Inspector and Return

Lord Inspector Theodoric Hyjilh was elected to be the leader of the expedition sent to the Frost Qi Forest. As an official from the fortress city of Musalyum he was both impartial and powerful. Having been one of the few individuals who had reached the The Soul Ascending Realm. Each of the ten strongest sects nearby had sent their own representatives and their retinue to investigate the occurrence.

The vortex had been so large and powerful that every single long range scrying artefact had detected it the second it had occurred. Such an event was rare. Very rare. Either a hidden expert of some unknown artefact of monstrous power could create such an event.

"Lord Inspector!" A young girl from the Dragon Spirit Sect ran up and addressed him.

"Yes, what do you have to report, girl?" He gruffly asked, his flanking bodyguards ready for any treachery. You never knew the ambitions of the sects.

"We have managed to locate the epicentre of the event and we await your permission to move in with the detection artefacts."

That was rather quick for a bunch of witless fools. He would be able to tell much more with just a flare of his willpower, but the master had told him to use the opportunity to foster goodwill and cooperation with the sects. They were needed for defence in case of an invasion after all.

"Proceed then girl, I will accompany you." He told her, watching her nod and leave.

He followed behind as the team set up multiple instruments that measured a wide spectrum of information on the world. From the flow of Qi to the temperature itself. His own hypothesis was most likely some form of twisted experiment gone wrong. But he cared not to use a technique to confirm it unless necessary.

"We can confirm that the Qi was completely drained dry from the forest! It was all drained into this cave like a whirlpool, for what purpose I could not say Lord Inspector!" One of the disciples informed him.

"Continue working." He ordered.

After a while he received a report that he had wanted.

"Lord Inspector! We can confirm that someone was at the epicentre during the event and survived!"

That was all the confirmation he needed. Someone had done this on purpose. Ruined the ecosystem and a hunting ground for their own vile gains. If this continued happening to other sites of interest it would cause a disaster. It could be a one off occurrence of it could be the start of something massive. Either way he couldn't take the risk.

"Send a report back to the city. Also, prepare teams to patrol every other Qi source within ten thousand miles of the city, I want everything on watch."

"Yes Lord Inspector!" They replied and began carrying out their orders.

Meanwhile, Kalum had just finished murdering every single creature he could reasonably fight. He avoided every single Demon Beast that was higher realm than he was. If anyone had caught him in the act he would have been mercilessly killed. While everyone allowed everyone else to hunt in these sites, overhunting was strictly forbidden.

Hence why Kalum had smartly legged it after he completed his slaughter without even looking back. He had gained a large amount of Demon Beast cores from the creatures killed let alone form the System as well.

He took a moment to go over his gains. He had gained four Core Creation Realm Cores from lucky multipliers or combining the prizes of the same slain creature. He had also managed to get one eighty Qi Soaring Realm Cores and three hundred and ten Qi Gathering Realm Cores. This was a haul that was sure to get him the amounts of funds he needed. His goal was The Unbridled Wrath of the Blight Wood, the powerful weapon he had seen in Musalyum. If he could harvest enough soul-power he had a feeling it would suffice as payment rather than his own soul.

It was time to head back to Musalyum and sell of his gains. He was aware that it was slightly suspicious to be selling so many, so he planned to bulk sell the Qi Gathering Realm and Qi Soaring Realm cores to Elder Pultho. The Core Creation Cores could be auctioned off at the auction house.

He had even gained a very powerful Core Creation Realm Core! It was from a Summer Twin Headed Boar and it was in the 9th Core Creation Realm! Such an extremely powerful Demon Beast core was sure to be valuable, even if the creature it was from was unremarkable. Even Kalum had heard of them so it was likely not a rarity.

Before he could head back however, there was one thing he had to do. He hid the letter he had gained from Elder Pultho and placed it beneath a large ice sculpture relatively near the Rocky Grove. He then created a mission for Castella to retrieve and open the letter, something would take her some time, and he would be in the city around the time she opened it. The perfect ploy to take the heat off himself. Elder Pultho had mentioned that the letter had a feature allowing one to see when it was opened, a perfect ploy if Kalum did say so himself.

With his letter well hidden and the mission sent to Castella, Kalum made his way towards Musalyum as stealthy as he could. He was coming from a completely different angle and thus would have different sects territories to cut across.

Hopefully no one noticed him and he could pass unmolested and untaxed. The System's he had access to did not provide any sort of inventory, so although his gains from the System were protected until he withdrew them, the ones he got from the creatures themselves were not. If not for his Qi Dampening Backpack he would be a shining beacon for all to rob.

Well what was the worst that could happen?