After becoming an Inner Disciple, Souta learned a lot of things about the Mince Hand. The school was founded thousands of years ago. It was the glory days of the Mince Hand and their forces couldn't be compared right now. The vast difference made the higher-ups of the Mince Hand sigh deeply.
The declining stage of the school began hundreds of years ago when a war occurred in the Hall Plains. Exactly nine hundred ten years when various organizations attacked the overlord of this land, the Hall of Power. It was a terrifying war that shook the entire region.
Darkness covered the sky as flames and lightning spread destruction.
Millions of experts battled in the land and sky, day and night.
Countless innocent people perished and their blood dyed the entire land in red.
Wails and grief of the dead people turned into malice as a powerful necromancer turned the corpses into undead.
The war lasted for several years. It destroyed more than sixty percent of the entire population of the Hall Plains, leaving it in a crippled state.
The Hall of Power was gone and only those second-rate organizations were left in the Hall Plains. What happened next was worse. Those schools and other organizations scrambled for power. Each of them wanted to become an overlord so they fought and fought until they exhausted themselves.
The group that won was the Imperial Family which was currently in the central area of Hall Plains. While everyone was fighting, the ancestor of the Imperial Family gathered people and stop the never-ending war in their land.
The Mince Hand was one of the organizations that fought for the overlord position. In the end, they lose their high level experts leaving the school to defend for itself.
"So that's how it is..." Souta closed the book in his hand. He turned his head and glanced at the beautiful woman next to him. "Senior Sister, did you find anything?"
Heili looked at him with an apologetic expression. She shook her head and said, "I'm sorry Junior Brother, I can't find anything about the founding of the school."
"This is the oldest record in our library. We can't do anything about it." Souta shrugged his shoulder.
"Maybe, we can find records in other schools." Heili suddenly said.
"Other schools?" Souta raised his eyebrows. "Is there any organization that survived that calamity like our school?"
"If I'm not wrong, two from the Hundred Face Alliance had a vast history like our own. Maybe, they preserve information about the events before the war." Heili placed her finger on her lip as she pondered.
"I see..." Souta nodded.
"Maybe, the headmaster knows something that we don't know," Heili added.
That's for sure. Souta agreed with that. The headmaster should know how the Mince Hand was founded thousands of years ago. There's also a possibility that the history of Mince Hand disappeared in that war.
Souta stood up. He looked at Heili and said, "Thank you for accompanying me here, Senior Sister. I think we should return now. I have to continue my training."
"No problem, Junior Brother." Heili flashed a bright smile.
Souta went back to his residence and quickly entered Saya's inner consciousness. He started training the [Divine Dark Circulation] to achieve the Third Stage.
As for the [Archetype: Vajra Extremity], Souta left it to Saya to figure out a way for him to reach the higher level. In his hand, this skill was weaker since he didn't have the right affinity and ability to produce its strongest force. What he could create was simply an imitation of a legendary ability.
A medium. It seems that there's still a long way to go before he could reach the top brass.
Souta couldn't help but glance at the quest in the system.
'Core Disciple...'
He already knew how to become a Core Disciple of Mince Hand. One was to complete the Fifth Stage of [Divine Dark Technique] and challenge a Core Disciple to a battle. Once he defeated the Core Disciple, Souta would get the seat of that disciple.
It was easy. The only problem was the Fifth Stage. It would take a while before Souta attained that level.
...
Bland City.
The Dragon Council was in the middle of a meeting.
There were seven people sitting around the round table. They were the Heads of the Dragon Council called Nine Heads. Right now, two of the Heads of the count were absent from the meeting, the Second Head and Seventh Head.
"I've already spread out my forces to cover the perimeter of the Mine Valley. They will inform us once they saw people outside." Ray, the First Head, said.
"Seventh Head agreed with our plan. He sent his forces to help Second Head in the three cities." Jovi, Fourth Head, added.
"We should take one of the three cities as soon as possible. I'm currently working on advancing my forces to the next level. I've used too much resources and I need more." Eight Head said.
"Me too. I've consumed a lot of resources." Ninth Head added.
The Dragon Council was tight on resources. There was a battle ongoing in the three cities so they needed to supply their soldiers there. They never imagine that the situation in Mine Valley would escalate this quickly.
"We'll take over the three cities soon," Ray said with a serious expression. He was determined to take those three cities. The only problem was those organizations outside that were eyeing the Mine Valley.
He swept his eyes across the people in the room. He slowly opened his mouth and said, "I think I'll have to show everyone something..."
The rest of the Heads turned silent as they stared at Ray. They could feel the seriousness in his voice so they knew what he was about to say was important.
"Follow me... I can't talk about it." Ray simply said before he stood up without explaining.
Everyone was curious so they followed behind him. Even Third Head woke up and stared at Ray curiously.
"We have to keep this secret and bury it in our hearts. I'm going to call Second Head and Seventh Head soon. We need to increase our strength."
...
The chief of a town brought every people that enter the town in the past two days in front of Franklin. They were shivering in fear as they could feel the cold and pressuring aura around the famous Face Changing Demon.
'It's not him...'
Franklin examined them one by one as he used his mana to pry their power level. Their power level was simply too low. C-rank and B-rank experts. He could easily kill these people if he wasn't careful.
He stood and felt something wrong. With his countless experience, he realized that danger was approaching. His energy burst out of him, blowing the people around him.
Franklin quickly flew to the sky but then a huge magic circle appeared on the ground. The amount of energy it possessed was tremendous and he could already imagine what would happen next.
"Damn! They got me!"
Franklin smiled as he looked at the sky. A pillar of energy descended, smashing his figure to the ground. Then, several people jumped out from the shadows and threw various spells.
BOOM!!!
Flames, lightning, water, ice, and light bore down pulverizing the area. In an instant, dozens of spells were used and half of the town had vanished. A lot of people got caught in the attacks. They died painlessly as the powerful spells instantly disintegrated their fragile bodies. Some people survived but their conditions weren't optimistic. They would die if they didn't receive immediate first aid.
The man who was called Golden Palm emerged from the shadows and stared at the explosion. The aura around him was menacing.
"I know him... This is not enough to kill him." Golden Palm said plainly. Franklin was chasing him for a long time and he had an idea about Franklin's strength. He doesn't underestimate the man that could chase him all the way here.
Boom!!
A powerful surged out blowing the smoke and dust away. Franklin's appearance had already changed. He didn't look like a human at all. He's a massive piece of flesh with various spikes. He used the ability of the Parasitic Essence Eater to the fullest.
"I just plan on giving up but I didn't expect that you would try to trap me," Franklin said with a huge grin, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth.
"Hmph!" Golden Palm snorted as he raised his hand and slapped heavily in Franklin's direction.
Massive energy converged and assembled into a huge golden palm that shot forward with insane speed. It feels like it covered heaven and earth.
"Using the same skill again to this old man." Franklin leaped in the air and swung the sharp blades in his hand.
BAM!!
The two attacks collided turning the whole town upside down.
Franklin was thrown away and crashed on the ground causing a huge crater. His eyes shrank as he hurriedly move his body to the side.
The next moment, a huge force heavily smashed on his previous location. The force behind it caused a powerful shockwave that uprooted the nearby trees.
'It seems that I need to report this to Souta...' Franklin narrowed his eyes.
