Chapter 561 Fog
Jonathan gingerly moved his hands again after the soreness had melted away, wariness still evident in his eyes. It had been three days since he left. Despite Jason’s assurance that Sophia would be free of mishaps in ten days, she remained in a coma. Thus, he came out searching for medicine and would return to her as soon as possible.
Now, Jonathan’s cultivation level was weakened, and he couldn’t perform God Realm cultivation. He wasn’t afraid to go toe to toe with Irving, but Irving’s spiritual energy was unusually strong and would pose a problem to him.
Besides, if Irving had a formidable backup, he might sustain more injuries again. Jonathan would quite literally die of guilt if the window to find the medicine closed because of a fight with Irving.
His spiritual energy gradually quietened down at that thought. Giving Irving a long, unfathomable look, Jonathan’s feet left the ground as if he was weightless, and he drifted into the fog.
“Stop!” Irving wanted to give chase, but he stopped short at the edge of the fog with a dazed expression.
The strange fog could inhibit spiritual energy and spiritual sense. His Grandmaster Realm spiritual sense could only expand three meters before reaching its limit.
The moment Jonathan was swallowed by the fog, he simply turned in a direction, knowing that he wouldn’t run into Irving here.
He had managed to get rid of Irving for now.
“Irving, did you forget that when we left the sect, the sect master advised you to stay humble and not pick a fight until you reached the advanced phase of Grandmaster Realm?” Lauryn stood unmoving and asked him with a frown.
He whipped his head over to her and shot her a wild look. “Lauryn, why didn’t you help me stop Jonathan during the fight? You should know that he’s the biggest threat to the respectable families, right?”
“That’s family business. It has nothing to do with me,” she replied flatly. “I’d never make a move against Jonathan unless they gave me explicit orders.”
Irving raked his gaze up and down her curves and cracked a smile. “I didn’t know you were Mother Teresa. What if Asura’s Office went to war with the families? Do you think the Blackwood family can remain neutral?”
Lauryn’s brows furrowed as she looked at the repugnant smirk on his face.
Irving released all his spiritual energy and strode to her side, exhaling softly and continuing, “Keep this in mind, Lauryn. It’s a sin to be born into a respectable family. Do you believe that being kind, diligent, and frugal would change the outcome? Don’t be foolish. You will still be sacrificed and forced to marry a scum like Jay. No good deed goes unpunished. The sword in your hand, the clothes on your back, everything you used after entering Phantom Sect, including the offering given to Phantom Sect by the Blackwood family—which one of them isn’t stained with blood? So, ditch the Mother Teresa act. The world doesn’t revolve around you. You’d be the first person I’d kill if I were Jonathan.”
He unhurriedly turned around and took a big step into the fog after finishing, right where Jonathan disappeared, intending to trace his footsteps.
Irving appeared to have made up his mind to deal with Jonathan right then and there.
Lauryn stood rooted to the ground with a cold expression.
The fog that had been dispelled by Jonathan and Irving’s fight started to converge again.
“An arranged marriage?” Pain shone in her eyes.
She was a direct descendant and the first daughter of the Blackwood family who was waited on hand and foot. She led a life of envy, much like the princesses in fairy tales, that others wanted.
But what the outsiders didn’t realize was that in a family that favored males over females, she would always be nothing more than a prop for her brother, no matter how exceptional she was.
Eventually, she demonstrated a gift for cultivation at fourteen years old and was taken in by the elder of the Phantom Sect.
She trained hard for ten years and made it into the Grandmaster Realm.
She expected her father and grandfather to be proud of her achievements and to finally regard her as an equal to her brother, but all she got were a few apathetic compliments and an arranged marriage.
No matter how hard she worked, she was merely a bargaining chip to benefit her family.
Lauryn’s grip tightened around the sword. I spent ten years training, only to meet such an outcome. Grandpa, how could you do this to me?
Resolution glinted in her eyes as she held the mirror in her hand. If fate doesn’t go as intended, then I’ll do it myself.
She would never harm her family, but if Jay or the Osborne family disappeared from the face of the earth, marriage would be out of the question.
She hadn’t expected to meet Jonathan here. Maybe this was her chance.
Lauryn kept the mirror and unsheathed her three-foot-long sword with a slight wave of her thumb.
Her spiritual energy intertwined around her body, and she disappeared into the fog.
Jonathan was on high alert as he advanced in the fog.
He sensed something strange about the fog when he was standing at the edge of it, and entering confirmed his hunch.
Normally, no matter how dense the fog was, it was just water vapor, but this fog was different. His clothes weren’t damp, and he couldn’t breathe it in.
It surrounded Jonathan, yet when he reached out to touch it, the fog slipped smoothly through his fingertips.
It felt as if he was in the fog, but there was a mysterious force completely separating him from it.
The strangest part was the fog blocking out all spiritual energy and most of the spiritual sense.
An ordinary person would probably think the fog was fun and not notice anything else, but as a cultivator who was conscious of spiritual energies, he could feel no trace of his spiritual energy once he was in the midst of it.
It was like entering a vacuum space devoid of oxygen. The lack of oxygen wouldn’t asphyxiate him, but it wasn’t pleasant either.
After all, spiritual energy meant a sense of safety to cultivators.
What confused Jonathan the most was Sofus’ claim that the fog was only a hundred meters wide, and he had crossed approximately that distance but had yet to reach the border.
Jonathan’s expression grew cold as he glanced at the fog surrounding him.
There were only two explanations for his current situation. Firstly, he had lost his sight, hearing, and spiritual senses. That had impaired his sense of direction, causing him to go in circles.
Secondly, Sofus was lying!
