Chapter 32 - Conflict Arises.

After they had been talking for quite a while, Raymond suddenly asked a strange question.

"Why me?"

"What do you mean?" Cristopher replied.

"Out of all the people here, why did you choose me?" Raymond questioned once more. He was flattered that they seemed to enjoy his company, but he couldn't help but feel a little suspicious. What made him so special?

"This might sound a little weird, but it was mostly because of our interaction earlier, as well as the fact that you're blind."

"The fact that I'm blind? What does that have to do with anything." Raymond was confused.

"We've tried to make friends with people before, but they usually all end up lusting after my sister. Since you can't see her, there's no chance of you staring at her like a creep at least."

After hearing Cristopher's reasoning, Raymond was dumbfounded. Of all the possible reasons why they had chosen him, Raymond didn't expect it was because he was blind. After thinking about it for a while, Raymond could understand their plight. Chloe Baxter was a rare beauty, after all, her exquisite facial features coupled with the deep emerald eyes of the Baxter family was enough to captivate most men, but the real problem was her figure. Although she was barely an adult, her figure would arouse the desire that most men have inside them.

Raymond had to admit that she was beautiful, but he wasn't interested. He had been in a few relationships in his past life, and they all ended in some form of misery. For now, he was more interested in getting stronger, things such as love could wait.

The atmosphere became a little awkward after Cristopher's explanation, but it soon returned to normal, and they talked for a little longer. Eventually, Raymond went back to the spot where he had set up camp and cultivated for the night. The next day, they set off for Bluemont once again. On the way, they were attacked by demonic beasts every now and then, but Raymond just saw it as practice, he needed all the combat experience he could get after all.

Since he didn't use his sword force, Raymond didn't stand out that much. Although he was still showing battle prowess above his cultivation level, it wasn't too shocking. Plenty of young geniuses could fight above their level after all. Raymond somewhat enjoyed fighting, much to his surprise. Maybe it was because his past life had been rather uneventful, but there was something special about putting himself at risk and fighting with his life on the line. The adrenaline and excitement were on a completely different level.

After they had been travelling for almost the entire day, something unexpected happened. Blocking the road was a large group of people. The weird thing about it was the way they were dressed. All of them were dressed completely in black, with hoods covering their faces. All of their black robes had an insignia on them depicting a bloody star. To Raymond's surprise, the group didn't attack them, they just stood there, emitting an eerie aura.

"I don't know what you guys want, but you better get the fuck out of our way!"

The eerie silence was instantly disrupted by Ryan, who completely released his imposing momentum, trying to pressure the people blocking the road. Unfortunately for him, it didn't really work, and the people in the black robes just stood there in silence, waiting. What were they waiting for? That was a mystery for now. Raymond was on high alert, and he made use of his excellent soul power to power his eyes.

As he was inspecting his surroundings, he noticed something strange. Whilst some of the mercenaries still had their weapons sheathed, others had already drawn their weapons. If that was all, then there wouldn't be anything strange to take note of. The real strange part was the way they moved. Raymond didn't know how to put it into words, but he felt like something was up. Just when he was about to consult Ryan about his findings, a few muffled screams interrupted him.

Behind him, almost half of the mercenaries had attacked their comrades, effectively destroying any order they had. The sound of blood splattering and people dying was all Raymond could hear, and he was instantly disoriented. When he looked a little closer, he could see that the traitorous mercenaries had distorted expressions, with a hint of madness concealed within their gazes.

"What the hell is going on?"

The distraught voice of Ryan brought Raymond back to reality, and he quickly drew his sword from its sheath. Taking a look around, he saw that old man Owen was in the middle of a battle with two mercenaries that were crazily trying to kill him. Without an ounce of hesitation, Raymond ran straight into the battlefield, killing any mad mercenary that stood in his way. When he arrived next to old man Owen, he only used a single sword strike to take out the two mercenaries he was fighting with.

"Are you alright old man?" Raymond asked with concern.

"If you hadn't come, I would've probably been a goner, I owe you one kid." Old man Owen replied, slightly out of breath.

"Don't worry about it, are you hurt anywhere?"

"Nah I'm fine, just a little out of breath."

"That's good then, let's regroup with captain Ryan for now, I'm not sure how to proceed from here." After making sure that old man Owen was fine, Raymond urged him to go over to captain Ryan.

Now that all hell had broken loose, he wasn't sure how to handle the situation, so he presumed it was better to leave it to a professional.

"All available mercenaries, gather around the young master and miss!"

Captain Ryan's voice boomed throughout the chaos, giving any lost mercenary an immediate goal. People who had survived quickly flocked around the carriage at the very front, including Raymond and Owen.

"No matter what, our priority is to protect the young master and the young miss! I don't care if you kill your enemies as long as the masters are safe! Understood?"

"Yes sir!"

The mercenaries had regained their bearings, and they were all ready to fight to the death. After the earlier chaos, only 11 mercenaries were left alive, excluding Raymond and Owen. To their dismay, they had enemies on 2 fronts, and they were heavily outnumbered. The mad mercenaries had naturally taken some casualties in the earlier fight, but there were still around 14 of them. The men in the black robes were the only real variable here, since there were at least 30 of them, and they all had unknown strength.

If it turned out that none of them was in the spirit-refining realm, then it wouldn't be that big of a problem, but considering the planning that must've gone into this attack, Raymond thought that it was unlikely. Whilst he was trying to understand the situation a little better, a raspy voice broke the silence that had ensued after Ryan's orders.

"Attack..."

Although it was oddly quiet, the voice seemed strangely overpowering, and on a spiritual level to boot. This small indication was enough for Raymond to understand that his worries did not go unfounded, the enemy was in the spirit-refining realm!