As Austin and his parents were having a feast and refining beast marrow and heartblood pills, someone with malicious intentions was approaching their small town with several still human figures, with two tall figures beside him. He was Elryic the Gravebound. After Rennick returned to Ardentia, he was intercepted by the Hale family patriarch, and he coughed up Marcus' family location, who then sent the necromancer on his way to bring back Elena Hale and her kids, alive, but was he going to do exactly that?
Elryic only knew that Elena and her kids were needed alive, not sane, and he had depraved methods to utilize them before he handed them over, especially if they were high humans !!! What he did not know was that he had fallen for someone's scheme, a child's scheme. As he arrived, he watched the closed alchemy shop, as Rennick only knew a silver-haired woman who worked there and nothing else. He didn't even warn them about someone who was lurking in Rennick's previous shop !!
The next day arrived, and Elryic was keenly watching the alchemist shop, ready to send one of his puppet corpses to kidnap his targets, but would it be that easy? At the same time, Austin arrived at Rennick's shop and saw the mana that had been collected by the array, and he took out the egg he had gotten from the Azure Pengling as he placed it at the centre of the formation, wanting to hatch it and start stabilizing his fourth-level cultivation. He now had a strong body capable of bending steel, as he had started the primary stages of shedding his mortal body.
He suddenly felt a thick killing intent, which was directed at the alchemy shop, and when he spread his soul sense, he saw a black-clad faceless figure walk mechanically towards the shop, and as he approached Rennick's shop, He pulled him in, severed the ethereal connection with the puppet master suing his sword intent and undid the black cloth covering its face. He then saw a husk lacking luster in its eyes. "So the necromancer has arrived, huh? I didn't even notice it; it seems the Hale patriarch is determined to have this woman". Elryis, almost two blocks ahead, was trying to pilot his corpse when he coughed out a mouthful