Elias walked through the Dazearyn military camping area, passing through the crowded military canteens and avoiding speaking to his fellow comrades, stealthily walking away before any of his friends could see him. He studied the atmosphere and the people surrounding him, making sure that no one was keeping an eye on him, and proceeded stealthily across the pathway leading to one of the temporary food supply tents, where people rarely visit. 

According to the plan, he was to go behind one of the tents, descend down the short cliff behind it and walk towards the rocky terrain without catching anyone's attention, and continue down the path until he saw a giant Welfedor tree with no leaves, which was supposed to be their meeting spot.

He was to wait for his partner for twenty minutes, and if he doesn't show up by then, Elias was instructed to get back to his position without any delay and continue on with the mission.

Nothing more was said between Elias and his employer.

As he stood in the narrow and empty spot behind a giant boulder next to the Welfedor tree and looked at his surroundings. The deadline was slowly inching closer and closer; and he continued waiting anxiously. Maintaining what they agreed upon, his partner had to arrive as soon as possible. 

Suddenly, Elias was alarmed by something, and he stepped back, his expression turned serious.

Footsteps! He thought to himself as he raised his arms up and balled his hands into fists, positioning himself into a combat stance. The footstep was faint and extremely difficult to pick up, even for advanced rank cultivators. However, since he had been trained to pick up such faint sounds from a very young age, Elias was able to detect it pretty quickly.

Elias stabilized his breathing and waited, as a familiar figure could be seen in the distance, and just like how he had been alarmed, he relaxed almost as fast, feeling relief as he stared at the person who was approaching him.

"What happened, Mathias? Why were you so late?" Elias asked as soon as the figure arrived next to him, and stretched out his hand to greet him. "Did something happen?"

"Well, something did happen, but it's definitely not good news." replied Mathias, as he shook Elias' hand. He had a grim expression on his face as he spoke. "The Emperor's men came today and ordered the intelligence team to follow them. They didn't show up after that, and no one has seen them since then."

Elias, who saw his partner's expression, asked, "You're thinking that they're starting to get suspicious?"

"Oh, no. They're not starting to get suspicious. They're already suspicious." Mathias said in a thin voice, and he leaned back against the giant boulder and sighed. "They just aren't suspicious of us…. yet!"

"But how can they know it's us? You're worrying too much, Mathias," Elias responded, shaking his head back and forth as he spoke. "They were probably just suspicious of the intelligence team and decided to get rid of them. Otherwise, how could they figure out that there's informants among them?"

"Well, the Emperor did leave to visit the General from Argria. And he ordered the intelligence team to be brought to him only after that meeting!" whispered Conklin, and he looked at Elias, whose eyes widened with surprise. "You're saying that the General betrayed us and informed the Emperor of our existence?" he asked flatly.

"I don't think that's the case, seeing as the Emperor didn't call us up the moment he returned and only ordered his men to bring the intelligence team instead," said Mathias under his breath. "So I'd say that he probably would've just hinted that they know something that they shouldn't have known. Either way, we'll be walking on thin ice from now on."

"What in god's name could the General benefit from by ratting us out?" whispered the bewildered Elias.

"I don't know," answered Mathias, a tremble apparent in his voice. "But do remember that we're all just insignificant tools in this grand scheme, so it doesn't matter to them if we're ratted out or not. So, I'd advise you to be very careful."

"I still can't believe this! This is just too unbelievable. I don't know what to say," exclaimed Elias, who placed his palm on his temple, looking anxious, and Mathias let out a heavy sigh.

"Calm down. Regardless of what happened, we can't just take off right now and leave our missions just because we have a suspicion. We'll end up losing trust on both sides; we'll most likely get hunted down by Dazearyn assassins and we'll lose our support of the Argrians because we left our posts and disobeyed our orders. So our best bet is to stay back and try not to bring suspicion onto ourselves. From the looks of it, they don't have any clue as to who the informants are, and it's best that we keep it that way." said Mathias as he glanced at his colleague.

"What are you trying to tell me, Mathias?" Elias asked, and he turned his gaze towards Mathias.

"I think we shouldn't be doing these meet ups anymore. If we continue doing this, it'll make us look suspicious, and we definitely can't keep doing this when there's people who are aware of the existence of informants in their troops." Mathias spoke softly as he turned around to leave a bewildered Elias.

"You're leaving? Just like that?" Elias shouted, and continued his words. "What about reporting to the Argrian army? Are we supposed to just keep doing that as well?"

"I don't think we have any other choice but to continue doing that," Mathias said as he continued walking, speaking softly. "Try to stay alive, alright lad?"

Elias watched as Mathias walked off, and shouted, "Goddamn it!"

************************

Claude awoke with a start, and shot up from the ground, alert and raising both his hands in a defensive position, frowning and disturbed, before calming down after making sure that nothing dangerous was present.

"Did I get knocked out?" Claude looked at his hands as he inspected his body. He then turned around and looked back at the destroyed boulder with a bewildered gaze. 

'Don't tell me I got knocked out by a f**king boulder! How on earth is that possible?' Claude couldn't believe that he, a second rank cultivator of the sky realm, was rendered unconscious because of a collision with a simple and normal rock. It simply didn't make any sense to him!

And he certainly wasn't going to believe that the explosion which was the result of the Callarus worm blowing up was able to knock him out either. Although the explosion was massive and close range, he was still a second rank-

Wait a minute!

"Second rank?!" Claude, who realized that he had now advanced to the second rank of the sky realm, was bewildered beyond belief. How and when the hell did it happen?

"Don't tell me?!" Claude then looked at the spot at which the Callarus worm exploded into pieces, and there was a giant crater in its place. Claude inspected the crater, and realized that the entire area was flowing with spiritual energy. The quantity of the spiritual energy present in the atmosphere was simply more than what exists in the air in actuality.

"So the enormous amount of spiritual energy influx into my body was what resulted in me getting knocked out!" Claude snapped his fingers as his eyes widened with surprise at his foundings. 

When the Callarus worm exploded, spiritual energy it released was so much in quantity that it was simply too much for Claude's body to handle, and he was pushed back as a result of it.

"Is thar why no spiritual beasts has tried to attack me when I was unconscious?" Claude looked at the surrounding area and realized that although he was near the dangerous locations of the Gryfino forest, he wasn't even approached by any spiritual beasts.

The spiritual energy release was simply too much that it masked his scent! The spiritual beasts must've thought that three was a much powerful beast present in this area, as the spiritual energy was too high for any normal beast. Usually, if the spiritual beasts figure out that they're in some other beasts' territory that are more powerful than them, they try their very best to stay away. 

Claude came to the conclusion that it might be what happened, and let out a heavy sigh, relieved that he was saved by his luck.

"But still… to think that I already advanced to the second rank so easily. And I did it in my sleep nonetheless!" Claude muttered to himself as a smile bloomed on his face. As he continued inspecting his body, he discovered that not only wasn't he at second rank, he was already halfway to the next rank as well.

"Well, I guess I have to thank Senior Beldon now!" Claude said with a smile.