The young man's expression turned a bit odd. "Your imagination surely runs wild, kid…"
To send an entire region of space to a different timeline? An alternative reality? Truly, the ignorant's imagination knows no bounds. Not even a Unity realm cultivators, the apex of this world, are capable of such feats, let people who were forced to hide from the Interstellar Supreme Court's forces in a stellar world.
Leonardo, of course, wouldn't share his thoughts on the matter. Instead, he tilted his head and asked, "How are you going to arrange for me to leave with the expedition team?"
The young man languidly stretched his limbs, stood up, and spoke even as he walked away, "We've made preparations for you to sneak into the Judicial Inquisitor's entourage, however, you must master this technique in the following days to come."
There was a hint of pride in the young man's voice. Then again, why wouldn't he be proud? To infiltrate the ranks of cultivators from the Interstellar Supreme Court was no easy feat, let alone the Judicial Inquisitors.
As he spoke, the young man tossed over an information card and a communication bracelet. "This communication bracelet is a one-way device, you can only receive orders and not send inquiries. As long as you're within the Jin Prefecture, we can reach out to you."
Leonardo waved a hand, catching both items. With a sweep of his spiritual sense, his expression went a little odd.
This technique was a watered-down replica of the 5th-tier masquerading technique, and surely, Leonardo didn't need it. As for the communication bracelet, it held information about a person's face, physique, aura, and personal information… personality and temperament included.
"That's the person I'm going to impersonate? His name is Zilian, no surname? A 5th-tier cultivator too? Hm…"
Leonardo mulled over the implications. As it seems, people from the Black Market are yet to approach Emily and even if they did, she didn't mention anything about imparting the masquerading technique to Leonardo.
If City Lord Huang wasn't so courteous and decided to personally investigate Leonardo's body, the man might have picked up some clues. However, anyone below that standard of power cannot possibly see through Leonardo's desolate martial intent or the laws inherent within.
The Judicial Inquisitor will be an 8th-tier cultivator whilst his entourage wouldn't lack the presence of 7th-tier, 6th-tier, and 5th-tier cultivators. In fact, the 5th-tier were the cannon fodder for the upcoming expedition, allowing Leonardo plenty of opportunity to detach from the main force by playing dead as soon as possible.
"But… how will I find my way back to the Milky Way Galaxy, let alone Earth?" Leonardo felt an incoming headache. In the past, let alone exploring the galaxies of the lower dimension in the stellar world, he barely had enough time to explore Earth to the full, despite how small the planet is.
If he would recklessly sweep the lower dimensions with his spiritual sense, it might cause unwanted reactions that would inevitably draw attention.
Leonardo mulled this over. "Actually, I doubt the expedition is solely focused on the Exiled Paradise; they might very well have a detached force in preparation to investigate Earth just as well."
The doors to the guest hall creaked open and the maidservant, Julie, stepped inside and took to Leonardo's right flank. Seeing the young man lost in thought, she remained silent as well.
"Did Viola do anything worthy of notice during your time outside?" Leonardo suddenly woke up from his daze and asked in a faint tone.
Juile's eyes flickered as she said, "Lady Viola's cultivation is beyond my capabilities, Attendant Ye. If she wanted to hide her actions from me, I wouldn't be able to see through them."
"Oh," Leonardo nodded his head absentmindedly. "So, even a 7th-tier powerhouse can't see through Viola?"
Juile's body went rigid for a moment, responding with a faint, self-deprecating tone, "Me? A 7th-tier? You're overthinking things, Attendant Ye…"
She assumed that Leonardo came to that conclusion since he couldn't sense her cultivation. Thus, she continued, "I have a protective treasure on me that doesn't only conceal my aura, but blocks invasive probing attempts. Hence, a lot of people might misunderstand that and attribute it to either me possessing a profound cultivation base, or that I have no cultivation at all. However, I'm merely a maidservant with a cultivation around the 5th-tier…"
Leonardo nodded. "Honestly, you didn't strike me as someone who'd talk so much. This is quite the surprise."
Julie froze, her expression shifting for a bit before returning to the usual mask of dignified calm.
She said, "I wouldn't want you to have any misunderstandings about me, Attendant Ye. If you cast me aside, I'd only invite my own humiliation and unwanted punishment from the Renhuang family."
Leonardo nodded, stood up, and stretched. "I'll be entering seclusion for a while, you can send everyone back and keep a few girls responsible for maintaining hygiene in the manor."
Julie didn't know if Leonardo believed her words or not, but she couldn't pester him about it as the more flustered she was, the more out of character she'd seem.
As for Leonardo, he was deep in thought. He knew for a fact by now that resorting to such underhanded pity trickery isn't something City Lord Huang would implement, meaning that it's quite the possibility that Julie didn't arrive at the orders of the city lord but someone else entirely.
"Sigh… No large clan is ever lacking in terms of internal strife and conflicted interests. I guess… not even the Renhuang family is exempted from such trifles.
Who knows? These straightforward blockheads might house the most number of spies and double agents throughout the seven families, that wouldn't surprise me the least…"
Julie watched as Leonardo disappeared into the deep corridors of the Ye Manor, and then, her dignified expression welcomed a hint of darkness and gloom.
Her beautiful eyes swirled with seven, incandescent colors. Each strip of color seemed like a strand of incomprehensible energy, overflowing with destructive lethal force. Very quickly, the undercurrents settled down and she sighed. "Let's just be patient for now… Then again, this is also good."
…
Meanwhile…
Leonardo retreated into a secluded underground room suitable for isolated cultivation. He wasn't here to study the masquerading technique since he had long mastered the complete technique and revised it to suit his desolate martial intent. However, since he was expected to enter seclusion anyway, he might as well use this time doing something else.
He had plenty of time-consuming agendas on his hands, and as much as he wanted to keep these things in check until he entered the Exiled Paradise and took advantage of the stagnant space-time within its confines, some things couldn't wait.
For example, Leonardo had yet to have the chance to thoroughly inspect the mountain range left in the wake of the ancient war involving the God Beasts of the Core Mainland.
Furthermore, both the second shard of the Infernal Throne and the Black Heart fused into the core of his sub-dimension, and while the laws constituting the dimension have been rejuvenated, they were in a total, disorganized mess.
If he didn't put them in order and recklessly fused everything into his star core upon achieving the 7th-tier, the Singularity realm, it would inevitably leave imperfections in his path of cultivation.
After thinking about it, Leonardo's spiritual sense spread like tendrils from his sea of consciousness and crept into every corner of his body of laws. Very quickly, an image of the countless, entangled threads of law that constituted his body from the skin down to the marrow of his bones took shape in his mind.
This was a body reconstructed from comprehending the laws contained within the sub-dimension of choice and the core of someone's cultivation, the martial intent.
However, Leonardo's body was different from most cultivators of his realm because down within his cells, there existed three revolving nebulas orbiting a pitch-black sphere, and the auxiliary law revolved around each of these bodies like rings of colorful light, diffusing throughout his body.
After thinking about it, Leonardo took a deep breath and circulated his innate marital intent to the utmost.
Boom!
The revolving black sphere suddenly slowed down to a pause, its force field influencing the force fields of the desolate martial intent, bloodthirsty martial intent, and heavenly retribution martial intent.
When all three of them came to a sudden stop, the rings of law manifestations slowly came to a stop as well, no longer distributing throughout Leonardo's body. As a result, his body of law began to visibly dim, growing illusory as though about to dissipate into heaven and earth on a whim.
This was no body of flesh and blood, hence, this outcome was only to be expected. However, it was precisely this outcome that Leonardo didn't wish for.
He didn't want to evolve into an entity of energy and if he were to fail his Unity realm tribulation in the future, fade into obscurity like everyone else.
Others might not have any countermeasures against such a frightening prospect, but Leonardo was different.
He witnessed with his own eyes how Rosaline utilized the Bloodthirsty Armament to construct a body of flesh and blood upon her resurrection, and he planned to do just that.
His intuition told him that having a solid body of flesh and blood would become a valuable capital for his cultivation advancement in the future, much like Rosaline.