Chapter 730: Blake, Astor and Nick

"His aura disappeared just now," Blake muttered, frowning deeply as he turned in slow circles, frustration simmering in his voice.

Astor let out a dismissive scoff, crossing his arms over his chest as he sneered, "What do you mean disappeared? He’s probably just hiding somewhere like a little kid."

But Blake shot him a dark look, his eyes glinting coldly. "No, you don’t understand," he snapped, voice low and edged with irritation. "You should know my class lets me sense the aura of anyone I’ve ever seen. I can detect and track them from very, very far away. I followed his aura straight to this exact spot, but the second we arrived here... it vanished completely."

His tone was filled with bewilderment and mounting unease as he stared into the shadows. The more he thought about it, the deeper the lines of confusion and frustration carved themselves into his face.

It simply didn’t make sense to him—no ordinary technique should have been able to erase an aura so completely that not even his specialized tracking abilities could pick up a trace, leaving only silence and the faint hiss of distant lightning in the charged air.

"Don’t worry. If his aura vanished here, then that means he’s hiding somewhere around this area," Nick said confidently, his eyes sweeping the dense forest around them, his voice edged with stubborn determination as he clenched his fists at his sides. "Let’s search the entire place. I don’t believe we can’t find him."

His tone carried the brash certainty of a man who refused to accept the possibility of failure, and with that, the three of them fanned out, beginning a meticulous search of the entire area, their movements swift and purposeful as they combed through bushes, scaled nearby trees, and scanned every shadow and rustling leaf.

Each step crackled faintly on twigs and undergrowth as they prowled through the forest, pausing now and then to confer in hushed tones, eyes glinting with a mix of irritation and predatory focus.

Hidden high above in the same tree where he’d cloaked himself, Max watched their movements closely through the delicate senses of his Three Dimensional Body, a quiet, amused smile curving his lips as he listened in on every word of their frustrated conversation.

The faint shimmer of holographic light from his holowatch had long since faded, leaving him utterly blended into the branches, not a wisp of his presence detectable to even the keenest tracking skills.

"It’s good that the 7th level Champion Rank expert isn’t the one after me," Max mused silently to himself, his eyes still glinting as they followed the trio moving below like restless wolves sniffing for prey.

Though he brimmed with confidence in his own power, Max was not arrogant enough to underestimate the difference in strength between himself and a someone at the 7th level of Champion Rank.

Even if gave he his all, he knew that battling someone of that caliber would be pushing things dangerously close to the edge. Against the likes of Blake, Astor, and Nick, however, Max felt no such concern, secure in his ability to either evade them entirely or deal with them swiftly if forced into a fight.

"Should I kill them?" Max pondered silently, his sharp eyes following the figures of Blake, Astor, and Nick as they continued prowling below, combing through bushes and glancing up into the trees, unaware of how close their quarry truly was.

For a brief moment, a flicker of hesitation crossed his face, his brows drawn together as the weight of the decision pressed upon him like an invisible stone. These men were not just random experts—they were members of Thunder Monarch Hall, one of the seven overlord forces of the Middle Domain.

If these three simply vanished after being dispatched specifically to hunt him down, it could create significant trouble not just for Max himself, but also for the Great Ruler Empire as a whole, potentially igniting conflicts or stirring unwanted suspicions that could ripple out into larger political consequences.

Yet even as those thoughts churned through his mind, Max clenched his jaw, his expression hardening as memories of Omar’s ruthless commands flashed vividly in his head—the sneering voice that had ordered his men to kill them all without hesitation.

"That Omar guy wanted to kill us all. He’s ruthless. He probably sent these three to capture me... or worse, to kill me outright," Max muttered under his breath, though so quietly that not even the rustling leaves could carry the sound away.

As he weighed the potential repercussions against the stark reality of the threat he faced, his indecision dissolved like mist under the sun. His eyes grew colder, a steely light shining within them as he firmed his resolve.

Even though Max was a man who cared deeply about the principles of cause and effect, believing firmly that actions often carried unseen consequences, he had learned one rule above all else in the harsh world he lived in: if someone wanted to kill him, he would not hesitate to kill them first. That was the motto that had kept him alive through countless trials.

And so, while he understood perfectly well that killing these experts from Thunder Monarch Hall might bring a storm of problems crashing down on his head later, there wasn’t a single trace of fear or wavering in his heart as he finally made his decision.

A cold determination settled over him like a cloak, his aura still hidden as he prepared to act, his gaze locked firmly on his unsuspecting targets moving through the forest below.

"Blake, with you here, I think Young Master’s task to get the ten eyes of the Lightning Ten Legs Spider is probably going to take a long time," Nick remarked suddenly, breaking the tense silence as the three of them continued moving cautiously through the dense forest, their sharp eyes scanning every shadow and flicker of movement for any sign of Max.

His voice was edged with mild frustration, a hint of resentment lingering beneath his words, as though the weight of their current mission was pressing heavily on his patience.

Blake, however, only let out a low chuckle, a faint smile playing across his lips as he glanced sideways at Nick, the leaves overhead casting shifting patterns of light and shadow across his face.

"Don’t worry about that. I’ve already sent the location of the Lightning Ten Legs Spider to Young Master," he replied confidently, giving a small nod of self-assurance. "If I’m not wrong, Ben should be helping Young Master kill that monster right this very moment."

His words carried a touch of pride, as though he took personal satisfaction in how smoothly things were proceeding despite the unexpected distraction of hunting down Max.

But even as Blake spoke, Astor suddenly let out a scoffing noise, his expression tightening as a dark scowl twisted his features.

"I hate it," Astor muttered, his voice low and sharp with irritation, his fists clenched at his sides as he kicked at a fallen branch in annoyance. "Even though we’re 2-star geniuses, we still have to listen to every damn command of Young Master. I hate being ordered around like a servant. I hate having to follow his every whim."

His words dripped with bitter resentment, his eyes blazing with a rebellious glint that spoke volumes about his barely contained dissatisfaction with his current position.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay