In the distance, several cloaked figures had Max surrounded and they were constantly attacking him. From a rough glance, the Elders counted over a dozen excluding the several corpses lying around Max.

"They are all Bone Tempering realm cultivators." Muttered an Elder, his voice trembling with evident fear.

But when he saw their patriarch, wielding the broken red saber, moving rapidly through the cloaked figures and cutting them down with each strike, this fear turned into astonishment.

"How strong!" He exclaimed lowly. The others also nodded as they stopped in place, knowing they weren’t going to be of any help in this battle.

"Where are the people from the Judicial Office?" Said the Third Elder, his brows furrowed. The Second Elder and others snapped out of their astonishment and their expressions hardened.

Had their patriarch really lied to them so they wouldn’t worry or... the Judicial Office went back on its word?

This thought made their expression fall and their already not-so-good impression of the Judicial Officer worsened.

Shlick!

Right then, Max slayed another cloaked figure, leaving only five people surrounding him.

"It doesn’t matter if they didn’t come since our patriarch is strong enough to handle them now." An Elder said, his eyes lighting up.

He had barely finished speaking when another group of cloaked figures appeared around Max from nowhere and every Elder’s heart sank because while they looked the same as the earlier cloaked figure, from the confidence they were exuding told them they were significantly stronger than them.

"Kill him!"

One of the cloaked figures shouted and they all rushed at Max like maddened beasts.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

"This is bad." The Second Elder’s face paled, "Most of them are in the late stage of Bone Tempering. The patriarch alone can’t deal with them."

The Third Elder and few others who had seen late stage Bone Tempering realm cultivators in action before had the same reaction. A split second later, their expression grew determined—they were going to charge in. If they could help their patriarch even a little bit, it would be worth their sacrifice.

The Second Elder noticed this and he grew anxious because he was aware that rather than helping him, they would only distract Max and would put him at a greater disadvantage.

"Stop—" Just as he opened his mouth to stop them, he saw the Third Elder, who was about to rush away, pause and stare in the direction of the battlefield with a look of pleasant surprise.

It wasn’t just him but other Elders had the same looks on their faces which made him pause and glance over. Immediately, his eyes flickered with the same pleasant surprise and he exhaled a deep breath in relief.

’Patriarch truly hadn’t lied...’

...

Max’s expression didn’t change when another group of people appeared even though his senses told him that the weakest of them was as strong as Patriarch Li.

Gripping the hilt of his saber tightly, he was about to begin slaughtering them too, after all for a Marrow Cleansing realm cultivator, all the Bone Tempering realm cultivators were equal. So just like he had cut down the earlier group, he was capable of cutting down this one too.

However, before he could do this he noticed several people dressed in the Judicial Office’s black and red uniform reveal themselves from the shadows and rush over. His eyes flickered and his movements slowed.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Clang! Clang! Shlick!

"Argghh!"

"You—"

The Judicial Office’s people, seven in total, all carrying long swords rushed in. Without much effort, they killed the remaining four people from the earlier group and met the latest group head-on.

For a moment, Max thought that since there were only seven from the Judicial Office and the attackers had eleven people, they wouldn’t be able to stop them and some would come at him. However, the Seven turned out to be very strong. Just half a minute later, they had killed the weakest four and were clashing with the remaining seven who they also killed one after another.

’Hm?’ A hint of confusion flickered in Max’s eyes when he noticed that even when the last two were remaining and the seven hadn’t surrounded them, they showed no sign of wanting to retreat.

Not long after, they were also slaughtered. The Seven from the Judicial Office relaxed a little. Then one of them, who was none other than one of the three who had accompanied Mr. Wang to the Dark Valley, Milo, glanced at Max and said in a polite tone, "You can go in and relax in your residence, Patriarch Gu. We’ll be standing guard here."

"It’s alright. Don’t mind me." Max said and closed his eyes. He wasn’t going to relax before the Quest was complete.

The system had told him he needed to be in the Second Layer of Marrow Cleansing to overcome the assault. This clearly meant there had to be one or more Marrow Cleansing cultivators with the attackers but no such figure had appeared yet.

The Seven looked at him in confusion but they didn’t say anymore and spread out.

...

Outside the Gu Family Estate... in an empty alley...

Mr. Wang and Chu Liangxing were facing two cloaked figures.

"You are Chu Liangxing? Are you sure you want to interfere in this matter?" Said the leading figure in a hoarse voice.

"I promised Patriarch Gu I’ll stand guard tonight, so yes, I’m sure." Chu Liangxing nodded. Then before the cloaked figure could respond, he suddenly flashed forward.

Swoosh!

However, the cloaked figures had expected this and they hurriedly took out grey talismans and slapped them on their legs. The grey talisman released a greyish energy and their speed increased several fold, allowing them to easily evade.

The leading cloaked figure stared at Chu Liangxing through their black hood.

"You don’t know what you are dealing with and you’ll pay dearly for it." Saying this, they jumped several meters in the air, tapped their feet on the tall wall and jumped on the other side.

Bang!

Chu Liangxing jumped onto the wall to chase after them but the duo had already disappeared without any trace.

After staring at the darkened estate of some minor family the duo had disappeared into for a moment, he jumped back down beside Mr. Wang.

"Who do you think they were?" He asked, a thoughtful look on his face

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