but when they saw who it was, they relaxed.
Kevin glanced at the youth leading this new group of Magi and smirked, "Took you long enough."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Jeffrey harrumphed. "Do you have any idea the shit I've had to go through?"
"Yeah, about that." Kevin waved his hand in a bored manner. "I don't care."
"Hmph!" Jeffrey snorted in displeasure. But he didn't mind Kevin's behavior. He had already gotten used to it over the years. But still, he didn't like being bossed around, especially considering they both were A-grade talents.
"Anyway, look who I found." The youth pointed his thumb at a student from the Murphy Academy standing behind him.
Kevin looked over with slightly furrowed eyebrows. "Who the hell is he?"
The person in question came forward and respectfully bowed with his right hand on his chest. "Lord Kevin, my name is Curt Whittaker."
"Curt Whittaker?" Kevin raised his eyebrow, trying to recall this youth.
"The person who's going to help us divine Adam's location," Jeffrey stated in annoyance.
"Ah!" Kevin finally remembered. He walked up to Curt with a wide smile on his face and placed a hand on his shoulder. "So, Curt. Have you finished your preparations?"
Curt glanced at Kevin's face and then immediately lowered his head. Although the latter appeared to be smiling, to Curt, the smile was anything but friendly.
He nervously gulped and replied, "Yes, my lord."
Then, he took out two blood-stained arrows from his satchel and showed them to Kevin. "I was able to find these arrows. They are stained with the blood of the person you're looking for."
"Oh?" Kevin's eyes lit as he reached for the arrows. "Good job!"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})However, Curt hurriedly moved them away, causing Kevin's eyes to narrow. Curt gathered the courage and asked, "M-My lord, about that recommendation letter?"
Kevin lowered his hand and returned to his usual self. He replied with a charming smile, "Of course."
He took out a rolled parchment paper from his storage artifact and showed its contents to Curt. It was only for a brief moment, however, before Kevin put it away.
"Rest assured, I will hand this to you after you've done your part," Kevin solemnly stated, "I swear it in the name of my family."
Curt displayed extreme enthusiasm after having confirmed that the recommendation letter was legit. He bowed sincerely. "Leave it to me, Lord Kevin. I will begin setting up a ritual to aid in the divination."
"Good." Kevin nodded with a succinct reply.
He then looked around at the people gathered and confirmed that the number was close to thirty. Although he had gathered fifty people before entering the secret plane, the rest of the people had yet to arrive.
He believed that they had either died or were on the way here. Either way, he believed that he would be able to easily take care of Adam with the number of people he had already gathered.
Besides, he also had a contingency plan which was sure to kill Adam if by chance everything else failed. Kevin had gone to great lengths to acquire this item from the patriarch of the Gracie Family himself!
Just thinking of the scene where Adam lay at his feet, begging for his life, Kevin couldn't help but smile cruelly.
"Hehe, just you wait, you bastard."
…
Almost a week after entering the valley, Adam and Valerian found themselves witnessing quite a bizarre scene. They found themselves standing in front of a humongous banyan tree.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})What caused the two to be dumbstruck was that, first of all, the large tree had colorful eggs growing on them, instead of fruits. And secondly, a large number of crazy baboons were blocking their path!
"You stupid monkeys! Let me pass!" Adam roared.
He had tried many times to get past them, but the moment he did, countless baboons would come forth and beat the living daylights out of him. By now he had realized that he had to fulfill a certain requirement for the baboons to let him pass.
The only reason Adam hadn't tried to kill them yet was because the baboons didn't display any bloodlust or killing intent toward him. If anything, it seemed like they were simply playing around with him.
Seeing Adam scream like a lunatic, the baboons pointed at him and started to laugh. Some of them even turned around and flaunted their pink buttocks at him, clearly taunting him.
When Adam saw them doing this, veins throbbed on his forehead. He bit his lower lip and clenched his fists.
"Fine, you monkey bastards!" The youth finally gave in and walked toward the banyan tree. "Have it your way."
The baboons started jumping around and cheered excitedly. They made way for the stupid human, thinking they had managed to dupe yet another Magus.
Adam finally made his way under the tree. There, he saw a large baboon with a long scar on his chest and about two meters tall in height, standing with his arms crossed and looking at him with a smirk.
A few baboons bought a large rock with a flat surface and placed them between Adam and the large baboon.
The large baboon placed his elbow on the rock and then condescendingly beckoned at Adam. The youth placed his elbow on the rock and then grasped the baboon's hand.
Seeing that both participants were ready, the hundreds of baboons surrounding them screamed in excitement.
After repeated attempts, Adam realized that the only way to get past these baboons was…
Defeating their leader in a match of arm wrestling!
