With the tournament now coming to a close, people could be seen making preparations for their return trips.
Most of them would depart when the next day arrived.
As for Jarek, he was currently inside the Weapon Hall.
The Hall had a great variety of weapons of different qualities in great quantities.
Jarek held a well-crafted sword in his hand as he examined it.
'Not bad.' He thought as he channeled his energy into the sword, and a faint shimmering sword qi manifested.
'This is going to last for a good while.' He was satisfied with the quality of the weapon.
He left the Weapon Hall with his new sword.
'Maybe another time.' He hadn't considered what materials he would get yet, so he wouldn't be using this particular card yet.
What he could get, though, were law diagrams.
And so he made his way to another hall, the Law Hall.
As soon as he entered, he made his way to the Medium Level, which was on the second floor.
As he passed the few students in the hall, they couldn't help but pause when they noticed him, recognizing him as the winner of this tournament.
But Jarek didn't care about their reactions; his goal for coming here was clear.
When he finished climbing the stairs to the second floor, just like at the first, he could see various shelves with signs on top of them containing law symbols.
The shelf closest to him had a sign that had the symbol of a red drop of blood.
'It was a good thing I left one slot open.' He thought as he now stood very close to the shelf.
Jarek had the points required to get five medium-tier laws from the system.
But he only spent enough to gain four abilities.
One of them was time, as he had already developed a time-based ability even before the tournament, and the other was light, which he gave to Eira to practise.
As for the other two, there were very rare laws, and as he looked around the hall, he couldn't find them here.
'Figures, they wouldn't want anyone getting their hands on them.'
He then directed his gaze behind him to see another flight of stairs, just close to the one he had climbed onto to get to this floor.
But unlike the first staircase, in this second one, there was even a guard standing there.
'They can probably be only found on the third floor—the High Level. It seems one needs special access.' Jarek speculated.
The Halls are divided into three levels—Low, Medium, and High.
Anyone can freely enter the Low and Medium levels, but the High level requires a certain privilege that Jarek can never have.
For now, he kept this in the back of his mind, wondering what the other halls contained at the High level.
Now, as he stood close to the blood law diagrams, he picked on with little to no hesitation.
He was already interested in learning blood laws.
He then walked up to the shelf with seal law diagrams and picked one up as well, and he did the same once he stood at the devouring law diagram section.
With this, he had used all three cards to get blood, seal, and devouring law diagrams.
Once he had gotten all he had needed, he headed straight for his room, intending to cultivate these new levels.
"Now, which one should I start with?"
---
It was just a few hours before the sun would set, and Thrain was resting on a bed in one of Arvenca's inns, contemplating his next course of action.
He was waiting for Leif to return with the captive in his hands.
But as the hours passed and the sun had already set, Thrain started to wonder, 'Why isn't he back yet? He should have returned by now.'
The person he was referring to was naturally his subordinate, Leif.
As he thought of this, a strange feeling emerged in his heart—more of an intuition.
'Something is wrong.'
He didn't understand what was taking Leif so long.
The mission was so easy, and he had even overdone it by sending Masters to catch an advanced-stage cultivator.
He expected them to have finished their task quickly, but clearly something completely unexpected had happened.
'What happened to them? Is this Jurgen's doing?' As a cautious person, he couldn't help but think so.
But he soon dismissed this thought with a shake of his head. 'Aside from us, there is no one else who wants Jarek dead as much as him.'
His expression then turned contemplative. 'If it's not him, then the problem lies with the girl herself. But what is it? She is clearly an advanced-stage cultivator.'
He couldn't figure it out.
'Does she have a protector?' That was the only logical conclusion he could come up with.
The idea that Eira had dealt with all of his subordinates didn't even register as a possibility in his mind.
After all, she was not Jarek with his absurd talent.
Otherwise, wouldn't she also be a student at the Myriad Dao Academy as well?
As far as he was concerned, Eira was just a slightly more talented cultivator than most, but she didn't qualify as a threat.
The possibility that someone was protecting her seemed more plausible.
Mir died at Jarek's hands recently. So it is possible he hired someone to shield the girl when he isn't around. He would go to such great lengths for her. Haah~ What a shame. She really would have been the perfect hostage.' Thrain could only sigh in defeat.
He didn't know what benefits Jarek offered for such protection, but there was one thing he knew.
'That person is at least a Grandmaster and a powerful one at that.' That would explain why Jurgen's men failed to find that person's involvement and how his subordinates lost their lives, with none of them returning alive.
His heart ached at the loss he had suffered from this.
It would take many years to recover what he had lost today.
But he forced himself to calm down as he thought, 'Let's focus on the main issue first. I need to be alive to even consider if I can even recover from this loss.'
'I need to get rid of Jarek before these two can meet. I can deal with either of them when they are alone, but if they join forces, I have no option but to flee, which will seal my fate.' He thought as he stroked his chin.
"What should I do now?" He rose from the bed, walked to the window, and gazed at the moon, trying to devise an effective solution to the deadly situation he found himself in.
All of a sudden, he remembered something he had overlooked before.
"How could I forget this? Those two weren't the only ones who escaped and returned here." As he said so, he picked up the documents from a storage bag, going through them once again to find what he was looking for.
Looking at them, he couldn't help but wonder, "Will it work?"
He didn't doubt that he would succeed if he tried to capture these people this time, but the question that remained was, 'Would they care for them as much as he cares for Eira?'
But then he sighed as he said, "What other option do I have?"
He needed to make sure that he dealt with Jarek alone.
And so this time, he chose to move personally, despite knowing that his subordinates would face no problem this time around.
He was determined to make sure his plan succeeded with his own hands.
He couldn't allow any more slip-ups.
Whether the plan would work or not, he would only know once he tried.