985: Gathering forces

Gathering forces

The entire room fell silent when Xue Meng's name was mentioned. His notoriety preceded him even among the people he had not and probably would not ever cross paths with. At this point in time they were all well aware of his strength, as ambiguous as his actual realm was. 1

So it was understandable why they were so surprised when Rhisiat mentioned that even Xue Meng wasn't able to detect his beastly aura but Jin Wang could.

To them, Xue Meng was one of two people on this world that should never be messed with. The other, surprisingly, was Feng Huang, the third protector of the Academy.

Henrik's eyes brightened upon hearing that and he looked towards Jin Wang for confirmation.

"Can you...beat him? Xue Meng?" Henrik held his breath waiting for the answer but almost choked on his own tongue upon getting it.

"Yeah, but I won't," Jin Wang answered casually.

Henrik jumped to his feet in a mixture of shock and discontent, "W-What?! Why the hell not??"

Jin Wang winked at him mischievously, "Because it wouldn't be fair. Plus there is already a guy I have to take care of."

"Who?! Who else could possibly be stronger than him?"

Jin Wang only smiled back in response. There was no need to tell them that he was talking about the Abysswalker because it would never even cross their minds that anyone here could ever contend with him.

To them he was like the sun itself. Something they could only look up to but never ever think about in any other context. And what would happen if one day some random person said they could kill the sun? Would they not be laughed out of the room?

It was far too ridiculous an idea to even bring up and would require a lot more explanation than Jin Wang was willing to give at this moment in time.

Jin Wang waved his hand nonchalantly and changed the topic.

"Don't worry about it. Why are you bringing him up anyway?"

Henrik sighed inwardly but seeing as Jin Wang wasn't willing to talk about it further he gave up, for the time being at least. He walked up to the wooden table placed in the center of the room which had a sheet of a blank white paper placed on top of it.

He mumbled a spell under his breath and stroked the paper's surface in a very specific manner, drawing the outlines of several runes and letters. By the time he was finished blotches of black and green ink were starting to take shape.

Jin Wang moved over to the table just like the rest of them. They watched as various intricate designs were born from each ink stain. They looked like brushstrokes of varying lengths bringing a landscape to life.

Jin Wang whistled, "Damn, that's a nice treasure you have there. What is its range?"

Henrik pointed to the four corners of the map where the identical symbols of a compass were painted.

"There are four 'flags' connected to the main map. It shows everything in between each of them but they have to form a perfect square for it to work. I don't know about range but with some help from the grand priestess I was able to place it far enough that we can see more than 90% of this world."

"Double damn, the little one didn't hold back did she," Jin Wang muttered to himself.

"What?"

"Nothing nothing. I am guessing it can show all-terrain but what about people?"

Henrik dragged his fingers across the sheet to bring up a different section of the map where a majority of it was blotted out by white spots. Or rather the ink nearby was forcibly pushed aside.

"It can't show individuals unless I have marked them personally but large groups of people do show up here. The 'brighter' they are the more spiritual energy they exude which we can guess is from a pretty large group."

He 'zoomed out' of the map by bringing his hands closer together to show a much larger area.

"We know this is where Dai Zhi's army is gathering," he pointed towards the largest blank spot and then at another spot NW of it.

"And these I think are the natives who created the resistance that's fighting against them. They have been gathering their forces for a while. From what I have heard from the refugees they are looking for volunteers and once they have enough they will launch an all-out attack."

The eyes of everyone in the room were transfixed on the map. They were all thinking the same thing but only Hazel vocalized her thoughts.

"Since the map shows how much spiritual energy is gathered at the spot we can guess how strong a particular group is right?"

Henrik nodded grimly.

"Then..." she looked back at the two blank spots.

One was about half an inch wide while the other was over fifteen inches across.

"It will be a massacre."

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