The nightlife in the sleepless district was as bright as dayti, with lights shining everywhere. However, at this mont, another place equally illuminated was Charles' villa.
"My son, how could this happen to you! Who was it? Who dared to hurt you! This is practically a declaration of war against us, Charles!" A middle aged woman cried, leaning over Calista and shouting.
Beside her stood a particularly refined middle aged man, his brow furrowed, but he remained silent, only staring at the severely injured Calista.
Calista, unable to speak, could only type on his phone, briefly explaining the situation and what had transpired.
The refined middle aged man read through the ssage and, as he finished, his frown deepened even further. He spoke in a cold voice, "All this trouble because of an unknown fourth tier Beast Master? Useless. You're completely useless!"
Ivy, the woman, imdiately beca furious. The previously calm and elegant deanor disappeared as she pointed her finger right at Calista's nose, yelling loudly. Her voice was so loud it even made the woman beside her pause her sobbing.
"Stop blaming Calista! It's that fourth tier Beast Master's fault, and that black market leader, Callum he clearly doesn't respect us, Charles!" the woman tried to intervene.
To her surprise, Ivy beca even angrier. "What do you know? The black market is backed by a mber of the Ten Man Council, and that's Xu Yiyi, the Poison Girl! If she has an issue with Charles, then we're in real trouble!"
"Trouble? Calista's teacher is the vice president of the Beast Master Guild, so we have nothing to fear!" the woman retorted.
"Nothing to fear? What the hell are you talking about? So what if he's the vice president? He's not a mber of the Ten Man Council, so he doesn't have that much power! Those ten people are the strongest in the Ethereal Grove!" Ivy was so enraged that he almost slapped the woman in front of him. It was all because of her pampering that Calista had ended up like this.
"You stay at ho and don't go out. I'll investigate this Charles person properly. This debt can't just be left unsettled," Ivy said, looking at his son Calista's sorry state. Though a little heartbroken, his desire for revenge grew.
Calista had always been the center of attention, and this was the first ti he had suffered such a serious injury, which made Ivy, despite knowing the conflict had stemd from his son's own actions, begin to resent Charles as well.
...
In the Abyssal Depths, Genosha, Calivia...
Charles looked around at the familiar environnt, feeling his mood lift. Ezra still had so matters to attend to and, after dropping him off at Cyber Academy, left directly.
As soon as Charles returned to his dorm, there was a knock at the door. He opened it to find Zachary standing there, waiting for him.
"Charles! You're back from the Haunted Marsh! I, Jace, Finn, and Luma, we're all so curious about it!" Zachary said, his eyes full of excitent.
Charles smiled. He had been curious about the Haunted Marsh before too, and after going there, his anticipation only grew. It wasn't that the Haunted Marsh was so prosperous, but there were so many more powerful Beast Masters there, making him eager to prove himself.
Right now, Charles had nothing urgent to do, so he decided to call Jace, Finn, and Luma together to chat. He was really curious about how things were going with the Genius Club, and whether anything had happened in Genosha since he left.
In the afternoon, inside a private room at a café near the entrance of Cyber Academy.
Zachary, Luma, Jace, and Finn were all listening attentively to Charles as he described the Haunted Marsh, especially the part about the Ranking of the Heavenly Prodigies.
"The requirents are that you need to be a sixth tier Beast Master, and under the age of twenty two, just to qualify. But even then, it's not guaranteed that you'll make the list. To get on the list, you have to challenge the geniuses who are already ranked, and only if you win, can you replace their spot," Zachary remarked with a sigh.
To be honest, becoming a sixth tier Beast Master before the age of twenty two was a huge challenge for most Beast Masters. Zachary, however, was confident in his own abilities, though he didn't think he could defeat anyone already on the Ranking of the Heavenly Prodigies.
Finn, on the other hand, was more focused on the battle between Charles and Cassian.
"That Cassian... he should be considered a genius in Central City, right? How does his strength compare to the sixth tier Beast Master instructors at the academy?" Finn asked slowly.
Charles thought for a mont and replied, "Cassian's strength is greater than that of the sixth tier Beast Master instructors at the academy. However, he's not really a famous genius in Central City, so there's no real point of reference."
At this point, Charles couldn't help but think back to his previous battle with Kairos. Kairos was also a sixth tier Beast Master, but he was much younger than Cassian and had far more experience and battle awareness.
Charles rembered that Kairos seed to have so hidden cards up his sleeve during their fight, which made him reflect, saying, "I really need to travel more. Genosha is too small. Only by going out and seeing more, will I be able to et stronger geniuses and improve even more."
Everyone agreed with Charles' statent, except for Jace, who remained silent. He was the weakest among them and had little confidence. He knew, with his current talent, he had no way of keeping up with Charles.
"Charles, you have no idea how we've been feeling these past few days. For the first ti, I actually found myself really hating Lord Nathaniel!" Zachary said, looking around before speaking in a low voice.
As soon as he spoke, Luma and Finn nodded vigorously, agreeing with Zachary.
"Oh? What happened?" Charles asked curiously. From what he rembered, Nathaniel didn't seem like soone who would behave that way.
Zachary briefly explained that in order to help them improve their strength in a short period of ti, Nathaniel had employed devilish thods, constantly pushing them to their limits and squeezing every bit of potential out of their bodies.
For example, in order to sharpen their vigilance, Nathaniel would actually hide in the darkness and ambush them with opponents who had similar strength to theirs, staging real life combat situations with real weapons. Zachary said there were several tis he genuinely thought he was going to die.
The fear of death was sothing he never wanted to experience again!
And that wasn't all. Nathaniel had co up with so unorthodox training thods that nearly broke Finn, who had a strong will, to the point where he was on the verge of collapse.
Fortunately, Charles had returned just in ti. Using Charles as an excuse, Nathaniel had approved them to rest for half a day.
"Charles, you're literally our lifesaver! If you hadn't co back, I think I would have been tortured to death!" Zachary lanted dramatically, his expression a little exaggerated.
However, Charles showed no sympathy for him and simply said indifferently, "When I was at the Haunted Marsh, I t a genius from Kingston his na is Skylar."
Upon hearing Charles's words, the others in the room fell silent. After a while, Finn was the first to speak.
"Did you fight him? How strong is he?"
Charles shook his head and replied, "I didn't fight him, but that guy seems to be a madman. He's quite dangerous for you guys."
When Finn heard the word "dangerous," his brows furrowed slightly. He trusted Charles's judgnt and was concerned.
"If I faced Skylar, what are my chances of winning?" Finn asked, wanting to know if he could defeat him.
"Less than thirty percent," Charles replied.
"Less than thirty percent?" Finn took a deep breath. That seed like a very small chance.
He didn't ask Charles if Charles could defeat Skylar, because Charles had already ntioned that Skylar was dangerous for all of them.
At this point, the atmosphere in the room beca a little heavier.
Zachary scratched his nose and spoke, "Actually, these past few days haven't been that bad. The training was a bit tiring, but whenever we t people from Genosha, they would cheer us on."
"Sa here. Friends I hadn't been in touch with for a long ti have been asking if I have the confidence to represent Genosha and win," Luma added.
Finn didn't say much else. He simply said, "When we reserved the room just now, the café owner said that from now on, we can drink coffee here for free, and the private room will always be reserved for us."
On one hand, it was the expectations of the people from Genosha. On the other hand, the strength of Kingston's competitors weighed heavily on Zachary and Luma, who both felt a lot of pressure. Finn, however, seed to be handling it much better.
"I can't just sit around. I need to go back and train more. I feel a lot better after resting for a bit," Zachary said slowly.
Luma nodded in agreent. This was the first ti he had experienced being the center of attention. Whenever people recognized him while walking on the streets, they looked at him with eyes full of anticipation.
The feeling of being expected, of being admired, was strange but also heavy.
"By the way, did Nathaniel say how the competition between Genosha and Kingston's geniuses will be held? Where will it take place?" Charles asked briefly.
Finn took a deep breath and then looked at Charles. "The format of the competition hasn't been decided yet. It seems there's so disagreent between Genosha and Kingston, but the location has been chosen it will be in the neutral country, Celestial City."
Upon hearing "Celestial City," Charles was montarily stunned. He hadn't expected the location to be there. It seed like such a coincidence he was planning to go to Celestial City after his current business was done. He hadn't anticipated that the competition would take place there!
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