Surprise, Panic

Hillman was shocked: "Lord Hogg, you still intend to investigate this matter?"

A single seventh-rank warrior had already forced Hogg to exhaust all his efforts and sustain significant injuries.

If he were to continue investigating...

Hillman dared not, and did not wish to, imagine the consequences.

"Investigate, I must investigate!" Hogg smiled: "Only while doing this can I feel that I am still a living person."

"Rest assured, I will be much more careful from now on."

Hogg looked at the ancestral spirit tablets of the Baruch Clan, his expression solemn: "Wharton has awakened the Dragonblood Warrior bloodline, and I intend to send him to the O'Brien Warrior Academy in the O'Brien Empire for his studies!"

"Only there can he receive the best training."

"Therefore, I must scrape together his tuition."

Upon hearing this, Hillman immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

The O'Brien Academy was known as the premier warrior academy on the Yulan Continent.

For those outside the O'Brien Empire, the annual tuition was as high as five thousand gold coins!

Adding in the fact that Wharton was still young and required someone to look after him, the total living expenses would likely come to six thousand gold coins a year.

And to wait for Wharton to grow up, he would need to study for at least ten years.

Ten years, sixty thousand gold coins!

For the current Baruch Clan, this was an astronomical figure.

Sixty thousand gold coins—that should be enough to keep Lord Hogg occupied for a while.

Hillman was actually quite happy; at the very least, this meant Hogg would temporarily stop taking risks.

"That's right, Hillman, it has been half a year. Go and see my sons for me."

Hogg's gaze suddenly softened.

"Me?"

Hillman quickly replied: "Lord Hogg, will you not go yourself? I believe Young Master Moke and Young Master Linley would also wish to see you."

"I will not go."

Hogg shook his head: "I will be very busy lately trying to gather Wharton's tuition."

There were not many valuable items left in the house, and he needed to carefully calculate how to sell them for the highest price.

Sixty thousand gold coins were indeed placing a great deal of pressure on Hogg.

"Uncle Hillman, why are you here?!" Moke and Linley were both quite pleasantly surprised by Hillman's sudden arrival.

The three of them sat down in a restaurant outside the Ernst Institute, chatting affectionately.

Outsiders were unable to enter the Ernst Institute, but fortunately, there were restaurants established just outside.

Hillman chuckled: "Your father asked me to come and see how you are doing."

He looked at Linley and Moke; they had both grown a head taller in the half-year they had been apart.

Adolescence was naturally a period of rapid growth, and with the two of them frequently meditating and exercising, their bodies were developing even faster.

"Why didn't Father come?" Linley felt a small sense of disappointment.

"Your father, he..." A trace of worry flashed through Hillman's eyes, but he then smiled: "Your father has been too busy lately."

"Hmm?"

Moke's perception was extremely sharp; he caught that flicker of worry in Hillman's eyes, and his heart skipped a beat: Could Father have acted ahead of schedule?

"Oh, that's right, do you know?"

Hillman suddenly laughed happily, saying excitedly: "Your younger brother Wharton has awakened the Dragonblood Warrior bloodline! The Baruch Clan is going to produce a Saint-level powerhouse in the future!"

"What?!" Linley was so happy he nearly jumped out of his seat.

"My brother Wharton, he... he awakened the Dragonblood Warrior bloodline?"

Linley felt his blood boiling; this was truly beyond his expectations.

He felt immense joy for his brother.

"Dragonblood Warrior?"

Beside Linley, the ethereal Doering Cowart also wore an expression of great interest.

Moke had already known, and at this moment, he was wondering if something had gone wrong on his father's end.

The three of them chatted for a long time and ate a meal together.

"Linley, you go back first. I have some things I need to discuss with Uncle Hillman."

As they parted ways, Moke said with a smile.

"Oh?"

Linley was a bit surprised, but he still obediently said goodbye to Hillman: "Goodbye, Uncle Hillman."

"Alright, goodbye, Linley."

Hillman waved at Linley, also curious about what Moke wanted to tell him that couldn't be shared with Linley.

"Uncle Hillman, has something happened to my father?"

Moke got straight to the point, his eyes fixed intently on Hillman.

Under Moke's gaze, Hillman actually felt a chill run through his body, as if he were being stared at by a ferocious magical beast, leaving him with a hair-raising sensation.

"You brat!" He suddenly laughed, feigning a relaxed demeanor: "Your father is perfectly fine, what could possibly happen to him?"

Hillman had always addressed Moke as "Young Master," or at the very least, "Moke."

Now that he called him "you brat...", it was clear he was flustered.

With his father's safety at stake, Moke had no intention of letting Hillman brush him off: "Uncle Hillman, I am not a child anymore."

"Just because Father doesn't tell me certain things doesn't mean I don't know them."

He was very serious, his face taut, and combined with Moke's height of over 1.6 meters, it made Hillman subconsciously perceive the person before him as an adult.

At the same time, Moke's words startled Hillman.

"What do you know?" Hillman frowned.

"I slept with Father before and heard him mutter some things in his sleep..."

Moke stopped right there.

"So that's how it is..." Hillman suddenly realized.

Hogg thought of Lina day and night; Hillman didn't find it strange at all that he would talk in his sleep.

"Father, did he go to look for Mother? And was he injured because of it?"

Moke pressed on.

"You know that much?" Hillman was shocked again.

He suddenly smiled with relief, looking at Moke with complex eyes: "You've been mature since you were small, but I didn't expect you to be this mature."

"These past few years, you haven't had it easy, have you?" Hillman ruffled Moke's hair with a pained heart, making Moke feel his eyes grow moist involuntarily.

Linley had no impression of their mother, Lina, but he remembered her clearly.

His mother was very gentle; in his past life or this one, he had never seen anyone so kind and gentle.

To Moke, his mother was like an angel.

Yet, a woman so kind, who always gently called him "little Moke," had her soul offered to the Lord of Light by the Radiant Church.

How could Moke feel anything but pain?

Hillman sighed: "Your father did indeed go to investigate the truth behind your mother's disappearance, but he was injured by a seventh-rank warrior."

"Father is really injured?" Moke's head felt like it had exploded.

Hogg had actually gone to investigate the truth of his mother's disappearance so many years early?!

"Don't worry, your father is a sixth-rank warrior; he will be fine after resting for a while."

Hillman hurriedly explained, then added: "But I am truly worried that your father will go to investigate again; that would truly be life-threatening."

"Uncle Hillman, I'm going back with you!" Upon hearing Hillman say this, Moke breathed a sigh of relief, then said firmly.

"You're going back?"

Hillman was stunned, then said: "Very well, I cannot persuade your father; perhaps you, his son, can make him change his mind."

"Change his mind?"

Moke knew his father would not change his mind; his father's feelings for his mother even surpassed his feelings for his sons.

"Perhaps it is time to tell Father a few things."

Moke thought to himself, intending to reveal part of the truth, such as the fact that he was a Dragonblood Warrior.