"Huh" Frost paused his movement. It had been a day since the debacle of the mines crumbling. He was still sore over the loss of his mutant beasts. Frost was still wondering how his plan had been thwarted.
"I planned it very well" he had planned for Brune to be injured thus making it easier for him to attack before the people form Vine city arrived but all his plans went down the drain. All he got was destruction of part of the mines and losing almost half the mutant beasts he had trained. It was a blow to his plans, he had to retrain and get more mutants. His plan was now pushed forwards.
"Now I do not know what this idiot city leader wants" Frost had been summoned for a meeting with Brune and on his way, he felt a certain foreboding. That is why he had paused and stopped moving.
At his level of cultivation, he could feel if a certain situation won't be favorable for him or not and now he felt certain that something bad was going to happen to put a crunch in his plans.
"Brune has to die" He thought his problem was Brune but how wrong he was.
And as he went towards the meeting with a burning anger in his chest, the lily vine had just reached the part of the core of the heavenly soil. It was a fluid like black solid stone, very smooth with faint patterns, sometimes liquid and then solid. It was like it would not choose what form it would settle in.
The Lilly vine sent a tendril towards it and felt no resistance when it touched the core. The entire vine started to tremble and like it had been shot with adreline, it grew and expanded like there was no tomorrow. The old cells in its body broke down as new and stronger cells bloomed forth as the spiritual energy it was absorbing was so strong. The lily vine continued to grow and took over the entire pool but this was not noticed by the beasts that had come back to the cavern.
It's growth slowed down when it's intelligence had reached a level of a five years old child but still its main object was to devour. The vine then pulled the core to its root system and converged most of its roots to the core. This was going to be its food for a while. If Frost had been here, he would have noticed that the level of heavenly soil aura had reduced by a percentage and it was gradually reducing but the mutant beasts could not notice this.
At the top of the spire, the meeting room was gloomy as no one wanted to be here. Melina and Verina were still healing and looked worn down, Frost on the other hand still had that cold look on his face but there was no sign of Brune anywhere.
"So, Mr. Coward, where is your master?" Melina asked sarcastically.
"Oh, may beyou don't know since you abandoned him also" she continued. She felt disgusted by Frost's actions of running away. She really wanted to strike him down to appease the anger in her.
"Hmph" Frost snorted and turned to look at her. A cold frightening black flashed in his eyes. "Do they think I can't kill them" he thought in anger. He could kill them in mere seconds but it was not yet time.
Verona felt a cold trickle of fear when she saw Frost look at them. "He is dangerous" she thought in alarm.
"Wha...." before Melina could continue antagonizing Frost, Verina touched her arm and stopped her from continuing to talk as she squeezed her arm tightly. Melina turned to her and saw the fright in her eyes and was surprised. Verina shook her head.
Melina knew her sister very well and for to feel this fright that meant Frost had something to frightening on him that could pose a danger to them. They both turned to him and kept mum. They would wait for Brune and when the meeting was done, they would avoid him like a plague.
"Hmmm, they are quite sensitive"
While the three were in their thoughts, brune appeared in the room like a specter.
All of them felt a slight panic. The sisters shared a solemn. They never expected that Brune had reached such a high level in his cultivation to be able to use such spatial techniques. Frost felt he had miscalculated, all along he thought Brune had just entered the seventh warrior level but the way he appeared showed he had been in that level for a while.
"Haaa" Brune stared at them and chortled. "Good, good, good" he said it three times with a sarcastic smile on his face.
"I am glad you are all alive especially Frost. Good thing you have fast legs or you would have died. Good for you" he continued while sneering at Frost.
All the anger Frost had tried to push back came like an avalanche but he kept his face stoic without showing it. He tilted his head in acquiesce to show Brune he was admonished.
"With my meager strength, I could not have helped you in any way. If I had continued to be around you, I would have become a burden"
"I am sorry if it looked bad in your eyes. I will strive to cultivate and become stronger in order not to disappoint you."
Brune looked at him and smiled but his eyes were hard. He turned to the two sisters and asked them, "where is she?"
Melina panicked. She remembered what they had done and did not want to answer. "We could not save her" verina bit the bullet and answered for them. Brune continued to stare at them until the tension around them felt like a mutant beast was in the room with them.
"Haa haa" brune laughed with an almost sincere smile said,"good thing you survived" He turned back to Frost and asked him. "Find her body by any means possible before the people form Vine city come."
"He hehe" he smiled and bared his teeth. "If you don't, none of you will survive"
Merina gathered her courage and asked " who was she?" Brune just answered in a grave tone.
"You do not want to know. Just help Frost find her body" they all thought no one would survive fall.
"Now , onto the next issue, Frost, please close the mines and tally dead and monitor the rest of the other mine entrances in the other gates. The beasts may be forced to use those entraces and attack the city."
Frost nodded in acknowledgement.
"As for you two, help me find this man" he pulled out his com and tapped on it. A picture of Grog appeared with a shimmer of blue light from the com.
"Huh" there was a surprise gasped from the two sisters. They shared a look and panicked again. When Brune saw the shock pn their faces, he knew they had seen Grog somewhere. He stood up abruptly and questioned.
"Where is he"
"I do not think you will like the answer" verina stammered out.
"Why"
"Because last time I saw him, he was carrying the other person you are looking for"
"They are still in the mines and I think they are both dead' Melina added on.
There was shock on Brunes face as he digested this information.
"And pray tell, how did this come to pass?" Brune asked with gritted teeth.