The Innkeeper

"William, if this lead is real, we won't need to worry about accumulating credit to help you heal at all. We can directly ask the Henali to help you recover to your peak state and still have some credit leftover."

"To be honest, even I am surprised by this outcome. Back then, I acted out on a whim, but who knew it would pay off," said William with a clear look of disbelief on his face.

Their three brothers, Batu, Henry and Nisar, also accompanied them. For them all to gather like this, outside of the Midnight Inn, where they could all teleport to, was a rare occasion and showed how significant this event was. If all went well, they could also gain a few benefits this time. But, more importantly, they had important matters to handle afterwards.

The Jotun empire had decided to move out of the Pendal galaxy for various reasons, and as the heads of the empire, they had to ensure that the most important and sensitive secrets of the empire were either removed or erased before their departure.

"It's about time one of our descendants did something worthwhile," said Batu. He was the head of the Togoldor noble family who managed the empire's military. Although he and the others had many descendants, and many of them were very powerful and had made many contributions, it was clear that Batu was not satisfied with the results. Their gains and victories were small scale, relatively speaking, and hardly ever influenced the entire empire. Although such a request might be too much to put on a few descendants, weren't the five of them handling the entire empire? They were human too, and in fact had much worse conditions when they were starting out. Yet none of their descendants were qualified to be their equals yet.

"If being great was so easy, everybody would do it," Nisar said softly. As the head of the Butt family, and in charge of the empire's finances, one would expect him to be more mild tempered than his brother. In fact, that was far from the truth. Although he looked of mild and tepid nature, Nisar had more blood on his hands than any of the other brothers. He could not be blamed either - after all, wealth begets greed, and he had the wealth of several galaxies under his control.

Before their conversation could continue, they finally reached their destination, and entered a room covered in isolation formations. Inside, a beast seemed to be waiting for them. Upon their arrival, the beast confirmed their identities before crushing a small trinket and disappearing.

None of the brothers found this odd, and waited patiently. A few moments later, another person teleported into the room.

Belle looked extremely pale and weak, in spite of the fact that she had been getting treatment for the past few weeks. Her eyes, however, burned with the same ever present ferocity that she normally exuded.

She looked at the five men in the room and recognized them all. Her direct ancestor, William, was the one she was supposed to meet, but she did not mind that he had brought along a few extra people. After all, they were the big shots of the empire!

She looked at William, already used to the fact that he looked identical to her brother. She had never commented on it nor mentioned it, because it was completely irrelevant. Looking like your ancestors was quite a common occurrence actually, especially among cultivators who could live long enough to actually meet their prior generations.

"Hiding in Ventura to erase all your traces, a remarkable plan," William said, feeling extremely pleased with Belle. "I only hope your efforts were worth it. As soon as we can confirm the veracity of your information, we can hand it over to the relevant people. You don't need to worry, your reward won't go to anyone else besides you."

"You can confirm it however you like," she said without any hint of deference. "Nor am I worried about anyone stealing my rewards. After all, without me, no one will be able to follow the lead. I had to use my bloodline ability to mark Jeffery's ship before it escaped into a wormhole. Only after the effects of my bloodline overdraft disappear, and I can use it again, will I be able to trace it."

William was already used to Belle's attitude, and the others didn't care too much either.

"Let me speed up your recovery," Jotun said as he reached out to her, but the moment he placed a hand on her shoulder he frowned, and withdrew his hand. His brothers all turned to look, and saw a single drop of blood escape his index finger before the pinprick on his finger disappeared.

Surprise and shock filled their eyes as a storm brewed in their hearts. Jotun was the strongest human in the realm, and in the highest realm that the Origin realm would normally allow: the Celestial realm!

It was not an exaggeration to state that a million galaxies would not be able to produce a single expert on the same level as Jotun, so powerful was he. Yet now, he had actually bled!

"There are… unusual inscriptions in your body," Jotun said, his voice filled with confusion.

"Yeah, my old man placed them there," Belle responded evenly.

"Your father? How is that possible? The sword intent used to carve those inscriptions even harmed me!"

This time, the most shocked was not Jotun but William! His descendant was so powerful, so why had he never heard of him?

"My old man has too many secrets. My mother… she has even more. Last I saw my father, he was merely in the Nascent realm, but even I dared not mess with him. His sword intent… no, his Sword Dao is too powerful. He's a bona fide freak."

She took a deep breath, and before anyone could ask anything, spoke again.

"Don't bother asking any questions. The answer will most likely be that I don't know, and besides, I'm not here to talk about my family. Contact whoever you need to contact, and let's get this show on the road. I've already wasted too much time recovering from my overdraft."

"NO NEED," spoke a deafening voice in all their minds, and a figure appeared in the room alongside them. "HIDING IN VENTURA TO ERASE YOUR TRACES WAS SMART, BUT THE MOMENT YOU RETURNED, SO DID YOUR KARMA. ANY DAO LORD STILL LOOKING FOR TRACES OF THE TERRORISTS WOULD EASILY FIND YOU."

Before Jotun, or anyone else, could do anything, the figure disappeared alongside Belle. Jotun paled, and immediately contacted the Henali. He could only hope that the figure that appeared was working for them or else they might not only have lost the lead to Jeffery, the mystery surrounding the mysterious swordsman would also remain unsolved.

While he did that, William once again retrieved the files in his family related to Belle and her immediate family. Perhaps it was time to pay closer attention to this group.