“T-Teacher?” Tisdale’s eyes immediately lit up when she heard Baiyi’s word. Surprised, she asked, “Y-You agree to it?”

  “Or what? Watch you go on a suicide mission with my own eyes? Or lock you up in the house everyday?” Baiyi answered with a slightly bitter tone, “Explain to Mia what the situation is and if she has no objections, we’ll go to the Dole Mansion tomorrow.”

  “After you two have done chatting, bring me a copy of the map of this realm,” Baiyi finished his words before he walked out of the room, giving the girls some privacy for them to talk.

  As a matter of fact, convincing Mia was not a difficult task. The little girl was very kind, she did not even give much consideration before she gladly agreed to it. It was obvious that the two young girls had no idea how dangerous the Northern Wasteland could be. They probably thought that it was just like going for a picnic or a hike.

  By the time Tisdale brought a copy of the map of the realm of Isthyre from her father’s study room over to Baiyi, he called her over and lectured her a little, “I don’t object to your view, Tisdale. I even acknowledge your kindness and determination but sometimes you need to know your own limit as well. I hope that this will be the last time that you make such reckless decision. I can’t clean up your mess for you all the time!”

  Lowering her head in embarrassment, she playfully stuck out her small tongue and said in a cute manner, “I thought you were really angry at me.”

  “Of course I was angry! Angry at your naivety and attitude!” Baiyi replied while looking at the map.

  “I’m sorry teacher, okay? I promise I won’t say things like that anymore,” Feeling a little guilty, Tisdale apologized as she was aware that her attitude was indeed terrible when she said that she would discard her position of being his disciple just for a mission. Baiyi did have a solid reason to be mad at her.

  “Just keep that in mind. Alright, go packyour luggage. We will depart soon,” Baiyi said as he scrutinized the map before casually throwing Vidomina’s storage pouch to her.

  “Thank you, teacher. I’ll take my leave,” Tisdale said respectfully after she took hold of the pouch. She proceeded to leave the room carefully as to not disturb Baiyi’s thoughts.

  Looking at the map, Baiyi became lost in his thought. From time to time, he would jot something down on the map using a blue-inked Mana.

  \r \r \r

  The whole Isthyre realm was just a continent with a crescent shape. The southern part was the Southland where Baiyi was located and the northern part was the Northern Kingdom, which was Undine’s destination. As for the central area that was extended across the East to the West, it was fully covered with huge range of large mountains that was called the Eol Mountains. Just further north of the Eol Mountains was their intended destination— the Northern Wasteland.

  The terrain of the Northern Wasteland was particularly complicated. It not only consisted of a part of Eol Mountains but it was scattered with a lot of sporadic distribution of various forests and valleys that were of different sizes. On top of that, there were three large rivers originating from the Eol Mountains that passed through the wasteland, forming a large grassland in the middle of the wasteland.

  As one continued to make the way northward from the Northern Wasteland, after going through a hilly area and a forest, one would finally reach the southernmost city of the Northern Kingdom.

  In addition to a variety of wild and magical beasts, there were two tribes in the Northern Wasteland— the Alpine Barbarian Tribe who lived in the Eol Mountains and the Steppe Barbarian Tribe who lived on the wasteland. The Alpine Barbarian had settled in the eastern part of the Eol Mountains, so if the caravan chose to use the western part of the wasteland to travel, then they would mostly be able to avoid going through their territory. That meant that the caravans only needed to worry about the Steppe Barbarian Tribe alone.

  However, as the caravan route was confidential, Baiyi could only make conjectures about the route that they took. It was most likely that after they had departed from Arfin city, they headed straight north and went through the northernmost exit control point, the Northern Gate, to enter the Eol Mountains. Then, they probably went along the relatively flat topography of the western part of the mountains into the Northern Wasteland. From there, they most likely believed that they would be able to avoid the regions that had no river flows so they would not have any encounters with the Steppe Barbarians’ dwelling. Gradually, in accordance to that logic, a light blue Mana line could be seen on map— that was basically the route taken by the caravan that was deduced by Baiyi.

  After thinking about it deeply, he waved his hand and erased the line again. The caravan’s main mission was to open up a commercial route that would last forever and not just a one-time business deal. Therefore, using that logic, it was impossible for a stable commercial route to go around the barbarians’ territories everytime. It was highly likely that the caravan would try to negotiate and strike a deal with the Steppe Barbarian otherwise, a commercial route would never be able to last in the long run.

  With that thought in mind, Baiyi began to speculate out loud, “Hmm…… Perhaps Undine was kidnapped during the negotiation, otherwise, with her Legendary Level skills and her Soul Armature beside her, it would be more than easy for her to turn the situation around even if they came face to face with the Huskar of the Alpine Barbarian Tribe. It is almost impossible for her to be kidnapped so easily.”

  “But since the Dole Family had confirmed that she’s still alive, then it means she must have some value on her. We just have no idea what kind of suffering or torture that she’s being subjected to……” Baiyi continued to speculate, then casually, he asked in the Void, Caveman, is there any special ritual of the Steppe Barbarian that would need the body of a woman? Like y’know, a living sacrificial offering or something.

  “They do have a lot of primitive and foolish sacrificial ceremonies,” the Caveman replied with a slight irony, “But the most important and formal ceremony is when they pay their worship to their God of War. That’s also the only ceremony that they would use a woman as an offering.”

  Oh? Can you explain in details please? Baiyi continued to ask.

  “The ceremony where they worship their God of War is called the Warrior Gala. In addition to ordinary sacrificial rites, they would hold a large-scale contest and the prize will be something like cows, sheeps and even women. The strongest person would be able to win the most beautiful woman but the thing is, they are a group of licentious beings who lead a life of luxury and debauchery. Therefore, that woman would often be ravished one by one by the men and she would eventually be killed by them. And as far as I know, what they love most is to abduct human women and turn her into the prize of their contests.”

  Is that so? Then I guess Undine would be turned into their best prize then, huh? Do you know when this Warrior Gala take place? Baiyi asked again.

  “Well, it is usually held in the hottest month of the summer. From the looks of the weather, it’s less than a month from now so it means that we’re a little short on time. However, the good news is that the woman must be a virgin so it’s most likely that Undine has not been tarnished yet,” The Caveman continued to explain.

  In such a short time, I have to bring Mia all the way up to the Northern Wasteland and search for Undine’s trail and God knows what else I would meet on the way there. When I finally reach the Steepe Barbarian’s dwelling, I, then, have to snatch their best prize out of their hands…… Gee, come to think of it, it’s quite a challenging task. Tsk, your descendant really knows how to create problems for me, Sir Merchant! Baiyi sneered.

  “I apologize to you on behalf of her, Sir Hope,” The Merchant quickly replied, “If it’s possible, I hope that you can punish her on my behalf.”

  Punish her? How? Who am I to punish her anyway? Baiyi scoffed, ” She carried out this mission for the sake of your family! What use is there if I punish her alone?

  In fact, it was not like there was no method of communication at all between the Northern Kingdom and the Southland. Other than the dangerous land route, there was already a seaway that had been opened up quite some time ago. The Transmission Formation had also been long established, allowing the two sides to keep in contact with each other. Unfortunately, despite all that, there was still no trade relations at all between the two sides.

  It was mainly because the Transmission Formation would eat up a voluminous amount of energy. It was already strenuous to transport a person over, let alone using it to deliver goods. So how about the seaway then? Well, due to the extremely harsh condition of the Infinity Ocean at the west, it was terribly arduous for a ship to reach the other side safely with the current nautical technology in that world. As for the sea on the east side, although it was calm and waveless, it so happened that the shore route would pass by the Dragon Summit of the Eol Mountains— the territory where the dragons resided. If one were to steer clear of the shore route and sail through the deep ocean instead, there lay a group of sea monsters and magical creatures that were particularly active, they are not any less threatening than the dragons. For all of those reasons, the seaway presented more danger than the land route.

  Because of the complicated circumstances, many people would always joke that the distance between the southern and northern continent of the Isthyre realm was far larger than the Gouve and the Marle realms. It was ironic that the Isthyre realm had struck a lot of deals and business relations with other big realms but still could not settle the intercommunication of its own continent.

  So, if Undine managed to succeed, not only would she be able to save her falling family, her achievement would be hailed as a huge contribution to the realm and would be written into the annals of history. Regrettably, the mission was probably far beyond her power to carry out.

  After Baiyi had gotten hold of the general idea, a plan vaguely began to form in his mind. Still, the exact plan would have to wait until they went to the Dole Mansion to see the progress of their preparatory work. So, early in the morning of the second day, bringing both Mia and Tisdale along with him, Baiyi made his way to the Dole Mansion.

  With Tisdale leading the way, Baiyi managed to enter the Dole’s family reception room without any hassle. He was welcomed by the Dole’s family current master, Eugene Dole— Undine’s father. His outfit looked fairly fashionable and avant-garde and although he appeared to be quite young, his head was entirely covered in white hair. The spirit and temperament that he carried himself with made him look he was on the verge of collapsing, it was obvious that he had been worried sick over Undine’s matter.

  After Tisdale’s brief introduction, a smile finally appeared on his agonized face for the very first time and anxiously, he said to Baiyi, “Oh, so you’re the famous Master Hope? Thank goodness you’re willing to help us! As long as you’re able to bring Undine back home, any amount of money is not……”

  “Let’s talk about the payment later,” Baiyi raised his hand to interrupt his speech, “Right now, our time is limited, we need to leave as soon as possible. What I want to know is what is the current progress on your preparations right now?”

  Hearing that question, a frown crept up on Eugene’s face again. Without lying, he replied honestly, “All goods and materials have long been well prepared, the custom clearance procedure had also long been settled but the problem right now is the manpower…… We…… erm…… still lack a couple of people here and there. I’ll just be frank with you, Master Hope, we had put out a huge reward for this mission but so far, not many mercenaries and adventurers are willing to take up this mission”

  Because those people are not as stupid as you all! Baiyi snapped in his heart.