A few days later, Azaroth met up with Yrellea.

He took her to a spot away from Kloras Town. The spot was outside the Kloras Town but not too far away from it.

​​

They were walking along the river's bank. After some time, Yrellea laid her eyes on some corpses in the river.

Even from a distance, she guessed that there were nearly thousands of monster corpses in the river.

However, as she got closer, she noticed that these corpses weren't actually in the river. It seemed as though they were placed on an Energy Platform just above the river.

This Energy Platform was created by Azaroth so that these corpses would submerge in the river at particular timing. And after that time, they would the Energy Platforms would rise again, bringing the corpses up.

Azaroth then told Yrellea, "Poison all these corpses. But make sure the poison isn't too strong. A weak dose of it should not kill someone."

Those words from Yrellea surprised Azaroth, but she still went ahead and poisoned those corpses.

Her hands began to shine with a violet light, which she flashed over the corpses she saw.

Yrellea wasn't just poisoning these corpses. Her poison even inhibited their decomposition.

Azaroth looked in her direction from a distance and nodded satisfyingly. It seemed as though she had mastered the 1st Stage of the Heavenly Poison Scripture.

Once she was done poisoning the corpses, the two began to walk back. Yrellea was walking towards the training grounds while Azaroth was walking towards the mansion.

While walking, Yrellea suddenly asked Azaroth, "…Master, do you have a girlfriend?"

Azaroth glanced at Yrellea for a second and then replied calmly, "Yes."

Yrellea came to a halt for a little moment, her face disappointed. She felt as though the small chance she had been hoping for had been shattered to smithereens.

Azaroth didn't say anything to her. He could see that she had some feelings about him but he hardly cared about it.

"Walk quickly," Azaroth ordered her with a cold tone.

Soon, Yrellea began to run to catch up to Azaroth. Once she caught up with him, she asked him with a curious tone, "Is that woman really beautiful?"

"Yes. But most importantly, her background is useful to me." Azaroth spoke with a serious tone.

Yrellea blankly stared for a few seconds before a massive smile appeared on her face.

'I have a chance… I just need to become even more useful to master.'

Yrellea had no idea that her thoughts were completely apparent to Azaroth. And she had little to no chance in his mind.

But the future was unpredictable.

~~

3 days later, people were showing symptoms of many kinds of diseases. They had even come to Azaroth's mansion and requested him to summon a doctor from the nearby city of town.

Each one sensed their approaching death and was utterly scared. After promising them that he would find a solution, the people left for their homes.

Once they left, Azaroth showed a sly smile.

Azaroth met with Sargan and spoke, "Go and activate the Plan."

Sargan nodded, "Alright, boss."

In just a few days or so, a rumor began to spread in Kloras Town.

This wasn't a natural disease, in reality, they had been cursed by some gods. It was the Aramore Village who paid a sufficient sacrifice to their gods and laid down such a curse on Droln Village's people.

Once the people heard of it, they were utterly shocked. And also disheartened.

If it was a curse from a god, how could they resist it? They had little to no chance.

However, another rumor, on a smaller scale also started, "I started paying my respects to a god. This is its statue. And surprisingly, the illness was cured in a day."

These were the people Sargan had made a deal with.

They were supposed to say things like this and spread it in the village by talking about it in a pub.

Moreover, their families were the ones who first received the antidote.

The result of combining these two rumors was remarkable.

From each family, atleast one person visited Azaroth's Mansion and they requested him to create more of these statues.

Azaroth didn't even charge them for the statues of these gods.

He gave them away for free and soon, in each family, there was atleast one statue.

Azaroth smirked as he sensed his statues being distributed to all these people.

He felt an immense amount of faith energy being absorbed as these people frantically worshiped to his statues.

This faith energy was traveling within Azaroth's body at such a rapid rate because the people were very genuine.

And it was only natural to be genuine. They would die otherwise.

'The faith energy from hundreds of people truly feels great. I can finally feel my cultivation taking another step forward.'

He didn't immediately stop with the poisonous river.

If the threat vanished too suddenly, then they would stop worshiping.

He had to lower the dose even more and heal the most serious illnesses.

Azaroth was doing this to make sure that worshiping once a day would be ingrained in their bodies.

Forming a sort of routine. Once this routine was formed, he would be able to extract the most benefits from these people.

And then, he would also be able to focus on other matters.

~~

Around this time, Noah was the one training with Tiana.

He was helping her to increase her reaction speed. Reaction speed to use her Ice Element. Most of the time, Tiana felt as if she was just getting beat down with no chance of resisting.

However, there were times when she would be quick enough to slightly startle Noah. Although it wouldn't change the end result, Noah could see the gradual progress in her.

He also gave her advice on how she should improve even more.

Azaroth knew that his retainers had more or less completed the 2nd Stage of his Training Regimen.

Tiana would most probably be able to accomplish it this week.

Other than Noah, everyone else would be at the 3 Star Rank or stronger.

Currently, in terms of cultivation, Laura was the strongest. However, if their cultivation was suppressed and their pure ability was tested, then without a doubt, Noah was the strongest.

But Noah was not satisfied with such progress.

He didn't just want to be the strongest within the 2 Star Rank. He wanted to grow even stronger. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to protect Azaroth.

These thoughts gave him strength and quite a lot of motivation to grow even more.

Laura was training with Yrellea. And unsurprisingly, Laura was winning by a good margin.

Yrellea was thinking of new ways to attack Laura but Laura easily blocked them with her Wood Ardor and counterattacked.

Yrellea could have blocked Laura's attacks if they were at the same rank but because of her lower cultivation, she couldn't resist Laura's attacks at all.

Every time Laura attacked her, she was forced to dodge to the side or try to deflect her attacks.

But this wasted precious time during which she couldn't counterattack while Laura would just increase the rate of her attacks.

Yrellea understood that Laura fought in a fighting style similar to her own.

Laura could actively control wood while she could control water. The only difference was that when her attacks clashed with the defense raised by Laura, it couldn't pierce through.

Even though her lower cultivation played a part in this, it was also because she couldn't find an ideal way to attack Laura.

Yrellea wanted to attack Laura in a way that no matter whether she tried to block or dodge it, the attack would still hit her.

Naturally, this was easier said than done.

~~

Meanwhile, in Rhodes Mansion, Shun was standing next to Jonas.

The two had met just now and Shun had something to tell Jonas.

"It's time for me to take my leave," Shun informed Jonas with a serious tone.

Jonas asked Shun with a surprised look, "You are taking leave so quickly? Are you not planning to complete this mission?"

Shun replied while looking into Jonas's eyes, "Leaving does not mean I am giving up. My presence here is useless. What I should be doing is returning to my city and manage it."

"I have been away from it for far too long. There are probably all sorts of issues popping up now." Shun spoke with a serious look.

"I see… Then are you planning to return after Felix Miller comes? That man might know something about this totem." Jonas asked Shun.

"No. I am afraid you will have to keep him company, Marquis Rhodes. Please inform me of what he says to you or better yet, use the Voice Transmission Array Stone." Shun informed him seriously.

Jonas replied after some time, "…Very well."

"Thank you, Marquis Rhodes," Shun spoke before slowly flying towards the City of Vanta.

Jonas stared in Shun's direction and thought 'It seems that we failed in finding the whereabouts of that Elf. But still, I have gained an unexpected ally from this situation.'

'I should now tackle the other Noble Families and decrease their prestige.'

Jonas thought with a smirk on his face.

Earlier, he would have been hesitant to tackle the other Noble Families since even the Rhodes Family couldn't deal with them alone. But now, the situation was different.

Jonas had Shun as an ally. Even though Shun wasn't going to support him unconditionally, he knew that if the enemies were other Noble Families, there was a chance.

Naturally, he already knew about Shun's childhood and the incidents he had encountered. He knew that this man hated the Noble Families.

If Jonas told him about his plan of damaging the prestige of the other families, he would have his support.

However, Shun's assistance was insufficient. Shun's backer was who Jonas was after.

It was none other than the King!