"We'll finish this in the sparring contest!"

"Oh we definitely will finish this. Once and for all. And I'll make sure that you regret meeting me."

"Sure you will," Senior Russell said with a sarcastic tone and then shifted his gaze towards Ian and his lackeys and whistled at him, signalling him that it was time to leave.

"Your owner is calling you. Better go now or else he might get angry!" Claude whispered softly and immediately Ian turned around, his expression furious. "You!" However, before he could finish his words, he saw that Senior Russell was glaring at him, and he reluctantly turned back and walked towards him, and the lackeys followed close behind.

"Don't think that this is over, punk.." Ian said as they were leaving, his eyes burning with hatred. Claude simply waved his hands with a smile in response, and the confrontation ended without a fight.

"You do know that you didn't have to interfere with my problems, right?" Claude turned his gaze towards Senior Beldon as soon as the silhouettes of the group disappeared from his view.

"Well initially, I was planning on letting you do your own thing. But then I figured 'eh, why not?'. You can't have all the fun yourself, can you?" Senior Beldon Shrugged his shoulders as he finished his words. He then turned around and resumed walking, and Claude followed him close behind.

"So, what do you plan to do?" Senior Beldon asked as they walked towards the inner disciple division, and Claude shifted his gaze towards him, waiting for him to explain his words. "I know I said that he'll have to go through me to get to you, but we don't know what the rules of the contest even are. For all we know, you could end up fighting Russell in your first match. And even if you don't, there is still a chance that you would end up fighting someone who's as strong as Russell Davies. Are you confident that you can win against such powerful people?"

"Confident about beating Russell? Nah," Claude shook his head in response to his senior's words and replied, "But I am confident that I can handle an attack or two against him. Or even cultivators who are as strong as him, even."

"You do know that you're going to have to do more than take punches to win, right?" Senior Beldon looked at Claude with a confused expression and Claude let out a snort.

"What I meant was that if I am able to take an attack or two against someone, then the possibility of me landing an attack on that same person increases considerably as well." Claude replied with a smile as he walked towards his residence, and Senior Beldon tilted his head in confusion.

"What do you mean? How on earth does them landing an attack on you correlate to you landing an attack on them?" He asked, confused by Claude's words. Claude shrugged his shoulders and responded to his confusion with a smirk on his face. "Well, perhaps not everyone can find a correlation between the two, but I know I can. And right now, that's what matters to me."

He then said, "You'll understand what I mean when I actually do fight!"

Senior Beldon scratched his head, thinking about what Claude said, but decided to let it go in the end.

The two reached the entrance in front of Claude's residence, and Senior Beldon suddenly yelled out, "Oh! I almost forgot to tell you!"

"What are you talking about, senior?" Claude, who was caught off guard by Senior Beldon's reaction, asked, curious about what he wanted to tell him.

"It's about the city you mentioned to me a few hours before," Senior Beldon said as he pressed his hands on his chin, trying to remember something. "Uh, what was it called…."

"AHA!"

*Snap!*

All of a sudden, his eyes widened as he remembered, and snapped his fingers in delight as he spoke, "I remembered. It was Salvador city. That was the name of the city that you wanted to know about, wasn't it? You asked me about it, didn't you?"

"Oh, yeah. I did ask you about it. But you said that you didn't know anything about it. Why? Did you find out anything?" Claude looked at the excited Senior Beldon with a curious expression on his face.

"Oh, you have no idea." Senior Beldon replied with a grin as he rubbed his two hands together. "After you told me the name of the city, I couldn't help but wonder about it for quite some time. I had initially thought that it was the first time that I had heard of a place called Salvador City, but after a while, I couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity, as if I've heard about that place before. And after a few minutes of brainstorming while I was back at the Headmaster's residence, I finally remembered!"

"What? What did you remember, Senior Beldon?" Claude asked as he ran out of patience. He was intrigued by what Senior Beldon had figured out. He wanted to know immediately. "What did you remember about Salvador City?"

"It's nothing factual, I must say beforehand. But it is nevertheless an interesting story, which was why it was able to spark my interest." Senior Beldon said as he leaned back onto the wall that surrounded the entirety of Claude's residence. "It's a rumour about a girl who had been resurrected from the dead."

"Did you say 'resurrected from the Dead'?" Claude's eyes widened with surprise. The description of the story was similar to what the letter that he had found had described, but unlike the letter, which simply stated that the girl was sick, the rumour had gone a bit overboard. Or did it really? "The version of the story that I heard was that she was sick with an unknown disease. I do not remember hearing she died."

"Oh, you've already heard of the story before?" Senior Beldon looked at him in surprise, before quickly nodding his head. "Ah I guess that was why you were so interested about Salvador City, weren't you? Where did you hear the story from?"

"I just heard it from one of the restaurants I went to." Claude decided to lie about where he learned of the story. "Just some old geezer drunk on booze was yelling out loudly. I usually would have ignored it, but the story was interesting, so I listened."

"Ah, I see," Senior Beldon nodded his head in understanding. "So that's why you were asking about it. That makes sense."

"Well, how'd you hear the story, Senior Beldon?" Claude asked, as he was curious as to where the story originated from.

"Oh, I heard it from a bard that came to Dawsbury city a few months ago." Senior Beldon began explaining how he had heard of the story. "The bard said that he goes around various places and hears strange stories told by the townspeople, and shares them with others during his journey."

"And? What's the story that you heard from him, Senior?" Claude asked. "It appears that we have two very different versions of the same story. Or it seems like the same story at least."

"Well, I don't know what happens in your story, but from what I heard..." Senior Beldon spoke as he started to explain what the bard had told him. "The young girl was already near death when the townsfolk heard about the disease. Then, one day, the townsfolk heard about the passing of the young girl from her family, and everyone simply accepted it. As she had caught an unknown disease, not many townsfolk attended the girl's funeral in fear of catching it, but from the few that did, they heard that she was buried next to their house."

Claude furrowed his eyebrows as he listened to Senior Beldon's words. Although both of their stories seemed similar to him at first, he quickly realized that the two stories had a vast number of differences, and the version told by the bard was very morbid and dark compared to the one that Claude knew.

"Anyways, the townsfolk thought that was it after the funeral and moved on to their daily lives." Senior Beldon continued with his story, and Claude listened closely. "That was, until a rumour began to circulate. Apparently, a few of the townsfolk heard the cry of a girl coming from the family's home a couple of times at night. At first, people simply brushed it off, but as the days went by, more and more people began hearing the cries, and a few even saw the apparition of the young dead girl, wandering around near the house at night. But a few days after the alleged sighting of the dead girl, the townsfolk heard that the family had abandoned their house and moved to another city and they were never heard from ever again."

"And that's the story that I heard. What do you think?" Senior Beldon finished his story and turned to look at Claude, who was rubbing his forehead with his hand, confused as to what was going on.

"I need answers."