All eyes in the room were on the old man that was now at the other side of the room. His mind was reeling and Jack’s question brought him back to reality. He looked at Jack and asked, “Who are you?” Jack just kept smiling as he answered, “I am a simple Core Formation brat.”

Hearing this answer, the old man wanted to puke blood. If Jack was a simple Core Formation brat, then who the hell were the rest. The Devil that the old man had disturbed made him feel like a weak little mortal that stood in front of an Immortal.

The old man opened his mouth to rebuke Jack but Jack continued, “I may be a simple Core Formation brat but my bag of tricks is quite deep. You should realize it quite well, no?” The old man shut his mouth to Jack’s words. He could understand from Jack’s words that Jack was by no means lying to him. That Devil was something that could kill him easily and form the subtle hints that Jack just gave, the Devil wasn’t his only trump card.

The old man stared Jack straight to the eye and asked, “What do you want?” The eyes of the people sitting around the table flickered as surprise was painted on their faces. Jack however asked in “puzzlement”, “You were the ones that brought me here by force. Since when do you care about what I want?” Hearing that, the old man felt a clump of blood rising in his throat. “This fucking brat!”

As he cursed in his mind, he put on a smile as well and said, “Well, I apologize for the rough treatment you received. Let me make it up to you by giving you a few Artefacts, Arts and Pills that suit you quite well.” As this sentence echoed out in the hall, the people sitting at the table all nearly fell over from shock. In their eyes, the old man was an incredibly cruel and prideful person. Now seeing him put on such an act, they felt as though the world had been turned upside down. Some of them even pinched themselves and rub their eyes to make sure they weren’t sleeping. Jack’s face was still holding the smile but now the smile had gotten stiff.

Even he himself was dumbstruck from the old man’s words. Even in his wildest dreams would he not have expected the old man to take this kind of a stance. He had completely surrendered himself to death already before he came inside the room. That was also the main reason Jack actually acted the way he did, he had already finished the mission given to him by Dragon Cross but being brought here actually threw all his plans out of whack.

Since he had no idea on what to expect, he already accepted the fact that he was dead. What he didn’t know was that the old man remembered something very important regarding that Mask. The old man was not from this Cosmos but from the neighbouring one. Their Cosmos wanted to expand, so they put him in charge of being the scouting force that laid down all the ground work. When the time was ripe, they would tear open a door in the defensive Formations and let their main force in.

The reason that the old man suddenly got cold feet dealing with Jack wasn’t only because of the Devil but rather because he knew very well who that Mask belonged to before. Even though the previous owner of the Mask had disappeared Eons ago, the tales of his deeds were like Legends. It was not far fetched to say that the old man knew more about the Mask and it’s true power than Jack did. Because he knew what was sealed inside the Mask, he decided to not offend Jack at all costs.

If Jack did not care about anything at all and released the true terror of the Mask here, then their entire Headquarters would be demolished in less that half a day. So when Jack hadn’t been afraid of death before, what stopped him from throwing away his life in order to destroy this place? Since the old man wasn’t stupid, he knew exactly how bad the current situation was, so the only thing he could do was compromise.

They would only need a few more decades for the ground work to be done and have the main army come over. If Jack went ballistic now, all those preparations would be for naught and millenniums of hard work would be washed own the drain. Although Jack did not know what was going through the old man’s head at the moment, he decided to take a gamble.

Jack then pointed towards Lust with his head and said, “It is kind of uncomfortable to be talking like this, so mind doing something about it?” Hearing Jack’s response the old man quickly turned towards Lust and yelled, “Put down our esteemed guest!” Hearing this, Jack was even more bewildered. Blood sprayed from Lust’s mouth as the invisible hand gripping Jack disappeared. Jack felt that something was up, this kind of a situation was very abnormal.

Jack took a glance at the surroundings with a more careful look as he thought to himself, “Seems like something is going on and I seem to be a complication that may ruin everything for them?” As he carefully analysed everything that happened, he suddenly realized why the old man took such a sudden reversal in his behaviour. He lightly touched the Mask as he thought to himself, “From the way he looks at this Mask, it seems like he knows something about it and it seems like that something is quite dangerous in his eyes.”

Seeing Jack touch the Mask, the old man’s heart grew cold as he thought to himself, “Is he going to use it now?” The old man seemed the same as before but secretly, he was making preparations to run in a split second. Jack however, just removed his hand as he looked at the old man and said, “I don’t need your Artefacts or Pills. Instead, I would take her.” As he said so, he pointed towards Lust.

The old man was bewildered for a moment but before he could say anything, Jack cleared out the confusion, “Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t want her because I want to bed her but because she has caused me quite a bit of pain and I wish to give it back to her so whole heartedly.” After this sentence, the old man’s face nearly turned black.

Lust was one of his seven personal disciples, so he knew very well what her personality was like. He himself was the one that moulded that personality. However, Lust was one of his favourite disciples and if she went with Jack, it meant that he had to destroy her cultivation. Something that he had poured countless resources into achieving. However, seeing Jack reach for the Mask again, the old man could do nothing more than agree to that.

He said through gnashed teeth, “Very well, I shall present her to you.” This sentence made everyone else in the room completely stupefied, they knew very well how much the old man doted on her. Seeing him “give her over” like that, this made them truly feel as though this was all a bad dream. If someone had told them that all this had happened today, they would have thought that the fellow had fallen on his head and seen illusions. This move by Jack was actually a test.

From the time he had spent here before, he had learned that the old man doted on Lust a lot. It was practically unreal to dream for the old man to hand her over like this. This however confirmed Jack’s suspicions on the old man knowing something about the Mask.

Although he wanted to ask about it, he couldn’t because if he did, the old man would realize that he was bluffing all along. Jack had no idea what the old man had seen when he tried to search his Soul but it seemed like something that made the old man seriously reconsider messing with Jack. The old man then personally went in front of Lust and destroyed her cultivation.

Seeing this, Jack let out a deep breath as he thought to himself, “This is no joke.” When before he had a feeling that the old man may be pulling his leg, then now he saw that the old man was completely serious about this. Jack sucked in a deep breath and conjured crimson red chains that wrapped around Lust’s neck. From the initial roar from the old man until now, Lust was completely shocked. She did not know what to make of the situation so when the chain’s wrapped around her neck, she did not resist in the slightest. Seeing this, the old man’s heart clenched but he chose to ignore it. In his eyes, the plan was of the highest priority and even the “Disciples” he had groomed were actually pawns to make sure the plan succeeded.

The old man hurriedly gave Jack some Arts and urged him to go. Jack felt very weird right now because he had been dragged here by force but now the old man urged him to leave like he were the plague. However, since he had done his job, Jack did not want to push his luck either and decided to fish out a paper Seal from his Spacial Ring.

He ignited it with his Qi and as he threw it down, no one saw the little red light hidden on the back of the Seal. In a few moments, the Seal formed into a portal and Jack threw Lust in there first before he himself cautiously walked in. However, just as he was about to enter the portal, he suddenly felt intense killing intent from his behind and he crouched as he jumped in. He suddenly felt pain in his abdomen but he chose to ignore it as he quickly entered the portal.

Seeing that someone dared to attack Jack like that, the old man fiercely glared at Greed, the young man who had thrown that knife. However, seeing the portal close, he didn’t dwell on it any longer but rather directly disappeared from the room.

Reporting the appearance of the Mask was of the highest priority.

***

In a dimly lit room, one the ground was a complicated formation. Standing at the edges of the Formation were 11 scrawny old men and the old man Blood Immortal was currently standing in the middle of the Formation. This was a very intricate long distance communication Formation and currently it was being used to report the appearance of the Mask.

After the old man finished his report, there was silence in the room. Finally, the man wearing luxurious golden robes asked him, “Are you absolutely sure that it was the Abyssal Demon Emperor’s Mask?” Blood Immortal seriously nodded his head, there wasn’t any arrogance or air of supremacy around him any more. Seeing the nod, one of the old men who was wearing black robes let out a sigh as he said, “You did right Blood Immortal. Had you hesitated, all the work done would have been for naught.” Hearing this, Blood Immortal didn’t feel any better.

In the beginning he had been interested in Jack, the person his favourite disciple was so interested in. However, after finding out about the Mask, he was forced to give her up just like that. The man in golden robes asked, “That last attack by your disciple, did it kill him?”

The old man shook his head and answered, “No, his senses were on the edge and he managed to shift his position in time. The shot was aimed at his heart but because he moved, it hit his dantian.”