Three days before the trip, there was a huge upheaval in the weapons market. It was during the time when Kairos’ group were preparing for their trip.

The Snowdrifts’ shop that usually sold limited but highly desirable weapons have introduced a new line of product.

Because Kairos could not mass produce his runic weapons, he had instead sought to make his shop exclusive from the start. And the two months that this shop had opened had attracted many of the gentry as well as those that are highly esteemed. Within such a short time, it turned into a high-class establishment that only those with a certain amount of status frequent.

But now, because of these new items, the gentry couldn’t help but question Kairos’ decision.

Though their function remains similar, it is evident that these new weapons with two-pronged blades are vastly inferior, especially when placed side by side.

Not only are the runes of a lower class, and the sealing abilities only one-third of what the previous products could do. Even the make are less finely crafted despite using expensive materials. In fact, when compared with the other gleaming weapons of the shop, this new line of products felt rather… shoddy.

“Well… why would I even want to touch a weapon like this?” A pompous noble in bright blue doublet half-yelled as he spattered his saliva all over the poor shop attendant, “Please tell your young boss my feedback. I believe that he should discontinue such weapons that simply demeans our status. I would not have a fork accompany me into battle!”

“It’s exactly as my husband says! If he carries your new weapons out, it will only tarry our reputation and turn him into a laughingstock amongst the other nobles. Do you not know that it is only because your weapons are of the highest quality, and the top of the line among all the things the empire have, that we make frequent purchases even at the exorbitant prices you charge us!?” A presumptuous young lady spoke sharply while hugging the self-important looking man.

“I am sure that the other patrons of your establishment have also given similar feedback. Such ugly and weak weapons should be discontinued, immediately!

And as an additional free advice to your young boss. Though you may charge merely a-hundredth for it over your other products, yet it does not make this…. cutlery… appealing. At. All!”

“Surely your young boss should know selling something so cheap in his shop would not help his business but instead hurt it?”

“He must be too young, after all. Sigh. We had hope that after he joined the peerage, he would have cast off his peasant backgrounds.”

As if encouraged by each other’s snide remarks, the two continue giving the shop staff an earful, before finally stomping out of the shop in anger.

But for the members of the staff, they were not too offended.

In fact, the High nobles with such outbursts frequently appeared in the shop recently, and their feedbacks were more or less the same except that it only grew worse as time passed. After just a day, the number of patrons dropped to a fraction of what it was before.

All this while, the shop owner, Kairos, ignored what happened in his shop and Xuan Xian felt even more confounded.

Three days later.

The Devilheart family released a news that exploded in Saint City.

They have partnered with the enterprise titan, the Hope family and released a new, cheaper, line of product that promises to substitute the runic weapons which the Snowdrifts offer at a hefty hundred white gold each.

Their new line of weapons is called the Devil’s fork and has both seal and runic properties for only a fraction of the cost - Only a single white gold per item.

To make the upcoming announcement a hit and to prevent news from leaking out the Devilheart and Hope families had been keeping their activities in complete secrecy. Unfortunately, the hit went in the wrong direction they’ve hoped.

When the gentry that saw the Devil’s fork by the Hope’s retail shops, they were dumbfounded. Perhaps coincidental, or maybe the boy had accurately guessed, the selling price was the same as Kairos had put up in his shop previously.

And it no doubt created a rippling effect on the market.

“Aren’t those the same weapons that the young boy placed in his shop previously?”

“My goodness. This is such a slap on their faces. Their product and price, stolen!”

“So this is why young master Kairos took all those terrible feedback in stride. I’ve been wondering why he did nothing to our complaints.”

“Hahaha, I like that young fellow more and more now.”

“Be quiet, don’t you know how powerful the Devilhearts are?”

“Well, no need to fear my good man. I’m sure, like me, the others of the peerage will not want to be caught with such low-quality weapons. After all, rumours spread around rather fast, and many have already openly demeaned the Devil’s fork until it became worthless in the gentry’s eyes. Hahahaha!”

Just as the nobles determined, the rumours have indeed travelled far, and the business relationship between the Hope and Devilheart families became strained. With their network, to gain information fast is only to be expected.

The Snowdrifts selling their product days before the official release reached the ears of the Devilheart family head, and he was furious – to say the least.

“Nincompoop! Canot Hope… you truly are as your namesake! I am the fool for partnering with you!”

The Hope name that had long established itself as a forerunner in innovation and research now has a huge gaping hole in their reputation thanks to having their blueprint stolen.

In the business world, they can bring Kairos to courts for loss of creative product. The Snowdrifts would have to repay the Hope family for any loss in sales and add in a formal apology for their demeanour.

The only issue is that the sales of the stolen Devil’s fork had been zero, and the legal courts cannot extract any sum from Snowdrifts for potential sales.

The damage had been done.

Canot Hope lost quite a few handfuls of hair that day. If he becomes bald, it will surely be because of Kairos.

He lost any and all contact with Calculate Devilheart because of this incident, although he clearly believed was not his fault.

Instead, the merchant now had to deal with Calculus, the next family head.

Unlike the experienced Calculate Devilheart, this young heir seemed to be far more eccentric.

When the news landed into the hands of the young Calculus, the boy told Canot Hope to continue with the current plan despite being on the backfoot. A command that he could not agree but be left with no choice.

Calculus, in his high tower, believed that such a little ploy would not have affected the reputation of the great Devilheart family. To back off would only make them look worse, and who would dare to belittle the product they created?

To a certain degree, he was right. No one had the guts to speak badly of the Devil’s fork in the open, but behind their backs, their family have already turned into a joke.

“Now, after all these hoo-hahs, people certainly wouldn’t want to buy something they have already publicly dismissed. It would be like, slapping their own faces if they do so. Oh, how I crave to see the look on those bootlickers to the Devilheart family right now.”

“Hahaha, I will pay a lot to see that as well. And I’m simply amazed that those incompetent idiots could not even stop a boy from getting his hands on the Devil’s fork, and even to know of their prices. The Devilheart should rename their weapon as The fool’s fork.”

“Now, that would be a good name, for those who would use it.”

“Even if only to skewer his game over a fire, bwahahaha!”

The Devil’s fork would continue to be sold by the Devilheart and Hope family for years to come as the only product that never replenished their stocks.

…..

After leaving Saint City, the group are on their way towards Kairos’ manor when one of them realised something when comparing the Devil’s fork with the runic weapons that the Snowdrifts are selling.

Long: “Boss, incidentally, what is the name for our weapons?”

Kairos: “Uhhh…”

Come to think of it, until now…. actually….

Kairos: “Umm... There’s no name?”

John: “Whaa… Boss, you are selling those products, but they don’t have a product name?”

Kairos: “Well…”

Silvers: “When you start selling other types of runic weapons, you’ll surely need a name to differentiate them.”

Jim: “Then let’s call it the Devil Slayers series!”

Sasha: “I thought you would come up with a terrible name, Jim. But this is such a good suggestion that it may actually cause the Devilheart family to vomit out blood.”

Kairos, “Unfortunately, as much as it would be satisfying, we can’t use that name.”

Jim: “Oh, why not?”

Kairos replied with a smile: “Well, because there are actual devils, and we don’t want to falsely market what the weapons could do.”

There is another reason which that he did not say, and that is to uphold the prestige of the shop.

It would not do for a high-class establishment to create such a petty reputation, nor would he truly feel any kick out of doing so. And the reason Kairos thinks this way, is that he had never once thought the Devilheart family as a worthy opponent. They cannot even be considered as obstacles.

From the beginning, the Devilheart appear to him only as mist, easily scattered by a strong gust.

“Since the runes on the weapons are inspired by star formations. Let’s call it Star rune weapons.”

A logical and straightforward name.

After a short travel, they soon reach their first destination. Rutea village.

The mud-splattered roads, straw roofs and old brick houses, and the friendly villagers, they are all the same as before. There was also the smell of home. An unpleasant waft, made from a mixture of animal dung, unwashed bodies, and overturned soil.

They didn’t hesitate to go straight to the Viscount manor.

Along the way, they picked-up Alan, Edward, and Tommy, the rest of the leaders of Snowdrifts.

A little while afterwards, the group sat around a humble small fireplace. He had moved it here from his previous house.

It was a dirty and small hearth that’s quite out of place in this grand-looking manor, yet Kairos couldn’t feel right at home unless he is here.

Kairos quickly told them about Jones’ situation, just like he did before. The faces of Alan, Edward, and Tommy turned far grimmer than when John and the others heard it.

Being as young as thirteen, it is unlikely Jones would have enemies that want to take his life.

They understood Jones’ talent more than anyone else, and it wasn’t strange if someone kidnapped him.

If that’s the case, they would have time to rescue him. However, this also means it is almost definitely a planned kidnapping by a large organisation. At least, it must be a superpower that could ignore Jones’ status as the Clan Successor.

They also ruled out the possibility that Jones had offended someone he shouldn’t on the way back because he did not send any rescue signals back to the Solitary Blades Clan.

If Jones was surrounded, he wouldn’t have blindly charged in without calling for reinforcements first.

Unless, his enemies prevented him from doing so, which means that they must’ve been prepared beforehand; thus, his disappearance was undoubtedly planned.

The difficulty of their rescue mission immediately became apparent.

Just like he did before, Kairos he handed each of them a cubic fruit. Alan, Edward, and Tommy looked at the odd-looking fruit with eyes as wide as saucepans. They had seen many strange fruits before, but never one that is shaped this way.

As they ate the fruit and started assimilating the energy, Kairos left to seek his father who has been in closed-door training all these while.

Because the process for closed-door training is exceptionally delicate, it would be dangerous to simply disturb the one who is in such focus. The lighter consequences of interrupting the training at a critical time would severely harm the practitioner’s body, while graver consequences could cause one’s energy flow to be disrupted, dispersing all of the practitioner’s cultivation and turning that person into a handicap, or even bringing a tortured death.

Fortunately, unlike anyone else, Aisa could contact with people from far using mental messages. She carefully scanned for Vouno’s reactions from outside the training room and after confirming that the man is not in a crucial part of the process, she sent him a message.

A few days had passed after Vouno received the message before he came out of his mediation. Although he wasn’t in a critical junction, he couldn’t stop mid-way. Fortunately, this time he had made significant progress, just the confident smile on his face was enough for Kairos to determine it.

By now, Alan, Edward, and Tommy had finished assimilating much of the fruit’s energy, and they collectively reached Peak D rank making the whole group at the same cultivation level for once.

However, because of Kairos’ recent near-death experience, his combat strength is far above the rest of the team thanks to his improved physical strength.

Vouno seeing how his son and friends have all become stronger, he who thought of all of them as his children, also felt delighted. But when Kairos told him that Jones had gone missing, the mood instantly turned bleak, and he insisted on following.

Before Kairos could say a word, Vouno exclaimed vehemently, “That poor boy ran out from our house all because of my stupid big mouth. I am going to get him back this time, so don’t stop me, son.”

Kairos nodded, “I’m not about to protest. I was going to ask you to come, father. Having an adult around will make things easier.”

Vouno “Oh. Right… I suppose.”

And thus, the gang, the Snowdrifts, and Vouno headed out towards their next stop. The Solitary Blades Clan.

It took them a week to travel across the vast land to the borders of Saint City, where the clan is at. By the time they arrived, an entire month has already passed since Yi De had sent out the letter.

A beautiful mountain loomed before them. Its slopes are covered with bright green foliage and littered with colourful herbs. When they peered upwards, they could only see the clouds that had hidden the mountain top.

“That’s the mountain we need to climb? My goodness, why do they live in such an inaccessible place?” Jim complained.

“Hey, hey, that’s way better than the orphanage we live in. And they have a healthy amount of Heavenly Energy here. Come on, let’s start climbing already,” Tommy said while dragging Jim along.

The path up the mountain proved even more treacherous than expected. The route is made in mind for practitioners only, so there were numerous dangerous places where one must travel upwards nearly vertically.

However, after only half a day, they managed to reach the gates of the Solitary Blades Clan. Surprisingly, along the way, Vouno who was at I rank previously managed to keep up with the gang and with apparent ease. The odd thing is, no one could tell what level of cultivation he is at now.

To scale this mountain, many of them naturally expend their Ki to boost themselves upwards. The Ki release for each individual is unique, depending on personal habit, elemental affinity and energy frequency.

But Vouno’s Ki was completely unidentifiable, they could feel everyone’s energy except his.

The body will refine the ambient Heavenly Energy into one’s Ki, and since this process is never the same between two persons – even if they are identical twins – the Ki that naturally escapes from one’s body will take a completely unique form becoming the practitioner’s aura.

Besides being unique, a practitioner’s aura tends to give away how much power he has, and the only way to hide it is to diminish one’s aura as much as possible. However, even with the best concealment techniques, it is near impossible to completely conceal one’s presence. And this was how the Grand Patriarch of the Hope family could so quickly determine Kairos’ ranking after seeing him face to face.

For Origin Cultivators with Soul Perception, it should not be difficult to perceive his aura with Vouno right before them.

Yet no matter how hard they tried, the man simply appeared like a void before their sight. Additionally, because Vouno is their elder, it felt rude to openly ask. So, in the end, despite their growing curiosity, never found out the rank Kairos’ father is at.