Heaven and Earth were fair, they gave the ability to cultivate to every living being.
Yet, the world was ruled by humans who monopolized the means to embark on the cultivation journey.
Those that had accumulated more techniques and spells produced stronger cultivators over the years which allowed them to gather even more resources.
Those cultivators were the nobles of the Utra country.
However, for each noble, there would be hundreds of common people.
A few of them would inevitably have wild ambitions and wouldn't be restrained by the rules of the world.
As soon as they had the chance, they would strive for power, uncaring of the danger that they would have to face.
Humans were ambitious and greedy, they couldn't just sit back watching the minority of them strive for power.
If the rules didn't allow the commoners to cultivate, they would just break them.
Nevertheless, only a small part of those that rebelled managed to survive.
Also, once they survived, they had to face even more restrictions due to the higher powers in the nation.
Mortals could not obtain true freedom in a land populated by gods, that's why they would become monsters.
The Royals called them demons, individuals willing to do anything to pursue strength, and did their best to put a leash on them.
Their determination made them the perfect disposable soldiers to use in their sensible issues.
More cultivators entered the tavern and some of them joined the conversation that was being held.
In their past, they all had a low status.
There were guards, maidservants, cooks, concubines, and even bastards, each one of them unwilling to accept their status as commoners and be ruled by people that were simply born lucky.
From the conversation, Noah could understand some of their backgrounds.
'Jean was a maidservant appointed to clean the inventory of her family. She learnt how to read by herself and discovered her talent in alchemy, secretly cultivating in her free time. Yet, she was discovered and was about to be punished by being appointed as a whore for the guards of her family. She then created a poison that killed almost everyone in her mansion, scorching her face in the process, and escaping.'
'Joe was the son of the cook in his mansion. He luckily came across a forgotten cultivation technique that allowed him to cultivate by ingesting objects filled with "Breath". When his father discovered that he was stealing the best nutrients from the kitchen, he wanted to report it to the nobles of his house but Joe killed him and escaped. After that, he ate magical beasts and weak cultivators that he found on his way.'
Those were the stories of the most talkative of the group.
They had to wait for the representative from the Royal family to arrive before they could move, the sheets that Noah received simply ordered him to wait in the tavern.
"Hey, why don't you show me that face of yours? If I like you, we might have some fun."
Jean neared Noah, stretching her arm toward his scarf.
Noah grabbed her hand and stared at her with his usual cold eyes.
"Oh my, I like strong men."
"I'm not a man."
"…"
Noah's answer rendered Jean speechless and made some of the other in the room explode in a sonorous laugh.
"Leave it be Jean, I can appreciate you if you want."
"You found a tough one Enchanting poison, haha!"
"Hmph!"
Jean pulled back her hand and returned to her corner, staring fixedly at Noah.
Her green eyes emitted some kind of alluring feeling, as if they forced those around her to look at them.
'What is wrong with her, we are about to engage in a fierce battle and she wants to hook up with a hooded person. But, most importantly, why me?'
Noah sighed internally at the events in the tavern and could not help but wait with eagerness for the envoy to arrive.
As if answering his desire, a covered figure stood up and removed his clothes.
A golden armor was shown to the presents and silence invaded the room.
'How cunning, he was here all along.'
"The thirty of us are all the cultivators recruited for this mission. Listen to me, I was just informed about the strength of our enemy."
Everyone's attention was picked and they observed silently as the man covered again his armor and sat back on the floor.
"They have around sixty soldiers, about half of them are rank 1 cultivators while the others are rank 2."
Complains began to escape the mouths of the present warriors, their man-power was clearly inferior to their enemies.
"Calm down and let me finish! We have the territorial advantage and, with Miss Jean here, their rank 1 soldiers are just meat shields."
The representative turned toward Jean and pointed at her.
She stood up and made a bow before taking out a large barrel that exuded a dangerous aura.
"This is a similar version of the venom that I used back in my mansion. It doesn't have its same power since I didn't have access to precious materials but it can kill rank 1 cultivators in an instant. As for rank 2 ones, they would be at least injured."
The people in the room instinctively took a step back after hearing her words.
'If what she said is true, then there won't be any problem in dealing with the difference in numbers. Only one problem remains."
"What about cultivators in the heroic ranks?"
Noah asked.
He wasn't afraid of other rank 2 cultivators but he would rather restrain himself from showing all his strength in case a powerful cultivator appeared.
'I don't believe that the Royal family would completely rely on us for this mission, they must have other soldiers lying in wait in case we fail.'
"My body is in the heroic ranks, does that suffice as an answer?"
The representative replied to him in a cold voice, it was clear that he felt above the others in the room.
Noah shrugged his shoulders and supported himself on the wall behind him.
If the envoy was to take care of the real dangers in the mission, then he could simply use his martial art and preserve his strength in case something unexpected happened.