CHAPTER 61: ROBBING

Rhys felt a smile grow on his face. He gently rubbed Sera’s head as he looked down at her.

"Do you like them?" he asked.

"Yes... yes... papa!" she said, her eyes shining with happiness.

"Okay," Rhys smiled.

He turned around to face the Ashton disciples. He was not wearing his mask. His face was clearly visible.

But his appearance had changed so much since his exile. He was taller, his features were sharper, and his eyes were a bottomless black.

They did not recognise him.

"So," Rhys continued, his voice suddenly cold. "My daughter likes these ores. So you will give us yours as well. Drop them for me."

"What?" The disciple was stunned.

He could not believe what he was hearing. He had offered to pay, and now this stranger was trying to rob them.

Rhys frowned.

He was losing his patience. He activated his Sonic Burst skill, channelling it into his voice.

"I said, DROP!"

The word was a physical force. It hit the disciples like a wave. They all took a step back, their ears ringing.

They looked at Rhys with shock, which quickly turned to rage. One of the young Ashton disciples could not control his anger.

"Bastard...!" he cursed.

The next moment, his body rose into the air. An invisible force pulled him forward. He blinked, and suddenly Rhys’s face was inches from his own.

The boy shivered.

He looked into Rhys’s cold, bottomless eyes. He saw no emotion there, only a deep, terrifying emptiness. He felt like he was looking at death itself.

"Do you want to die?" Rhys asked. His voice was a quiet whisper.

The boy was too scared to speak. He just shook his head, his body trembling. Rhys let him go.

The boy fell to the ground, gasping for air.

The leader of the group, Joric Ashton, looked at his terrified companion, and then at the impossibly powerful man in front of him.

He felt a deep sense of humiliation, but he also knew they had no choice.

"Give him the ores," he said through his teeth.

Unhappily, the disciples took out their own Celestial Ores and threw them on the ground. Rhys calmly collected them all and gave them to a very happy Sera.

Then, without another word, he and Sera turned and walked away, leaving the humiliated disciples behind.

They watched Rhys’s retreating back with pure anger in their eyes. Joric clenched his fists so hard that his knuckles turned white.

"We will not forget this," he whispered to his companions. "When we meet up with the Young Master, we will get our revenge. This man will pay for humiliating the Ashton clan."

His eyes became vicious. He knew their true leader, the real heir of the family, would not let this insult go.

Rhys walked away without a second thought for the angry disciples. Their threats were meaningless to him.

’A Young Master, huh?’ Rhys thought to himself. ’Probably another arrogant fool like the rest of them.’

He had heard about the youngest heir of the Ashtons; after all, they were his family. He was surprisingly named the same as his father, which Rhys found laughable.

He was not worried. In this Labyrinth, family names meant nothing. Only strength mattered. And he was very, very strong.

Sera was happily tapping two of the glowing Celestial Ores together and giggling at the soft chiming sound they made.

Rhys frowned, thinking about the system. The quirky nature of it was absent after he awakened. If he said he didn’t care, that would be a lie.

’May be upgrading?’

A bridge of pure, white light formed in the air before them. It stretched from their small island to a much larger, central island in the distance.

The island was dominated by the ruins of a massive city. Tall, broken towers made of white crystal reached up towards the starlit void like the fingers of a dead giant.

A silent, powerful energy filled the air. Rhys felt his skin tingle. This was the heart of the Sanctum. This was where the final trials would be.

He stepped onto the light bridge, his steps confident. Sera giggled on his shoulders, completely unafraid.

They walked across the bridge, the endless void below them. They did not know that they were being watched.

On another floating island, hidden behind a large, ruined archway, another group of disciples stood in silence.

They wore the elegant blue and gold robes of the Azure Royal Family. They had seen everything. They saw the weak Ashton disciples being saved.

They saw Rhys slaughter the Sanctum Sentinels with a single touch. And they saw him rob the survivors without any mercy.

The leader of the group was a handsome young man with golden hair and sharp, blue eyes. He was Prince Daemon Azure, the heir to the Royal Family.

His face was calm, but inside, he felt a cold fear grip his heart. He had never seen power like that. The man was not just strong.

He was efficient, ruthless, and so dangerous. Such a man shouldn’t exist in their province.

A dark figure stepped out from behind the Prince. The figure was completely covered in a black, shadowy cloak. No part of their body was visible.

It was like a piece of the night sky had come to life.

"What do you make of him, Shade?" Prince Daemon asked. His voice was steady, but it could not hide his inner fear.

The cloaked figure, Shade, seemed to look at Rhys in the distance. Its voice was a low, raspy whisper, like the sound of dry leaves.

"He is dangerous, Your Highness. Very dangerous."

Daemon frowned. He was used to being the most powerful person in any room, and Shade always commented the same.

The feeling of fear was new to him, and he did not like it.

"More dangerous than us, the heirs of the great families?" Daemon grunted.

Shade was silent for a long moment. Then, it spoke again.

"Your Highness, the heirs of the other families are talented. They are strong. But they are like sharp knives. This man is different."

The shadow seemed to shudder. "That man is terrifying. He is more dangerous than all four of you combined."

Prince Daemon felt a chill run down his spine. The Shade was his personal guardian, a being from the netherworld that his trait allowed him to bond with.

Even before the patriarch of his own family, Shade had never shuddered like this. For it to say something like this... it meant the man was a true monster.

Daemon watched as Rhys and Sera reached the large central island. His fear was slowly replaced by a cold determination.

He was the heir of the Azure family. It was his duty to protect the honour and the power of the great families.

"An outsider like this cannot be allowed to exist," Daemon said, his voice cold and hard. "He is too powerful and too unpredictable. He holds too many of the Labyrinth’s secrets. He must be eliminated."

He took out a small, glowing talisman from his pouch. It was a communication device that could connect him to the other heirs.

He poured a small amount of his Qi into it.

"Aiden Thorne," he spoke into the talisman. "This is Prince Daemon."

A moment later, a rough, angry voice came from the talisman.

"Daemon. What do you want? Have you found any treasures?"

"I have found something better," Daemon said. "I have found the man who robbed you in the ash plains. He is here, in the central Sanctum."

There was a moment of silence. Then, Aiden’s voice came back, full of rage.

"How did you know that? Wait... is he your man? Daemon, I swear, if so, then I will carve your fucking head into a toilet bowl."

Daemon lips twitched.

’Should I cancel asking for an alliance with this idiot?’