21 Troublesome Undercurrents.

After managing to finish off all three of them, Raymond sat down against a tree and panted heavily. The pain in his left shoulder was practically unbearable, and pulling out the arrow made it even worse. Although it was painful, Raymond simply gritted his teeth, applied a cheap medical ointment he had bought to staunch the bleeding, and bandaged it up to the best of his ability. After calming himself down and gathering his thoughts, Raymond stood back up again and walked over to the bodies of the three people he had just killed.

Although he had killed them in self-defence, the thought of ending someone else's life was pretty sickening. Luckily for Raymond, he had a strong soul, and he managed to get over it somewhat by justifying his actions to himself over and over again. Even though his mental state was still pretty bad, at least it wasn't bad enough to keep him from moving around.

After looking over their corpses for a little while, Raymond managed to find something interesting. Except for the money they had on them, which was around 300 gold, Raymond noticed that they all had a wooden token in their possession. These tokens were exquisitely carved with a black sabre on the back, creating an ominous image. Since he couldn't feel any spiritual energy from the tokens, Raymond guessed that they were used as some kind of identity proof, probably belonging to some organisation.

This was naturally bad news for Raymond since it meant that he had probably stepped on the toes of some kind of organisation. From the ominous-looking tokens, Raymond concluded that it was probably for the better if he got out of here quickly. He had no real tools to get rid of the bodies, but luckily the forest was teeming with demonic beasts which would do the job for him. Before he left, he kept one of the tokens with him, whilst he discarded the others. When he arrived in town later, he could have the token investigated.

Without wasting any more time, Raymond quickly left the scene of slaughter behind, hoping that nothing troublesome would come out of the whole situation. The night was still young, but Raymond had no other interest than returning home right now. The wound on his shoulder felt a little better, but the pain was still there, and it was slightly unbearable. Luckily for Raymond, he only encountered a single demonic beast on the way back, and since it was only low-grade rank 1, he managed to finish it off without aggravating his injury much.

The city was still lively despite the darkness of the night, but Raymond didn't really feel like appreciating it right now. After returning back to his room, Raymond just laid down on his bed and fell asleep in a matter of seconds. Both his body and mind were truly exhausted right now; this was one of the most eventful days since he had come to this world. What he didn't know was that elsewhere, trouble was already starting to brew.

...

On an outpost located a few hours away from Blackridge Mountain, a burly man was sitting in his tent. The burly man was feasting on a large spread of different dishes, as well as indulging himself in the sweet taste of his wine when one of his subordinates suddenly burst into his tent. Although it would normally be safe to assume that the man would be angry when someone disturbed his meal, he knew that his subordinates wouldn't dare disturb him without a reason.

"Boss, Jason's team seem to have encountered some kind of trouble!"

The burly man frowned heavily. "Explain it to me properly."

The subordinate was still a little flustered, but upon hearing his boss talk, he calmed down a little. "The two members accompanying Jason had their tokens destroyed. Although Jason's token is still intact, the fluctuations seem off, it seems like he has entered Greencrest city on his own."

The burly man pondered for a little while. This was a troublesome situation. His expression became a little darker as he was thinking, and the pressure he exuded became heavier and heavier until his subordinate could barely breathe.

"Get two teams to investigate, send one of them to where the two tokens were destroyed, and send the other team after Jason. I don't think I need to tell you what is going to happen if Jason turns up dead."

"Yes sir!"

The subordinate quickly scrambled out of the tent, scared that his boss would take out his anger on him. Although this burly man might not look that extraordinary on the surface, to his subordinates, he was both their spiritual pillar of support, as well as an object of fear. In this outpost, he was the only cultivator who had stepped past the body-refining realm after all. He was someone who had stepped on the path of spirit-refining!

...

The next day, Raymond woke up feeling sore. The exhaustion of his body was more serious than he thought, but it was a testament to how much he had experienced the day before. After freshening himself up, Raymond immediately left for the market. Although he would usually cultivate in the morning, today he had a few things he needed to do before that. The first thing he did was sell everything he had gained the day before to the Profound Secrets Trade Guild.

After everything was sold, Raymond found himself with exactly 822 gold coins in his possession, which meant that he wasn't far off from upgrading his talent once again. The next thing on the agenda was to investigate the token he had found the day before. To Raymond, this was of utmost importance. He needed to know what kind of people he had messed with, and if they had a way to find him.

After arriving at the information guild, Raymond was once again led into a small room, where a man with a white mask soon entered. After sitting down opposite him, the exchange officially started.

"What kind of information are you looking for?"

This time, Raymond didn't say anything, instead, he just threw the token in his hand to the man with the white mask. Raymond noticed immediately that the man with the white mask had a weird look in his eyes when he received the token.

"5 gold coins." The man stated a price directly, instead of usually listing the prices of the different tiers of information.

"Alright"

Although he was a little confused, Raymond still handed over the 5 gold coins and waited for the man to come back with his information.

After getting the information, Raymond returned to the inn where he promptly opened up the container and took a look at the parchment inside. After reading through it, Raymond quickly got up from his bed, destroyed the token in his hand, and left his room with all of his belongings. According to the information, this token could be used to track the members of the Dark Sabre Gang, which meant that someone was currently on his tracks!

Although he felt stupid, Raymond quickly calmed down and decided to do the only thing he could currently do; Run!