Chapter 66: Taking Action
The forest was dark as the dusk was slowly and steadily enveloping the realm. The trees had begun to cast long shadows that were gradually melding into the surroundings. Among the shadows, one of them felt out of place. It was also the only one to move forward to the outpost in the Bareback mountains. This was the shadow Punya had sent as a messenger. The outpost of the Rijal clan was lively. There were a lot of Rijal clan members inside the outpost. Previously there were only hundreds or so members and there was fear of some unknown beasts sneaking upon them which caused the atmosphere to be filled with tension and alertness. But now there were almost a thousand members here and it was gradually transforming into the second residence of the clan.
Although the members of the Rijal clan here didn’t know about the power of Battle hall, they knew they were strong as they frequented the inner region of the Bareback mountains. And what’s more there was Radha here which would make this place almost as safe as the clan compound. Some of the array masters from the clan had come here to stay and placed a few arrays like protection, spirit energy gathering, concealment, illusion, and warning arrays surrounding the outpost. This was why the members of the clan here were confident no beasts would be able to cross the threshold without the notification from the array.
There were barely any strong beasts near the outpost due to the frenzied hunting and even if there were some left, with the number of cultivators presiding here, there was nothing left to fear. Radha was still training the Battle hall members. She had specially requested Keshab to put the illusion array in the training ground so the Battle hall members would get used to the battlefield. The members were sweating profusely and some were taking the pills and some were eating the food prepared by Amrit. But one thing common was that there was no rest. Radha was strict with her training and due to the results, the Battle hall members also adhered to it as there was no one in the cultivation world who didn’t want to get stronger. And they also had nowhere to complain, no one in the clan would dare upset Radha for their sake.
As Radha was pointing out their mistakes and suggesting them she became alert. She drew her sword and slashed the ground. Immediately her shadow broke and a man covered in black with no distinctive feature appeared in the distance. She was about to slash when she noticed the faint red insignia on the chest of the black shadow. She understood it was her husband’s guard. She looked at the shadow and asked “What do you have for me?” Although she and Punya had tried to communicate with the shadows previously, they couldn’t get them to talk. The only way to communicate with them was through command and exchanging the message or information was through jade slip. Seeing the shadow in person, Radha knew it was something important, Punya rarely used shadows as messengers.
The shadow still silent threw a jade slip towards her. She caught it and used her divine sense to read the message. Her brows frowned while reading the message, there was anger, killing intent, and helplessness in her expression. Although she was stubborn and would beat any clan members disturbing her, she truly cared for her own. This was why she forced Punya to sacrifice blood essence just to confirm the safety of her daughter and daily sacrificed her blood to know her wellbeing. When the message said that a few members were killed outside, her killing intent leaked. The Battle hall members training inside illusion were scared, they didn’t know what new enemy appeared.
But Punya had specifically said to respect the Sixth elder’s decision and not to act on her own. He had comforted her by asking her to send half of the foundation building realm cultivators to track the perpetrators in the shops and to kill them if they were outside the city. This made her happy and well this would at least be a small revenge. More will come later but for now, she will make do with it. She engraved some information on the jade slip and gave it to the shadow. The shadow flickered and disappeared in the blink of an eye. ‘She will endure this but when the time comes she will be sure to bathe the city in their blood’ she thought quietly and looked at the Battle hall members on the training ground and waved her hands for the training to stop.
The array was instantly deactivated and the Battle hall members were brought to reality. They were still full of killing intent. Although it paled in compared with what Radha had, their killing intent was slowly increasing. They had faced countless life and death battles in the illusion array and few in the wilderness, this had not only made them adept in individual battles and teamwork, this also increased their cultivation because of the pills and spirit food. Almost half of the expenditure in the clan nowadays was made or them.
They had the most intense training, and the most number of pills, every top quality pill went to them, the spirit food was only enjoyed by the Battle hall members in the whole clan, and now Radha had even commissioned new weapon upgrades for them. They were pampered through and through but they had also put their life on line exploring the inner region of the Bareback mountains. And now she had chosen twelve initial foundation building realm cultivators to track down the perpetrators. Though there were no outstanding martial arts about tracking in the Rijal clan, having lived on the Bareback mountains and exploring the new region, these cultivators were somewhat experienced in tracking.
Moreover, they were in the foundation building realm so the divine sense would help them to some extent. After Radha instructed those twelve clan members, they left for the city without delay. In Battle hall her word was the law. Seeing the twelve members leaving she looked at the remaining members and said “Gather the other team. From tomorrow we will stop the exploring of the inner region temporarily. As for the patrol delegate to other members of the clan. You will increase your training intensity. I want to see daily improvement.” When she had sent a message on the jade slip to Punya previously, she had sent the plan she announced. She knew her actions would put serious strain on the clan finances, it would also drastically improve the combat prowess. This was also her compensation for staying put.