For the second reason, Damon judged it to be due to the characteristics of the Asura Death Spirit Heart Method.
When one examined the process of using an internal energy cultivation method to draw in the qi distributed throughout one’s surroundings, there was a stark difference between those of the orthodox and unorthodox factions. The orthodox methods absorbed qi as much as possible without disturbing the harmony of nature. Because of that, they were extremely stable and had the advantage of not easily falling into qi deviation. Thus, no matter how abundant Arcadia’s qi might be, there was naturally a limit to how much could be absorbed through an orthodox internal energy method.
But the internal energy methods of the unorthodox factions were different. Since the methods themselves emphasized efficiency to an extreme degree, they gave no consideration whatsoever to the harmony of nature and could absorb qi without limit up to the point the body could endure. That was why rapid advancement was possible, and why the likelihood of qi deviation was also markedly higher compared to orthodox methods.
But if the target was Arcadia, where the distribution of qi had reached an extreme, that difference became glaring. Because qi was abundant, the amount that could be drawn in also surpassed imagination. No matter how full the surrounding qi was, the unorthodox internal energy methods had the ability to absorb it up to the body’s limit. Damon judged that this was why the mercenaries’ progress was so fast.
“Come to think of it, even when the Guardian Demon King Army trained, they deliberately sought out places full of qi and practiced circulating energy and regulating breath… It’s no wonder these people are showing progress this quickly.”
Damon suddenly felt it was a waste. If he had learned martial arts with his newly acquired body, he would certainly have shown progress comparable to theirs. Perhaps he might have reached the peak realm in less than ten years. In this place’s terms, that meant becoming a Sword Master.
But before long, Damon was able to shake off his regret. In any case, his dantian was filled with dark mana instead of internal energy, so attempting to cultivate martial arts anew at this point was impossible from the start. Besides, he already had sufficiently powerful aides.
“In any case, I have four top-tier Master-class Death Knights. I should put such useless thoughts aside.”
Shaking his head, Damon instructed the mercenaries on what they were to do next. What they now had to do was move the qi they had sensed according to their own will.
“Your immediate task now is to move the mana you have sensed with your will. If you can move mana, then you need only control it and move it along the routes you memorized. This is not something that can be accomplished in a day or two, so you must never rush. From now on, focus on trying to move your mana. Of course, those who still cannot sense the flow of mana must make sensing it their first priority.”
After explaining the method of circulating energy and regulating breath in detail, Damon left the mercenaries there and departed. Through spatial movement, he had gone directly to Lorvain.
The circumstances that brought Damon to Lorvain were roughly as follows.
Zengart welcomed Damon warmly as ever. However, Damon was able to detect something strange in Zengart’s attitude. There was a slightly altered air about him. It was so faint that anyone other than the keen-eyed Damon would never have perceived it.
“Did something happen?”
“Nothing much, really.”
At Zengart’s lingering manner, curiosity flashed in Damon’s eyes.
“Tell me about it.”
Zengart was the first person with whom Damon had formed a connection in Arcadia. Because of that, he could not be indifferent to his affairs. Zengart soon nodded and began explaining what had happened recently.
“To tell the truth, something very strange happened recently.”
“Something strange…?”
“About ten of the guards suddenly ran away. Without a single word of notice, as if they had simply vanished.”
“Is that so?”
Damon tilted his head. Guards disappearing was hardly a major matter. Zengart probably paid them fairly well, but human affairs were unknowable…
However, at the words that followed, Damon felt a chill run through his entire body.
“What is truly strange is that those fellows fled without taking anything with them. They did not take the money they had saved or even their clothes; they ran away in the very uniforms they had been wearing on duty. It really is bizarre. I’ve been racking my brains over that issue lately.”
Damon said nothing. With his chin resting on his hand, he seemed to be deep in thought, and Zengart waved a hand with a bitter smile.
“Please don’t worry too much about it. Those worthless fellows—ugh.”
As Zengart was speaking calmly, a sudden gasp burst from his mouth. Without understanding why, his consciousness faded, and his body collapsed helplessly to the floor. Damon rushed forward and gently caught Zengart in his arms. A lonely expression lingered on his face.
“I’m sorry, Zengart.”
Damon had suddenly deployed Magic Missile and suppressed Zengart’s Hun acupoint. From the beginning, there had been no possibility that Zengart, who knew nothing of swordsmanship, could block Damon’s surprise attack. No—more accurately, he had not even sensed the slightest sign of it. Damon’s eyes, as he held Zengart, were filled with complicated emotions.
“There was no other way. Judging from my experience, it seems a great change has recently occurred around you.”
Damon had seized upon a clue in the words Zengart had casually let slip.
He was someone who had long experienced the Central Plains martial world, where all manner of schemes and conspiracies ran rampant. Having grown into a peak expert of the unorthodox faction, Damon had overcome countless hardships and trials. He had suffered more assassins’ ambushes than he could count, so no matter how minor a matter appeared, he could not afford to overlook it carelessly.
The fact that the guards had fled for no reason, without even taking the wages they had received so far, clearly meant there was some hidden story behind it.
“There is a high possibility that the guards were killed nine times out of ten. As for the corpses, they could be gotten rid of quickly with something like Blood-Dissolving Powder.”
Of course, this place was Arcadia, not the Central Plains, but the beings he had to deal with were not human. Therefore, for now, he had to exclude none of the possibilities he could think of. Dragons, the strongest lifeforms on the surface, possessed abilities humans could not even imagine…
Moreover, they had mind-affecting magic capable of controlling a human’s will as they pleased. Therefore, Damon concluded that Zengart had most likely been subjected to a dragon’s mental magic.
“Who could it be? There are still about five years left in the dragons’ slumber period… Could there have been one that woke early?”
After being lost in thought for a moment, Damon silently gathered mana into his right hand. He intended to try infiltrating Zengart’s mental world. Of course, dispelling a dragon’s mental magic with magic alone was beyond him. A dragon had to be regarded as a master of the 10th Circle, and even with Damon’s 9th Circle magical skill, restoring erased memories was impossible.
However, he possessed the vast dark mana he had extracted from Neidelhark’s sealing sphere. Damon intended to use it to summon a Nightmare, a Dream Demon. Since a Nightmare could deeply infiltrate a human’s mental world, Damon thought it might be able to read memories erased by magic without much difficulty, and he soon carried out the summoning.
Ssssssss.
A summoning magic circle was engraved on the floor and began to shine with a bluish light. As Damon’s mana concentrated, the magic circle shone even more brightly. At one moment, the circle emitted a light dreadful to behold.
Papapapat.
When the light vanished, something like a pale mist appeared there. The mist, which drifted here and there as though it had no substance, gradually gathered and took on a roughly human shape.
A moment later, a Nightmare in the form of a transparent human stood there facing Damon. It was a transparent Nightmare with the typical appearance of a demon, possessing wings and horns. It had revealed itself because it was before the summoner who had called it; under ordinary circumstances, a Dream Demon was an existence invisible to human eyes.
Furthermore, Damon had summoned Dream Demons several times before to teach greenhorns a lesson. Because of that, the one that appeared was a Nightmare that was somewhat familiar to Damon. Of course, since its primary purpose was to cause nightmares, it was not a particularly high-level Dream Demon, but Damon thought this one would be sufficient. The Nightmare bowed respectfully to Damon.
“Did you call, Lord Damon?”
With a slight nod, Damon immediately gave it its task.
“Enter that man’s mental world at once. A portion of his memories has been erased by mental magic. Find those memories and convey them to me.”
“Understood.”
For a Nightmare, infiltrating a human’s mental world was easier than eating cold porridge. Without another word, the Nightmare approached Zengart. Its transparent body, of which only a faint outline could be seen, soon changed into the form of mist and seeped into Zengart’s head through his nose and ears.
“So it was just as I thought.”
Having grasped everything Zengart had experienced, Damon once again sank into worry. The situation was exactly as expected. The Nightmare had invaded Zengart’s memories, then found the erased memories and conveyed all of them to Damon. It was indeed worthy of being called a Dream Demon, an existence closely connected to human consciousness.
Through this, Damon had learned that one dragon was pursuing him. Damon had clearly grasped all that had happened several days ago—events Zengart himself did not even remember.
“One dragon… Its eyes and hair were black, so there is a strong possibility it is a Black Dragon. This has become quite interesting.”
A gleam of interest flashed through Damon’s eyes. The fact that a dragon was pursuing him was actually welcome news to him. He already possessed enough strength to face a dragon.
“The bastard has most likely gone to Sevain. But he will not be able to uncover what I did there. In that case, he should not have realized my true power. Since I may be able to face a dragon one-on-one, this is rather good for me.”
Damon’s gaze drifted back toward Zengart. Unlike the soldiers, the reason he had remained unharmed was most likely because the dragon had considered what would come afterward. It must have intended to preserve at least one thread of a clue to pursue Damon.
If that was the case, it was obvious that the dragon, having returned empty-handed, would seek out Zengart once more. A complicated look once again settled over Damon’s face.
“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to make use of you once. In any case, both our fates are at stake, so I hope you will understand generously.”
After speaking quietly, Damon released Zengart’s Hun acupoint. There was no need to lay a trap anyway. He only needed to tell him his destination; the fact would certainly reach the dragon’s ears. Then he simply had to wait for the dragon to come.
Once his Hun acupoint was released, Zengart let out a low groan and opened his eyes.
“Ugh…”
As Zengart came to his senses, Damon’s expression changed completely. A deeply worried look appeared on his face. Of course, it was an act.
“What is wrong with you? Collapsing all of a sudden like that. Are you ill?”
“I-I don’t know. Suddenly everything started spinning…”
“You must have been worrying too much over the matter of the guards. Those who were going to run have disappeared, so do not concern yourself with it any longer.”
“I suppose I should do that.”
Zengart smiled bitterly and shook his head. Amazingly, he did not remember anything that had just happened. Damon gave Zengart no time to think.
“Ah, look at me. The reason I came to see you was because of money.”
At Damon’s sudden words, Zengart looked bewildered.
“Money, you say?”
“That’s right. I no longer intend to stay in Sevain. It has become so lonely there that I’m thinking of setting out on a journey. I came because I need some traveling expenses.”
“If that is the case, there is no problem.”
Zengart did not hesitate. After all, all of his wealth had come about because of Damon, and aside from that, the money Damon had entrusted to him was a considerable sum.
“How much do you need?”
“Let me see. About two thousand gold? It will be rather bulky, so please make it all in gold coins.”
“Understood.”
Zengart approached one wall and opened a safe. The place where the teleportation magic circle to receive Damon had been installed was the room where his secret safe was located. Originally, it should have belonged to Romain, but still.
A short while later, Zengart handed Damon a heavy pouch. It was a fairly large sum, but because it contained only gold coins, its volume was not particularly large.
“Here it is.”
“Thank you.”
After accepting the pouch, Damon looked at Zengart. In his eyes was a complicated look, difficult to read.