"I'm so sorry for exposing everything just like that… I was just worried about my own position and didn't think about whom I was talking to...I'm truly sorry!" 

Jason was not really sorry but he gave his best to make it seem like this.

While Milan just mumbled that it was better that way, Isga stared into Jason's eyes that didn't show any signs of being sorry.

This told Isga that Jason was slyer than he imagined 

'I didn't know that Milan was unaware of his family's business...however, it looked like Jason was aware of that….weird… Who is that guy?'

However, Isga didn't think that it was bad for Milan to get to know that his family was currently taking the wrong path.

Not only was the Jual clan allying with foreign races, in order to receive certain cultivation and body refining manuals, which is something almost all big families and clans were doing, but in exchange, the foreign races get their hands on innocent people. 

Isga was not a hypocrite and he knew that the Meldor family, to which he belonged, was also colluding with foreign races.

But it was different than the Jual clan who seemed to have obtained the recipe to create an addictive cultivation drug from foreign races too.

The Meldor family gave up on true criminals in exchange for all kinds of manuals. Some may say that this is not better than handing out innocent people, but Isga had a different opinion there.

Furthermore, what made Isga wonder was the fact that Milan was unaware of everything. Neither did he know about fabricated evidence which is used to enslave innocent and in most cases, strong, young talents from the lower society layer nor did he know about the addictive cultivation drug.

From the looks of it, he was also not aware of the fact that his body refining technique belonged to exactly these foreign races.

Maybe he wanted to avoid every responsibility as well as possible but that was not something Milan could do for his entire life.

He had to face everything head-on or perish!

As such, Isga said with a calm and soothing voice

"Don't take it too much to your heart Milan! It's not like you are responsible for your clan's behavior. In the end, every big family has to collude with the foreign races in order to prevent being destroyed by other big clans. If one clan doesn't have a pact with foreign races, all other clans would prey on it as the manuals provided by foreign races are superior to everything mankind can acquire! Even the manuals within ancient ruins should be worse than those we obtain from living foreign races.

They're alive, at least and this has a reason, which should be the superior techniques!"

When Jason heard what Isga was saying, he couldn't help but frown, thinking that it was never fine to exchange someone of his own race to receive manuals from the foreign races.

On the other side, he had to acknowledge that it would be somewhat difficult for other clans to fight against someone with a refined physique head-on.

The difference would only widen the stronger one became. Jason felt that he was already stronger than most of those so-called prodigies that entered the Mythic Garden, solely because of his great physique!

It was only refined up to the 4th Expert rank, but he was already stronger than most 7th Expert ranks solely from his physique if one were to disregard the baptisms and amplifications he received!

However, there was still a large difference between Isga's clan, who colluded with foreign races a few times to receive a few manuals before severing contacts as well as possible, which was what Jason imagined them to do, compared to the Jual clan who seemed to have become too greedy to receive more resources.

It was likely that they tried to become the overlords of Canir and reign mankind.

Jason couldn't help but think that the Jual clan might be as problematic as the Drake family if not worse, which was something he already expected, yet didn't want to accept.

It was frustrating to see something like this and Jason began to wonder if there was at least one big clan that treated everyone fairly.

In his opinion, treating prodigies better than others was not bad because prodigies had to protect the weak, untalented humans in the future.

However, that also had its limitations!

Milan felt slightly better after he heard Isga's words, even if it was hard to digest what his family had been doing for the last few years.

'What has our clan turned into?' He began to wonder as they arrived in front of Isga's other friends that ventured into the Mythic garden.

Some of them knew Milan and became acquainted with him a long time ago during multiple occasions where the big families and clans made events to celebrate all kinds of things.

Sometimes, there were also small tournaments to determine who the strongest prodigy in their generation was.

As such, they approached Milan and talked to him which distracted the frustrated youth.

This lifted his sour mood and both Isga and Jason couldn't help but think that Milan was strong enough to overcome this obstacle.

"I know what you did there...It might have been harsh but I guess it was better for Milan to understand everything sooner rather than too late!" Isga suddenly said which caused Jason to flinch before he nodded his head.

"I can partially understand why big families tend to think that they need the foreign races to advance, but this way of thinking won't work forever. 

Right now we are not a threat to these races, but once we become too strong, they become too greedy or need something, they will stop toying with us, which is what they're doing by trading their manuals with the big families…

We should be prepared for the worst and stay independent….that is at least what I think, and I hope that your clan didn't establish a soul contract with the foreign races, saying that they will support each other in war or something like owing a favor to the foreign race. 

The latter would be bad as it meant that the foreign races could order your clan to do everything….

However, that is not my business and it shouldn't concern me…. Unfortunately, I already saw too much in the last few months and it's more shocking than expected…"

Jason ended his short speech, leaving Isga with a confused expression behind 'We have a soul contract with the foreign races, but it doesn't state something like waging war against other humans….WAIT..F*ck!'

Isga realized that Jason's words made sense as he recalled their soul contract's exact words

[In the event of an ambush from other foreign races, the 'Thudra' race will help out the Meldor clan under the condition that the combined forces don't halt before the other party is completely annihilated!]

In the beginning, everyone of their clan was overjoyed when they signed the soul contract with such a beneficial clause, but Jason's words allowed Isga to think everything more skeptical as he mumbled.

"Don't halt before the other party is completely annihilated….What if one individual of the foreign race attacks us with their human allies…?"

He thought that their clan had always been one of the smartest, but thinking about that one clause was already devastating for Isga.

They never accepted anything else, only manuals in exchange for the worst of the worst criminals, and they rejected many soul contracts, only to be led by greed as they received many benefits from said soul contracts which they signed, thinking that they could exploit the Thudra race.

Both Jason and Isga needed some time for themselves to think about everything. While Isga tried to think of a solution to get his clan out of the frustrating situation, Jason's thoughts didn't linger on the big families, or the prodigies he could see all around him.

Rather than that, he decided to focus on his main task for now.

Thinking of finding, testing, and contracting one of the cursed beasts Isga and Milan named!

There were three beasts whose curse suited his demands, which was much more than he expected.

Only two among these three were feasible to catch and contract, but Jason couldn't help but feel that the third beast might have something for him.

He was unsure why he thought like that, but everything within him screamed towards him trying to tell him that he shouldn't contract the Debilitation Centaur or one-eyed rat!

Instead, Jason should focus on the petrification serpent, according to his gut feeling that told him so.

Yet, this sounded ridiculous to him as he could barely estimate how strong that beast was!

Something like that never happened to him before and it was as if his entire being was speaking towards him, which was creepy.

The closest occurrence to what he sensed right now was the time his soul world found the black origin flame which his mana eyes couldn't perceive.

This event was exactly what caused Jason to think that there might be something he overlooked.

'It's not like I'm in a hurry right now...If I absorb lots of mana within the mana vein for a few months, I can either try to catch a Debilitation Centaur or One-eyed rat. That is if I can't find something else!'

Jason was suddenly dragged out of his train of thoughts when he heard Suo, who had already calmed down, shouting that they would venture deeper into the cave.

Apparently, it wouldn't take too long for them to arrive nearby the mana vein as long as they took the correct path towards one of the frustrated halls that were connected to the mana vein.

There was nobody who was not confident in their strength, but everyone respected Suo's choice that was more level-headed than Jason estimated it to be.

There were too many strong beasts within the Mythic Garden and there was a reason for such a high death rate!

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