The Epic Tale of Chaos vs Order

153 The right path

The five students closely followed Cain, but their expressions were not the same. The trio at Level 4 showed apprehension, while the man at Level 5 was more composed, but the look on his face showed he did not feel very comfortable with this.

However, none of the four dared to go against their group’s Level 6 Essence Wave Warrior. She was a young woman with green hair and vertical pupils.

When the Level 6 Essence Wave Warrior arrived at this zone, she was surprised to hear those explosions. As she guided the group to move forward quietly, shock appeared when she saw such a young man fighting her mission’s target.

At first, she was just surprised, but greed appeared in her eyes after seeing how the young man killed the Dread-Lightning Lion before using the creature’s blood to heal himself. The student knew that getting that technique would be almost impossible, but who knew what kinds of treasures were inside his space ring?

If the young man were another student at her Wave University, she would not have been so bold, but that was not the case, and who could say he did not die at the hands of the Dread-Lightning Lion?

The Level 6 Essence Wave Warrior was ready to deploy her jamming device once they were close enough to the young man. Even if this one was strong, the battle with the Dread-Lightning Lion should have exhausted him, and she had four more people by her side.

Once the girl saw the young man getting deeper into the mountain, she pushed her group to move faster since that was a perfect place for them to rain spells at him from high ground.

The greed in the girl’s eyes almost exploded as she activated her jamming device and reached the other side of the small mountain. Nevertheless, a sense of shock and confusion replaced those emotions.

The Level 6 Essence Wave Warrior had just seen the young man move to this location, but no one was there. She was not alone in her confusion since the other four also thought that they would see the man and had already charged their attacks.

.....

Suddenly, the girl’s eyes grew sharp as she made her Wave Cloak burst with all her might, generating powerful winds to cover her body.

“Watch out!”

The only reason for the young man to vanish like that was if he already knew they were following him, so the girl immediately entered a battle state thinking that danger was imminent.

When the other four heard the girl’s words, they grew tense, thinking that the young man that single-handedly killed the Dread-Lightning Lion knew their intentions and would attack them.

The Wave Cloak of the four exploded with immense strength as they pushed their perception to the peak, ready to answer any incoming attack.

Despite their young age, the five students adopted a tight battle formation that would allow them to enhance each other’s strong points while covering their weaknesses.

The five students remained like that for several minutes, but nothing came. Still, they did not lower their guard, as they knew that an attack could come at any time, and the fact it had yet to happen only proved the enemy’s patience.

None of them knew that the man they were guarding against had already left those small mountains and headed to the Whisper Forest’s exit.

Cain could monitor the movements of those five with his Ego Wave, so it was very easy to vanish using Void Breath once he was out of their perception.

At first, Cain had considered killing all of them after figuring out their intentions. Even if the one that drove them in that direction were the Level 6 Essence Wave Warrior when push came to shove, the other four would have still attacked him and taken his belongings after killing him.

He even came up with a plan. First, Cain would have hidden his presence and secretly hypnotized the three Level 4 Essence Wave Warriors.

After that, he would have used the trio to create mayhem, and during the chaos, he would have attacked from the shadows, greatly wounding or even killing the Level 6 Essence Wave Warrior.

As for the Level 5 Astral Wave Warrior, someone like that was no longer any threat to Cain. The only path for that man would have been dying under his might.

Of course, things could always go south, but even in that scenario, he was confident enough in his skills and speed to at least run away with his life.

Ultimately, the only reason Cain did not kill that group was that he did not need to do it. Not every interaction with a hostile force required him to obliterate them.

The number of people that had shown animosity or even killing intent toward him was not small and would continue growing as he advanced on his path of power.

Maybe killing that group would have filled him with vigor and some sense of justice since they dared to think of killing him, but a wave of problems would come next.

Investigating forces would surely come from that group’s university, and since Cain did not hide the fact he came to this place, it would only be a matter of time before they figured out what happened.

Cain was no longer an orphan without any background. He was the most talented cadet from the Imperial Lightning Fort and the Young Lord of the Valentine Family, so he was not afraid people could twist the facts to make him the guilty party so they could use the power of the empire’s laws against him.

The higher-ups from the Imperial Military Force would not let one of their most shining stars fall into some scheme. Yet, that would not erase the animosity he would gain from that group’s Wave University and families.

In the end, Cain chose to avoid the conflict. He would have only gained a faint sense of superiority if he had killed all of them, which was not worth it.

Of course, if the group had wounded him or attacked someone he cared about in any way, no matter their background, Cain would have killed them all without hesitation.

“Hahaha, you are maturing really fast, brat. There is nothing wrong in killing an enemy, but jumping straight to murder when someone shows the most minimal sign of animosity only shows you lack self-control.”

Cain heard Apex’s voice as he jumped from one tree to the other, making no sound. A small smile appeared on his face, and he knew that, for some reason, the praise of the System Spirit felt much better than anything he would have gained from killing those five students.

“Anyway, let’s get to important matters. I have been going through the information we got from Clacius, and some things don’t add up.”

Cain’s face grew solemn when he heard that. He knew that anything related to that mysterious underground organization could prove extremely dangerous and needed to be careful about it.

“According to Clacius’ information, the meeting was only supposed to last two days at most, but some of the people attending it had free their schedule for entire weeks.

What is also odd is that the ones with a shorter period of time are at the lower end of the list of people attending the meeting, such as mayors, civil leaders, and others like that.

All the while, the ones with a more extended schedule time are at the higher end of the list, such as sons of Noble Families, army members, and Wave Universities students.”

Cain’s eyes narrowed as he analyzed that new information. He knew there were many reasons for something like that, such as the mysterious organization dividing the meeting into two parts, and those like Clacius only allowed for the first one.

Still, Cain felt that the truth behind it was not so simple.

“I know I am missing something, but this new information doesn’t change our plan. Apex, have you already figured out the best target?”

“There are several that meet your requirements. I will send the information to you, so you can choose the one you like the most.”

Cain nodded at the System Spirit’s words. There was still a little more than a week before the meeting. That should be enough for him to take care of the finer details of the plan and get ready.

If Cain was honest, there was not a small part of him telling him to forget about this meeting and pass down the information to the authorities anonymously, but he also knew that would not fix anything.

A solution like that would grant him only a little peace of mind. The danger was definitely considerable, but something deep inside told him that he could rise higher and higher by choosing this path.

It was fine to avoid trouble as he did just now by not engaging with that group. What was unacceptable was letting fear stop him from taking a path he felt deep inside was the right one.