Soul of Searing Steel

“Mr. Searle, Mr. Darwin, please proceed along this path.”

A middle-aged female servant with a broad frame escorted both single-eyed Searle and the middle-aged merchant Darwin. Both of them silently lifted a huge box made of both wood and iron. Passing through the corridor within the mansion, they successfully reached the guest room where the meeting would be held.

The decoration of the room was very simple. Other than a few decorative weapons and potted plants, other fancy objects were absent. There was a young black-haired man sitting on a chair in the center of the room. He looked absorbed reading a page of the newspaper.

The man in the room looked very young, however, the overbearing aura emitted from his body causes the people around him to forget about the details of his looks and age. There was a tattoo of a sword and an axe on the back of each hand. His healthy body and perfectly balanced muscles represented the quality of the warriors of this city.

Noticing there was someone approaching from the entrance, he put down the newspaper in hand and looked towards the direction of the entrance. The movement of his red eyes gave people an unknown feeling that they had been observed at any point in time.

When Searle and Darwin met the man, they instantly knew that he was the target they had been looking for.

The Liege of Moldavia, the leader against the Dark Tide, and the savior that destroyed the dimensional rift. The latest news in the Empire that spread like wildfire was that Joshua was a dragon slayer.

“Greetings, honorable Liege of Moldavia.”

Both of them greet at the same time.

“There’s no need for the courtesy.”

Using his right hand, Joshua raised the teacup, taking a sip of hot tea. Joshua noticed that both men still looked like they had something to say. He raised his hand to silence them. “I do not wish for small talk. My butler told me that both of you have completed the request I sent to the Empire’s merchant guild. That is the only thing I am concerned about. I assume this information is not fake?”

After a short pause, he spoke in a softer tone, “And of course, if you have really completed your task, I will not be stingy. If it is within expectations, I will definitely provide both of you satisfactory rewards that you seek.”

“Rest assure, Count Joshua.”

The single-eyed Searle smiled in a suspicious manner. He did not seem to be startled by Joshua’s attitude. He replied with a southern accent, “The materials that I have brought will definitely match your expectations.”

“Let’s hope that’s the case.”

Joshua signaled to allow both of them to proceed. He was sitting on his chair, seemingly interested in both men’s actions.

Searle was not bluffing. He had already prepared everything before coming here. On his signal, the ordinary-looking man put down the heavy wooden box. As the box had been unsealed, both men took out the materials.

The first item was concentrated dark red blood inside a semi-transparent crystal bottle. It was as if life was circulating within the bottle itself and a glimpse of light could be seen within it occasionally.

“This is the fresh blood of a fire dragon.” Without Searle’s explanation, Joshua spoke softly, “For a fire-type draconic beast, it is still a material that could enhance the quality of its bloodline. This material is only inferior to Ancient Dragon blood. Even if it is useless for enhancing a bloodline, it could still be utilized as high-grade magic ink.”

“Looking at the activity of the blood, it was extracted out of the heart of a fire dragon twenty days ago. Not bad indeed.”

The warrior displayed a satisfied smile.

“Is there anything else?”

“… Of course, my liege.”

Although his initial explanation was interrupted by Joshua, his expression did not turn sour, instead, he was more enthusiastic to show the other material on hand. Darwin at the side took out another material. It was a gray item with dark red lines on top of the rock.

“This is…”

“Dragon Bloodstone, it has an effect similar to Ancient Dragon bones. With the combination of the right materials, it can boost the physical characteristics of both man and daemons.”

Joshua clapped and once again interrupted Searle’s speech. Joshua looked very surprised and said in astonishment, “Accordingly to the legends, it is an Ancient Dragon’s heart which turned to pieces of stone after its death. Unbelievable. Both of you were able to find this rare material. For this piece of material, both of you should have searched for a long time in the Dragonbone Wastelands.”

“Yes, we did put quite a substantial effort in this…”

Searle went silent for a moment. He was feeling a little doubtful now. Both him and Darwin looked at each other and felt something was wrong, however, they were unable to pinpoint the root of this feeling. Thus, they decided to continue.

Darwin put aside both fire dragon blood and the dragon bloodstone. He proceeded to take out a flower sealed in a special crystal container.

This time, they kept silent. Joshua immediately identified the item and replied, “Florova flower, also known as the omnipotent flower. According to rumors, it is not a plant of this world, as it came from another world. Through special processes, it could be used as a replacement for a lot of magical remedies.”

Searle could only breathe in cold air as he felt that the situation was no longer under his control now. As time passed and each of the material was presented to Joshua, each one of them startled the despicable human leader. Joshua seemed to know every item that had been presented. All the rare ingredients that were presented had already been known by Joshua and he could easily explain their history and their usage.

Sea Dragon Jade, Flying Dust Crystal, Twin Reversed Scale. All of these items were only partially recorded in the book of the human race. Most of the people would not stumble upon these precious items in their entire lifetime. Joshua could easily highlight the origin of these items and briefly explain their origin and the production date.

 What’s wrong with this guy here?! How could he explain all of these things on his own?! Isn’t he a warrior according to the information gathered? How could he know all these knowledge up to THIS extent? Even a normal magician is not able to identify all these materials clearly!

Searle could only frown and bite his lip. He took a deep breath and forced a smile. He tried to take out the last material. “The last one would be…”

“It fine, there’s no need to take it out.”

Joshua words had interrupted Searle once again. At the same time, red Combat Aura emerged like a gust of wind and closed the sealed box.

The warrior stood up from his chair. His smile on his face slowly faded, turning calm and collected. He furrowed his brows and said, “Who would have thought you guys put in so much effort just for me. This is really beyond my expectations.”

At this point, Joshua shook his head and looked like he sympathized the men in front of him. “I really do not want to do this. After all, no matter what the truth is, this act is considered thieving.”

“My liege, what are you talking about? I do not follow.”

Joshua body slowly emitted a deep and strong imposing force. Searle and Darwin could not stand it and took a foot backward reacting to the overbearing pressure. Each step the warrior took while moving forward gave them a chill that went up their spines. All the muscles could no longer calm down and were trembling actively. The tension could be described as a knife pointing directly between one’s eyebrows. It was a great sense of danger that they felt.

Both of the immediately examined the surroundings, only to realize that the servants had already left the vicinity. The guest room was now an empty space without any other people. Only silence remained.

It was a plot all along!

Were we found out?! Searle and Darwin were communicating through Spirit Sense, yet they could not come to a quick conclusion in that instance.

They were using the most profound chi concealing method to cover their existence. As long as they did not cast any type of spell, even if the gods were to descend into this realm or a Legendary-tier being were to approach them, they would not discover their real identities.

It was impossible to identify them through the naked eye and aura identification technique. Even if Joshua was strong, he was not at a godlike stage!

“My liege… this… I-I do not understand what you are saying.”

Searle smiled awkwardly. He planned to use his last plan where he signaled Darwin to open the box and tried to retrieve the last material.

However, when they were about to execute their plan, a strong gust of wind blew into the room. A shadow was seen to be moving at extreme speed from Joshua’s location. Searle and Darwin were trying to withstand the pressure of the wind, yet in an instant, a strong force easily suppressed them. Without allowing them to even lift their arms, the strong force had already sent them into the air, spinning for a few rounds, and landing on the ground. At the point where they were knocked into dizziness, both of were pressed to the ground by a certain person with strong force.

“Give it up. I already knew your plans.”

Joshua smile was no longer visible while he was suppressing both of them. What remained was his cold attitude. “Fire Dragon Blood, Dragon Bloodstone, Sea Dragon Jade and Twin Reversed Scale. All of them are only normal magic materials. It was just a distraction for the Florova flower, Flying Dust Crystal and the Void Dust which you were trying to bring out.

Both of them were in deep shock as Joshua revealed the secret plan hidden deep within their hearts. “Three of these items mixing with a special magic could form a type of special curse. A type of crystallization poison.”

The warrior increased his force to control both of the men who were trying to struggle and escape. Joshua calmly said, “With the power of a dragon mixed with the darkness of the void forming a mutated poison, any life form that gets infected would slowly mutate into a black crystal with negative energy. It is one of the irreversible poisons in the world. There is no antidote for it in this era.”

“If you were to succeed, I could have died from this poison.”

“You, how would you know about this?!”

Both Searle and Darwin who was struggling no longer panicked and struggled as they had forgotten the fact that they were caught due to the shocking information given by Joshua. “Were we exposed right from the start?”

It was the latest poison developed on Dragon Island. If any living being were infected by it, even the great dragon would be killed by the poison. Even if a Gold-tier warrior’s body and internal organs were training to reach the form of energy, they could not withstand the toxicity of the poison itself. How could Joshua know about this top-secret information? He even understood more about the poison compared to them!

“You guys did not display any flaws. It’s just that luck isn’t on your side because both of you are dealing with me.”

The warrior who listened to the doubts of the enemy only shrugged them off. When the Florova Flower was taken out from the box, Joshua felt that there was something wrong about the whole situation. Although it was an omnipotent medicine, it was not something which he required. As he compared the timeline of this era and what he had done recently, Joshua could easily understand the thoughts of the enemy and played along with their plan.

The situation was very apparent, as both of them were the assassins from the Pentashade Dragon clan that arrived after he slew dragons. He did not think that the arrogant dragon clan would not send strong fighters against him, but instead, chose the underhanded method by sending assassins. This made Joshua quite disappointed.

He was waiting for the opportunity for a very long time.

As for the crystallization disease, the poison had caused quite a problem in the southern lands in his pre-existence. Thus, it was recorded down by the historians. The countermeasures were already widespread within the Empire. Joshua believed that it could be one of the strongest poisons on the Mycroft Continent. Unfortunately, the storage time of the poison was limited and had to be prepared live on the spot was the weakness of this poison.

“Both of you.”

Joshua put more pressure on his arms. He no longer had the mood to play around. He squinted his eyes and released a dangerous aura saying, “Tell me the information that both of you know. I might consider leaving your corpses intact.”

“Hehe… hehe…”

After getting threatened by Joshua, both Searle and Darwin looked at each other. Without any fear, their laughter became louder. “Joshua Radcliffe the dragon slayer, for you to not kill us immediately is the biggest mistake of your life!”

“Even though you are strong, so strong that Dragon Island decided to kill you through assassination. If it wasn’t for our concealment that restricts our abilities, you could not suppress us this easily!”

A strong concealment magic was dispelled. The pressure of a great dragon immediately spread across the liege’s mansion. The beasts who were suppressing their aura previously, regained their original appearance.

“True Dragon… Reborn!” The silent Darwin finally spoke his first sentence. His voice had a bizarre tremble. The ancient language stirred the magic essence in the air. In a split second, their faces were filled with countless scales. Their eyes were replaced with golden vertical pupils. Searle released a loud dragon roar.

“RRAARRRR!!!! Repent, human!”

At that moment, a violent force of energy exploded within the liege’s residence.