Dual Cultivation: Beasts and Women!

Later that day...

Liam stopped in front of the Illusions Hall, another wing of the sect that was as strong and famous as the other important halls.

Liam was concentrated on his three halls and had paid little attention to the other wings of the sect in City Thirteen. But there were dozens of halls in this city that handled training professionals in various fields, such as Healers, Blacksmiths, Alchemists, and many others.

Demon Gate was a force that focused on developing the combat and support skills of its members. There was no shortage of groups focused on developing these areas within the headquarters. It's no coincidence that the city had 26 streets entirely dedicated to trading and teaching!

The moment Liam entered, he immediately noticed a multitude of disciples present, including not just the members of the hall but also those attracted by the glass building located at the back of the hall.

The Mirrors' Palace looked like a beautiful monument for visitors to the city, with its translucent walls and no pillars to obstruct the view of the beautiful 300 square meter building.

The design of the palace reminded Liam of the palaces he had visited in his life on Earth, especially the summer buildings used by ancient nobles to escape areas that were too hot in the summer.

From its 11-meter height, the highest point of the translucent, light green and dazzling palace, the bright rays of the day were concentrated into a single point, forming a small shining star surrounded by flames.

But Liam focused on the small line at the main entrance to the palace, where about a dozen disciples were lined up, waiting their turn to pay to enter it.

Fortunately, the attendants were quick, and soon Liam left a merit point there and got through to enter the building, which apparently gave no one any privacy.

There was an interesting optical effect in the palace. Although it looked transparent from the outside, the only visible parts of the building were the entrances and exits. It was impossible to see what was inside it.

Liam followed Mary's recommendations and chewed a special herb capable of dispelling the mental effects of the illusion formations engraved on the mirrors.

As a member of the Illusions Hall, she had studied this palace enough to know how to counteract these formations and allow her group to meet.

Liam only saw the place as it was, a relatively small maze of mirrors, but one that could easily confuse someone unprepared.

After five minutes of strolling through the maze, always following Mary's recommendations and walking carefully with the disciples in his path, he came to a dead end corner where a green-haired girl was standing next to a blonde woman.

"Liam, this is my friend Jane." Mary introduced the 'child' next to her to her man. "Jane, this is Liam, my partner."

The green-haired girl looked at him with interest, as she had been in a lot of trouble with this guy even before she met him.

"I heard I was giving you trouble." He smiled and nodded at her. "I'm sorry about that."

"Don't worry, big brother. It was your enemies who acted, not you," the girl said promptly, while she couldn't help but blush at the look in his eyes.

Unaccustomed to handsome men looking her in the eye, the teenage Jane felt a little nervous. Liam didn't notice, but Mary couldn't help but put a hand to her mouth to hide a subtle smile.

As they greeted each other, a black-haired woman dressed as a warrior came over and wiped the smile from Mary's lips without even opening her mouth.

As she locked eyes with Mary and the blonde did the same, Electa and Mary recognized each other instantly, rivals looking at rivals, each smelling the other even though they had never met.

"Electa, I suppose," Mary said as she secretly clenched one of her fists.

"And you must be Mary." The newcomer answered with a friendly smile on her face. But inside, she couldn't help but notice Mary's beauty. 'She really is pretty... Tsk! She looks like a princess.'

Liam, once again oblivious to the situation, introduced them, while Jane noticed the tension in the air, but didn't understand why.

'Aren't we all allies?' the girl wondered, but remained silent between Liam and Mary.

Fortunately, a man Liam already knew approached them, drawing everyone's attention to himself and breaking the heavy atmosphere in this dead-end corner of the labyrinth.

"Initiate Liam." Josiah nodded to Liam as the young man with the short, black hair did the same to his fellow companion from Leopards.

After introducing Lazarus' representative, he clapped two hands and said, "Well, everyone's here, so let's talk. We can't stay here too long, or our enemies will notice something strange."

He looked at Electa and asked, "Did you talk to Felicity?"

"Yes, but she won't be able to join us. She's leaving on a group mission tomorrow afternoon and will be gone for at least a week," the black-haired woman explained with regret in her voice.

"That's a shame. Someone like her would be a great help." Mary sighed, having already heard from Liam about Felicity.

Well-placed outer disciples like Felicity were always doing missions and leaving town to gain merit and a chance to reach the inner wing of the sect.

Liam then said, "It's really a shame. But since we won't have their support, I hope I can count on Leopards." He looked at Josiah.

"The faction will certainly support you." The big man asked, "How many numbers are we talking about?"

"We'll find out in a few moments." Liam looked at Electa before saying, "I need you to leave town and go to this place." He handed her a small handmade map. "The trap against Emerald Owls will take place somewhere in this area. I want you to prepare the ground for us while we prepare to leave."

She looked at the map of where they planned to act, something Mary and Jane had suggested.

"You should use this to send a message to Emerald Owls." Mary handed Electa an item she had taken from Abimael's body. "The day after tomorrow, use this device to signal to Emerald Owls that you are ready to act. If I succeed in my part of the plan, we'll leave at the end of the day. The ambush against the enemies should take place the night after tomorrow."

"That's easy to do." Electa smiled as she held the map and the item Mary had given her.

"Use this essence in your traps, big sister." Jane also gave something to Electa, catching the attention of this 'big' and strong woman.

"What is this?" Electa looked at the bottle of green liquid.

"This is a stimulating essence. It has the effect of increasing the metabolism of plants... Anyway, the point is that it can help conceal your trap and position, as well as mislead naive enemies. Some plants in the area you'll soon be in are poisonous, so the essence will also stimulate the toxicity of the air and plants in the area."

"Won't that be dangerous?" Liam asked.

The girl smiled at him. "If you don't protect yourself with mana by covering your hands and airways, it can indeed be dangerous. But if you do it, there is no danger."

"All right." Electa agreed to go along with Jane's plan.

"Right, that's it. We've reached the crucial point." Liam looked at his fellow faction companion again. "From the information I've received in the last few hours, we can expect a group of 5 to 10 members of Emerald Owls. Of that number, at least half of them must be Spirit Earth cultivators."

"That could be a problem," Josiah said before adding, "And I doubt very much that they will send all of their third realm members to fight. Emerald Owls, like all factions in the city, must defend their headquarters in the city.

There are a lot of resources and coins in their headquarters that could easily be stolen if all of their specialists left the city.

I believe that the number of enemies in the third realm will be between 2 and 3 individuals."

"But surely the other 7 or 8 opponents will be 9-Star Spirit Lords," Mary said, looking into the man's dark eyes.

He couldn't deny it. "Probably," he agreed, knowing it wouldn't be easy to deal with such numbers. "With luck, your traps will take out 3 or 4 of them before we fight. That would leave us with a group of probably about 6 opponents. Considering that 3 of them might be Spirit Earth Cultivators, we'd need at least 4 more companions to take them on."

"Can you provide us with that number of men?" Liam asked with sobriety in his tone, waiting for Josiah's answer.

Four peak second realm Spirit Masters was not a small number to ask of a faction in City Thirteen. Although there were hundreds of peak second realm disciples in the area, each faction only had a few dozen of these individuals. In the case with Leopards, Liam was asking for 20% of the faction's peak Spirit Lords!

Josiah closed his eyes and said, "I can get three, counting myself. But I'd have to talk to Boss Ross about the fourth."