The Innkeeper

Chapter 2286: Dead of night

The news was both good and bad. Although the Oolin were unaware of what the couple had uncovered, they continued to explain things to them. Apparently the tokens had been discovered in the Land of a Hundred Rivers by Karev and an Oolin elder, and they had kept them secret for many years.

At some point, the secret of the token must have been leaked. The likely reason the Sunborne family was persecuted was to see if a lead on those tokens could be discovered. However, now that a lead had been discovered in the Upper Battlefield, it was unlikely that they would be bothered anymore.

Of course, they couldn’t be sure, but it was just a guess. For now, the Oolin had decided not to search for their elder and Karev, simply because their search could be misconstrued as trying to hunt the two down for the tokens. Instead, they would focus on identifying the enemy and eliminating obstacles so that they would have an easier time in hiding.

They were playing the long game, hoping that their elder could gain meaningful benefits from the token.

That news left the duo feeling conflicted, relieved and helpless. It was a confusing mix of emotions, but that is all they could feel.

What they weren’t aware of was the fact that they had actually benefited from being sent to war. It had given them enough time to purify the markers left on their bodies by Nester, not to mention it made them harder to encounter accidentally. The forces behind the hidden mastermind had tried to search for whoever was responsible for harming Nester, but hadn’t been able to get any leads.

Thus, through sheer luck, they were now in the clear. Unfortunately, they still didn’t know who was hunting them but at least they could have some peace.

Yet neither Pearl, nor River were interested in peace. After spending years at war, the thought of returning to the Guest House and silently and happily accepting guests and continuing with their lives seemed unbearable.

The reason was simple: they had become aware of just how weak they were, and just how easy it was for them to die. Thus, they wanted nothing more than to grow stronger as quickly as possible. All that was left was to plan out how to do that.

Under the Oolin’s authority, they appeared to be fulfilling their duty in the army, but in fact they were free to do as they pleased. They returned to the Guest House first and utilised the concentrated spiritual energy that had been accumulated in the basement. The necklace absorbed most of it, a significant chunk of it was used by Pearl to solidify her cultivation.

After that, the two of them used the remaining points to redeem combat techniques to strengthen themselves.

Once they had honed their skills and ensured that they were in the best shape, they began to prepare to kill the Armored Wyvern. They didn’t coordinate with the army - if that was the case they wouldn’t be able to decide the strategy, nor would they be able to decide the time. If the army were capable of killing the wyvern, it would not have lived for so many years already.

Instead, they relied on their personal contacts to gather a team of desperados who were willing to bear the risks for the rewards. The wyvern’s body was considered extremely precious, and every inch of it could be considered a cultivation resource.

As if that wasn’t enough, Mount Decius itself had put a massive bounty on the head of the wyvern - three Golden Core breakthrough pills!

Although such pills were more valued by vassal races than noble races, that didn’t mean that the pills lacked value. Far from it, in fact, as this pill was about the most valuable item in all of the Land of a Hundred Rivers.

Of course, Cliff had already warned Pearl not to waste her time taking something like that as it would pollute her foundation and limit her cultivation speed in future realms. Considering she had access to his teaching, she did not need to resort to such substandard means.

Of course, that was assuming she could live up to his standards at all. If she found herself unable to reach that stage on her own, she could go ahead and take it.

In total, besides River and Pearl their group had one peak Foundation level Fairy, one peak Foundation Dwarf, one elf, one Oolin and one other human. They had already agreed on how to split the three pills in case they succeeded. River and Pearl didn’t care about the pills, they only needed items that could help them complete quests, so their shares could be exchanged for money.

Each member of their team had proven their strength - the nobles and the vassals. Oddly enough, however, the leader of the team was Pearl, and for one very simple reason: she was the strongest among them, and the formation expert whose expertise they were going to rely on.

Thus, this very unexpected group set off in the dark of night, without any fanfare, to rid the Land of a Hundred Rivers of the nightmare that had haunted it for years. They got no heroes farewell, for they were not heroes. Each and every one of them had their own motives and reasons.

The group snuck past the battlelines and into the territory of the enemy to the site that they had picked for the trap. Carefully, over a period of three months, Pearl set up a massive formation that cost all the accumulated wealth of the group.

Once everything was ready, the elf silently departed to do his job, and bait the wyvern. After all, the elf had followed one of the orthodox paths of cultivation among their race, and was known as a Druid. As long as it was a beast, he could influence it in certain ways.

On that day, all he needed to do was bait the beast.

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