Eric had been quite curious about the contents of the carriage ever since he noticed that it was being escorted by an Ascended guard, but he hadn’t thought too much about it.
After witnessing the attack, however, he decided he needed to find out.
Eric walked toward Daina and bent down to her level.
Daina was confused by his sudden action, but she decided to wait and observe.
The mana in front of Daina suddenly rippled and transformed into strands of green gas.
The gases coalesced, forming unfamiliar shapes and symbols.
They rippled and shifted, constantly reshaping themselves until they finally formed familiar words.
I’m going to pry into the merchant’s soul and find out a few things.
You have to keep watch and warn me about the guard.
Daina stared at the words in amusement before shifting her attention to the crouching Eric.
She nodded.
Eric stood up and walked toward the guard, who was diligently watching over the goods.
The cultivator noticed Eric approaching and smiled.
Ever since Eric had helped him defend the goods, he had developed a certain respect for the boy.
“You know, I’ve noticed a flaw in our guard formation,” Eric said.
“Oh?
What is it?” the guard asked, puzzled.
“If both of us guard the goods, the merchants will be left unprotected,” Eric said seriously.
The guard thought about it for a moment before nodding.
“So, what do you propose?” he asked.
“Since I’m the weakest, I should take the position that is less likely to be attacked while you protect the main target,” Eric explained.
He deliberately kept his response vague.
If he directly suggested that he should protect the merchants, it might appear suspicious.
Instead, he wanted the guard to reach that conclusion himself.
Joseph nodded, deep in thought.
The kid was right.
Neglecting the merchants while focusing entirely on their goods would indeed be unwise.
“I see.
Then I would trouble you to look after the merchants while I guard the goods,” Joseph said.
Eric nodded and walked toward the tent, with Daina following closely behind.
The guard didn’t find anything strange about a pet following its master, so he simply resumed his guard duty.
Eric sat down between the two tents, which were positioned in a straight line.
He extended strands of his soul into the merchant’s tent.
The man was already fast asleep.
Rather than connecting to random parts of his soul, Eric carefully guided the strands toward the man’s head, where his mind resided.
Once the strands connected, Eric felt the familiar sensation of two individualities beginning to fuse.
But instead of allowing the process to continue, he immediately shifted his consciousness into the man’s mind.
It was a delicate process.
The slightest mistake could damage the man’s mental faculties.
The moment Eric’s consciousness connected to the man’s mind, his eyes turned completely blue.
His body remained motionless, but his consciousness had already crossed into the merchant’s mind, silently searching through the depths of his thoughts and memories.The man’s memory came in the form of a vision.
Eric saw his own face smiling at him.
It was the moment the merchant had looked at him in amazement, and Eric was seeing the scene exactly as the merchant had experienced it.
It seemed the memory had started from the most recent moment.
At Eric’s will, the scene changed to daytime.
His Ascended guard was telling him about an Awakened who wanted to join his caravan.
Eric pulled the memories backward.
Faster and faster, the world moved in reverse until everything looked like specks of light moving in an anticlockwise direction.
Then it stopped at a familiar scene.
Through the merchant’s eyes, he saw four men dressed in ragged clothes climbing onto his carriage for an expedition.
He could feel his host’s disgust at the sight of those poor and desperate men.
Just from this memory, Eric had an inclination about the contents of the carriage, but he had to make sure he was right.
So he moved the memories forward in a clockwise direction, landing on the moment when the expedition was over.
Deep in a familiar forest, he saw the same four men submitting specific plants to the cultivator.
The men were all smiles.
They had just completed the job they had been recruited for and were waiting for their pay.
Eric’s host nodded to his Ascended guard, prompting the guard to walk toward one of the workers.
The man smiled and stretched out his hand to receive his wages.
But in the next moment, the guard grabbed the man’s head and crushed it.
The remaining men tried to escape, but the cultivator didn’t let them.
Screams resounded through the area for a few short seconds before falling silent.
Throughout it all, Eric’s host simply watched in silence, unmoved and without the slightest trace of pity for them.
Eric’s real eyes suddenly returned to their usual color.
He stared at the ground in a dazed state.
He had just experienced the cruelty of the world.
Eric’s face hardened as he stared toward the encampment of his employer.
“Being weak is the greatest sin of all.”When Daina saw that Eric was back to normal, she quickly climbed onto his shoulder and inquired about what he had seen.
Eric described everything to her in full detail.
Daina shook her head in mock sympathy.
“You know, when I was younger, I once tried to stop them after witnessing the same kind of thing in the forest.
I was just a little fox back then.
I hadn’t even learned how to take human form yet,” Daina said.
“So you guys can’t take human form until you’re old enough?” Eric asked.
“Not really.
It can also happen the other way around.
It’s not like we’re more akin to the beast world, you know.
But that’s not the point.
I’m trying to tell you that such cruel acts are the norm in this world.
Hell, I was traumatized for weeks after witnessing something like that for the first time.”