However, Aiden's gaze soon shifted towards the courtyard currently just beneath him and his eyes turned slightly cloudy.

It was cold and quiet in the entire mansion and of all the smaller houses as well as the big one around the courtyard, only two of them seemed to be slightly occupied.

The person in the room to the south had a racing heartbeat, panting in a seemingly nervous manner – from his vital essence it radiated, it was a younger girl who had never fought or trained before. His essence was pure and faint.

If he was not wrong, that should be Tolliah.

In the room to the west, there was an intense twilight aura and the person within it had weak and faint breathing. This person's aura was faint, and his essence was slowly, but surely escaping her. If this continued, she would not have very long left to live.

Twitching his nose, Aiden caught a whiff of medicinal fragrance.

The person in the room was severely injured and was beyond cure!

Well, at least by normal means.. As his servant, Aiden had other means to get her back to a stable state.

"How could this be?"

Aiden furrowed his brows slightly.

To him, since the voice on the gray message crystal was authentic, it meant that Madam Dara was either in cahoots with Mighty Cain Khoren which he refused to believe, and everything that was written was all a ruse just to lure him here... or there was something more sinister at play here.

If the former was the case, why was Madam Dara truly on the brink of death and in such a dire situation that was beyond any saving from this world? Even the holiest of the light's attendants would not be able to cure her now.

Only by using the heaven-defying system and the magical connection would Aiden be able to directly infuse his own Primal energies, his [Soul Power] into her body and secure her. Nothing else would work.

Besides him, Aiden was fairly certain that even The Ancient One, the strongest entity in this dying realm, would be utterly helpless.

The only issue was that once he did that, he would have to remove all the shackles he had proposed on himself and ruin everything that he had worked for so far..

In that instant, two possibilities flashed through Aiden's mind.

First was the most unlikely one, was that Madam Dara wanted to trick him here despite her impending death and everything they did together so that she could drag him down with her. That was highly unlikely, considering her nature.

Second, whatever happened, was beyond her control and she was either ambushed,or tricked, causing her inner core to go wild and wreak havoc in her body.

Aiden had a conflicted expression and sighed gently internally.

At that moment, he already had an answer in mind.

Taking a deep breath to calm his mind, Aiden slowly descended slowly and silently into the courtyard.

He headed forward and pushed the door open.

Instantly, he was welcomed with a suffocating medicinal smell.

Within it was a hint of a woman's fragrance and a faint flowery scent.

Frowning, Aiden strode inside.

A woman laid down on the bed silently with her eyes shut. Her face and lips were pale and she was covered in a large blanket, breathing weakly.

Arriving before the bed, Aiden looked at the woman quietly without any joy nor sadness internally.

The woman was reeking with the aura of death.

Her pulse was weak and her organs were starting to fail.

She was truly beyond any means of saving. Her fate should be decided already..

Aiden could only sigh and ponder what to do. Obviously, he could not let her die when he had the means. Yet, by doing so, he would ruin everything he did so far.

Ideas and possible work around solutions flashed through his mind as he pondered on the best course of action..

Probably sensing something, Madam Dara's eyelids twitched and she opened her eyes slowly.

The pair of brilliant and moving eyes from Aiden's memories were now empty and lifeless with a cloudy shade.

Her gaze was seemingly dazed, as though she could not adapt to the environment.

Arriving at Aiden's face, her stare lingered for a long time before her eyes gradually widened, shimmering with a glint of light.

Madam Dara looked slightly more spirited as well.

"You've come, Young Master.."historical

Her lips twitched as she revealed a smile.

However, she did not have much strength left and even her voice was as soft as a mosquito.

"What happened?"

After remaining silent for a long time, Aiden finally asked with a calm tone.

"I.. I wanted to catch up with you, Young Master. I was in too much of a hurry to try and form my core. Sigh, there's no way it would be so easy to form a core.."

Madam Dara chuckled bitterly. "My foundation wasn't stable and I lost control of my internal energy, causing my spiritual vessel to sever. Hence, I failed in my core formation, nearly losing my life. In the end, a strange, old man came and.. h-helped me."

At the mention of the 'kind old man', Madam Dara glanced at Aiden. When she saw that the latter was expressionless and wasn't bothered by it, she continued. "Since I knew that I didn't have much time left, I wanted to at least inform you as FAST as possible." She added, giving an extra push to the words at the end, hoping that her hints would go through.

Aiden remained silent whilst she was explaining, but a hint of coldness flashed across his gaze. His anger, his rage, which he kept under wraps for now, was slowly growing more and more heated, threatening to escape his body at any moment.

Madam Dara murmured, "I know that I owe you too much, Young Master. T-The fact that you're willing to come see me and listen to me is enough for me to leave without regrets."

Aiden surveyed the room and finally, his gaze lingered on a scarlet flower that was on the wooden table beside the bed, frowning.

"This flower.."

He narrowed his eyes, seemingly pondering about something.

All of a sudden!

A cold voice sounded from the void outside the door.

"Activate!"

The moment the voice ended, a bedazzling light shone outside, bright as day.

It was the light of formation patterns!

Aiden though not that well-wersed, knew a thing or to about the subject, thanks to her time with the Azure Myst Sect. Even without heading out to take a look, he could sense the aura of a massive formation being activated.

Madam Dara had a stunned expression, not understanding what was going on.

The next moment, the entire room was ripped apart by a tremendous power, causing dust and gravel to fly everywhere.

"Hahahaha!"

An arrogant laughter rang in the courtyard, reverberating endlessly.

When she heard that laughter, Madam Dara asked in disbelief with a shocked expression. "Y-you?"

Aiden turned around, completely unaffected.

After the dust settled, five Martial Masters could be seen in a line in the skies above the courtyard, bearing sharp gazes and murderous intent.

Rainbow Clouds Sect's Mighty Cain Khoren was among them!

"Y-you guys.."

Madam Dara's lips quivered and the shock in her eyes vanished gradually; she did not continue speaking.

Instead in the next moment, as if a switch was played, his expression shifted into that of deep sneer and mockery.

"You have made the greatest mistake of your lives!"

Surprised by the sudden shift, Mighty Cain Khoren glared at the 'dying' woman and remarked coldly. "You stupid hag! If I didn't need you to act as a lure for this bastard, you and that little brat of yours would be dead a long time ago!"

"It was all thanks to you, that we finally got our wish! Now you can die in peace!"

Madam Dara, just looked at the old man in silence, the sneer not leaving her face despite her growing weaker by the second.

By now, Madam Dara could no longer feel the pain coming from her body.

Yet, despite that, she did not lose consciousness strangely.. From deep within her soul, through their shared connection, a minuscule amount of warmth, that incredible energy, her master's precious vitality kept on slipping in, undetected by these Martial Masters at all.

Unaware of what was going on, and sure of himself and his plans, Mighty Cain Khoren looked at Aiden and asked with a slight frown. "Arrogant brat, even now you don't seem to be surprised?"

Sezud Nida stroked his beard and laughed smugly. "You don't have to fake your composure. I'm sure you must be frightened to death by now, right?"

"Hahaha! Do you think that the five of you along with this lousy array formation is enough to scare me?"

Aiden smiled as well.

Below the Ancient One's Palace as well as in the Ancient Burial Grounds, he was in a much deadlier situation going against the paragons of the topmost factions alongside their Guardians!

"LIES!"

"He truly doesn't know his limits!"

Lian Hen, Gao Hu, and the others yelled, exuding their might as Martial Masters to suppress Aiden endlessly.

"Aiden, I'm even using an ancient fiend flower just to set this trap and kill you!"

Mighty Cain Khoren said coldly, "I'm sure you've already realized by now that your spiritual energy has been locked. Your death today is certain!"