A Demon's Journey

Laura heard of the legends about the Noble Guardians. She was extremely delighted and whispered to herself, "Master's plan worked! People really gave us a name and have begun to recognize our presence!"

This entire thing was actually Azaroth's plan. He wanted Laura to continue to target the prestigious bandit camps and destroy them. Laura was an innate sensor, and her range was quite large.

Once she locks onto her target, it would be a challenging task for them to escape from her. The Grey Razor Band committed the error of entering Laura's range and underestimating her.

She easily found their hiding spot. After that, all that remained was to prepare a strategy and ambush them. The strategy was extremely simple. Laura and her entire group stood on the branches of the trees nearby.

They all pointed their bows and targeted the camp where the Grey Razor Band was resting. It was the nighttime and nearly all the bandits were asleep in their respective tents. After confirming that everyone in her group was ready, Laura prepared to create a huge commotion.

She created this commotion by attacking the camp's gates with strong wooden vines. From a distance, it appeared as those brown-colored snakes were striking the gates.

The bandits who were awake immediately shouted, "An ambush!" Instantly, all the bandits who were asleep opened their eyes.

They were waking up. Not just the bandits were scared though, even the hostages were terrified. It was natural for them to be worried.

Humans were frightened of the unknown. They were completely oblivious to what was going on. In their minds, a slew of possibilities swirled.

They believed their camp had been assaulted by a monster. If it were a beast, it would attack the captives and feast itself upon their bodies and blood.

All of the bandits dispersed from their tents to retrieve their weapons. They were prepared to fight anyone who tried to attack them while they slept. Soon, they opened the gates of the camp and charged out in different directions.

However, these bandits were surprised to find no enemy waiting for them there. They wondered just what was attacking their camp gates.

And just as they were lost in their thoughts, Laura shouted out, "Release!"

Her subordinates were already prepared and aimed at different warriors ahead of them. As soon as they heard Laura's shout, they released their bowstring. The arrows were immediately released and before these bandits could even blink, their bodies were pierced by those arrows.

Laura's subordinates needed no further instructions as they loaded another arrow on their bow and released it. Quickly enough, all the bandits were dead. There was just no way for them to counter.

They were surrounded and they had no idea about the position of their enemies. The best they could do was charge out so that the enemies couldn't shoot them. However, unfortunately for them, Laura's subordinates were already trained enough to accurately shoot a moving target.

So long as the target wasn't moving too quickly. These warriors' firing ability and range depended on their target's speed. Fortunately for them, all these bandits were rather slow. It was easy to finish all of them.

Laura had always wondered whether they even benefited from targeting all these bandits and their camps. She had personally witnessed the speeches of many town lords and mayors who would shamelessly claim all the credit over the destruction of the bandit camps.

This truly annoyed her because she had found proof of some of these bandit camps working together with that said mayor or the town lord. The town lord and the other influential merchants of the town or cities would provide food, money, weapons, and even techniques.

In exchange, the robbers agreed to let their caravan pass through without trouble. Laura had also discovered contracts stamped with the seal of the town lord, the city mayor, or other notable families of the individual city or town in several of the bandit camps.

She would contact Azaroth and every time, he told her to wait. He would say to her, "Don't be alarmed if it appears that your efforts have been in vain. Soon enough, you'll be able to view the outcome of your efforts."

Azaroth wasn't saying these words just to calm down Laura. This was because Sargan had already informed him that word about a group called Noble Guardians was quickly spreading in the Glerian Kingdom.

Laura hadn't heard about these tales because they hadn't yet spread to the settlements around their present location. People were already making tales about Laura, referring to her as a Hero who was murdering villains and preventing further crimes against humanity.

When the general population found out that the authorities were taking false credit for Laura's acts, they instantly began to condemn the authorities. This was not all. The hostages Laura and her group saved were slowly informing the authorities of how Laura and her comrades looked.

Thus, the authorities were slowly drawing a sketch of the most notable individuals of the group. They had already finished with Laura's drawing and some other members of her group.

Once the authorities were finished with Laura's sketch, it was soon leaked and spread to the general populace. Even though the mayor had ordered absolute secrecy, this sketch had still been leaked.

It didn't take long for a slew of similar designs to emerge. Within a month, the picture had circulated throughout the whole Glerian Kingdom. Laura had, in a way, become renowned overnight.

Laura was grinning ear to ear when she first saw her own poster. She realized that she had accomplished Azaroth's task. She was now extremely famous, and people thought of her as an idol.

Azaroth knew of this through Sargan and Yrellea. While he stayed inside the Sacred Ice Aurora Valley Sect, these two were his eyes and ears. The two would inform him of anything unusual they found or information about the other retainers.

The information and proofs that Laura found were passed over to Sargan's men. At this moment, Sargan had spread his information network to the entire Glerian Kingdom. Well, except for the infiltration of top sects and the Royal Family.

Infiltrating the Royal Family and the upper echelons of society was a challenging feat. They were extremely meticulous in their hunt for spies and informers. Furthermore, in order for a spy or informant to obtain valuable information, he needed to be powerful.

Thus, the informer needed to be a talented cultivator who would also be a brave man who would risk his life for Sargan. Such a man was truly very difficult to find. Till now, Sargan only had a single one and this man was infiltrating the Stony Rock Sect.

The Stony Rock Sect wasn't on the same level as that of the Origin Sect, or the Red Crown Sect, or the Black Lake Sect, but it was decent enough. Moreover, according to what Sargan had heard, they were planning something sinister.

According to his informant, the Stony Rock Sect intended to target a few branches of the Origin Sect. The Origin Sect was currently in the middle of a significant catastrophe. The origin sect and all of its branches had been attacked by demons in a massive assault.

The Main Branch of the Origin Sect had successfully provided timely aid to most of its branches. However, a few branches were unwillingly left out. It was impossible to save them due to a lack of resources and manpower.

The Sect Master had requested aid from the Red Crown Sect and the Royal Family, but no response came from either of them. The Sect Master of the Origin Sect couldn't help but chuckle with disappointment and later lament 'This was to be expected. The King would never risk the lives of his personal soldiers for us.'

Thus, the few branches had been left out were on their own. Among them, some were on their last legs, while others had already been demolished. The Stony Rock Sect planned to target these origin sect branches that had been left behind on their own.

Sargan's spy informed him that the Stony Rock Sect actually possessed Celestial Relics. And this sect planned to use these Celestial Relics to kill the demons and take over the branches that had been unwillingly abandoned by the Origin Sect.

They knew that the Origin Sect wouldn't be in any position to demand them to leave their branches. Firstly, the Origin Sect would be recuperating from this recent ambush by the demons.

Secondly, the King was bound to reward the Stony Rock Sect for the extermination of the demons. What better way to congratulate them than to give them these branches they saved?

The higher authorities in the Stony Rock Sect were sure that the King wouldn't deny their request because they had already struck a deal with the Third Prince of the Glerian Kingdom.

It would be very strange if the King refused to accept their request. Besides, the King was also looking for a way to decrease the influence and authority of the top-grade sects.

The Red Crown Sect was more or less under the Royal Authority so there wasn't a need to weaken its influence. The Night Mountain Sect had already been demolished and lastly, the Black Lake Sect was weak after the battle against the Night Mountain Sect.

This, in turn, had greatly boosted the King's Authority! The King would allow the Stony Rock Sect to grow powerful to keep the other sects in check without having to use his own power