Rick, standing among the line of dead trees, looked at his surroundings with narrowed eyes.
’Has he already left? I cannot sense his presence, but the fact that the corpses of Zayden’s wife and his servants have already disappeared means someone must have brought them somewhere.’
He thought.
’The information I got from the informant in the town confirmed that someone with the same description as that man appeared, and it looks like he left the town last night. But they still did not see him in the town again since then.’
’If he has already left here, then where would he go? Does he have a flying ship?’
As Rick kept thinking, he suddenly felt goosebumps.
He felt a chill on his back, and his body instantly stiffened.
He wanted to turn and look behind him, but he could not.
Fear gripped his entire being. It was like a beast had appeared behind him.
His instinct was telling him that if he turned to look back, he might die.
"Why are you here?"
Zayden’s voice resounded behind Rick.
Zayden’s voice was calm, but Rick’s mind was screaming that if he answered it wrongly, then he would be dead.
He still remembered how terrifying the existence of the man had been last night.
That aura...
That dragon aura...
He believed that the man was a genuine dragon.
He had already experienced the dragon’s aura and their followers in the past.
He could differentiate between them, and what he sensed from Frederick was something that he could only sense from an elder of the dragon race.
No—even Frederick might be more powerful.
It did not matter if he was a sixth-stage cultivator; an average dragon was already much stronger than a normal cultivator.
Frederick might only have fifth-stage cultivation, but he might really be able to kill him if he wanted to.
Although Rick felt confused and still had many questions regarding the man, he pushed those thoughts aside and answered Zayden’s question without looking behind him.
"I will not lie. I’m here to look for you, Mister Frederick."
"How are you finding me here?"
"I just pieced together the clues about you from our conversation last night. I know that you are someone who has a close relationship with Zayden and his family. I just searched for the possible places you would visit after leaving the Spider Net Pavilion branch," Rick answered.
"With our wide network of connections, I could find you when our informant in Teira confirmed seeing a figure with the same description as the person I was looking for. If it’s Teira, then the only reason I could guess for why you would visit the town is that you must have come to visit Zayden’s home."
There was silence.
The silence was so tense for Rick. Sweat had already begun rolling down his forehead.
"Why are you looking for me?" Zayden asked again.
"Our Pavilion Lord wants to meet with you."
Zayden frowned upon hearing the answer.
’His Pavilion Lord? The leader of the Spider Net Pavilion? That guy? Why does he want to meet me?’
Zayden thought to himself.
He knew the Pavilion Lord personally, as he had met him several times in the past.
For most people who knew about the Spider Net Pavilion, the Pavilion Lord was a mysterious figure.
How could he not be when he was the leader of one of the biggest underground organizations that had never shown himself to even most of the imperial family?
But for Zayden, that figure was not mysterious.
In fact, he found that guy annoying.
He always felt uncomfortable every time he met that man.
His character, which seemed to thirst for new knowledge or new information, always made Zayden get goosebumps.
He did not know if that was the man’s real character or just a mask he used.
That man was like a puzzle to him.
Zayden still remembered the first time he met the leader of the Spider Net Pavilion.
At that time, the Pavilion Lord had actually visited the Dravenhart family.
He still remembered that night when he accidentally saw that guy with his father.
When he approached them, his father casually introduced the Pavilion Lord to him.
Zayden still felt confused about why the mysterious leader of the Spider Net Pavilion seemed to be so close to his father.
His father was a small figure in the empire.
Although he was a noble, he was only a low-ranking noble, a baron.
He did not have great power.
He did not have as much influence as other nobles.
All in all, there was no value for someone like the leader of the Spider Net Pavilion to be close to him.
’Did Father have some kind of close connection with the Pavilion Lord of the Spider Net Pavilion? If that is the case, then what kind of connection?’
Zayden thought, his frown deepening.
’Then again, why does he want to meet me? It’s not like he knows that it’s me, Zayden, is it?’
Rick, who did not hear any response from Zayden, wondered what Zayden was thinking.
He wanted to ask something, but Zayden had already beaten him to it.
"Why does your Pavilion Lord want to meet me?"
"I don’t know. After I reported our meeting last night to our main nest, our Pavilion Lord simply instructed us to look for you and asked us to bring you to him," Rick replied.
Zayden found that Rick did not seem to be lying.
And this made Zayden curious, but also wary.
With the current situation, he did not know if the Pavilion Lord was on the enemy’s side or remained neutral.
What if the Pavilion Lord actually considered him and his family traitors?
What if he was also in cahoots with the imperial family?
He would be in great danger if that were the case.
Moreover, he did not know that man’s cultivation.
He had never sensed his aura at all.
He could only guess that, as the leader of one of the biggest underground organizations in the empire, the Pavilion Lord might be an eighth-stage or even a ninth-stage cultivator.
Someone with that level of cultivation still posed a great danger to him.
"Our lord also gave me a message. He said that he might be on the same side as you. If you are really close to Zayden or his family, then you can meet with him."
Zayden’s frown deepened.
He really did not like this at all.
He did not know what to make of the Pavilion Lord’s intentions behind that message.
But there was one fact.
If the Pavilion Lord said that he might be on the same side, then that meant the Pavilion Lord could more or less guess what he intended to do.
The Pavilion Lord seemed to know what kind of journey he had embarked on.
Especially regarding this empire.
And he did not like it.
He did not like someone being able to easily read his plans without knowing how that man had learned about them.
He did not entirely trust the message from the Pavilion Lord.
The Pavilion Lord’s intentions were still unknown.
The Pavilion Lord might be trying to lure him in by convincing him that they were on the same side, while he actually intended to harm him.
After thinking for a moment, Zayden finally decided what to do.
"I’m not interested in meeting with your lord," Zayden said.
"Wait, sir—"
"I will not repeat myself. I will not meet with him."
Rick turned silent for a moment before nodding.
"Alright, I will send your response to him."
Zayden still did not move and kept looking at Rick’s back.
At this moment, his top priority was to find his daughter.
But the problem was that he did not know where he was supposed to start.
Aria did not mention any specific place when she sent Mira with Selena and Raymond.
Zayden understood that the situation at that time had forced her to act quickly.
Sending their daughter outside of the empire was the best choice, as the imperial family would have difficulty searching for them.
However, it also applied to him.
The continent was vast, and they could be anywhere.
Zayden felt that this search would be quite tricky.
And because of that, he needed a helping hand.
And the person in front of him might be able to provide that.
Rick, who could still sense that Zayden was standing behind him and could even feel his gaze, truly felt uncomfortable and tense.
’Why are you still standing behind me? Did you let me go or what?’
He thought, irritated.
"I want to ask for another piece of information," Zayden said.
"Please ask me, sir. If it is something I know, I will tell you," Rick quickly answered, brushing aside his irritation.
"It’s regarding Zayden’s daughter. You said that the Spider Net Pavilion could track her leaving the empire with two of Zayden’s servants. Where was the last place the Spider Net Pavilion could track them?"
Rick released a slow sigh.
"The last traces we could track were in the northwest border, in the border town of Elwis. Our informant there saw two adult robed figures carrying a baby on a flying ship that looked like it belonged to the Dravenhart family. They flew towards the west, which is the territory of the Heavenly Sword Valley," Rick replied.
Zayden still frowned. That information was not enough.
"But although I already told you last night that the Spider Net Pavilion did not know their exact current location, we have clues regarding where they might have gone," Rick continued.
Zayden raised his eyebrows.
Although he still had not heard where they were, just hearing that there were clues already made his heart feel slightly relieved.
"Tell me," Zayden said.
"A few months after the escape, our source in one of the noble families heard that they had found traces of Zayden’s daughter in the Ruberin Kingdom, a small kingdom south of the Tyron Empire."
"They sent assassins after them, but they had already escaped towards the south. When the assassins followed their traces, they had to stop their pursuit because the traces kept moving south."
Rick paused slightly.
"Well, they knew what that meant if they continued moving south, so they decided to cancel the pursuit."