Devourer's Legacy: I Regressed With The Primordial Crest
Chapter 77: I have a plan

Chapter 77: I have a plan

"The Silent Monastery exists without the knowledge of the world," Renard continued. "So House Aster made sure to build it in a place where it wouldn’t be discovered."

Hobbren kept his calm as he listened to Renard, though his hands remained clenched into fists.

"I know it’s located in the Stormy Hills, but I don’t know the exact details of the monastery’s position within that region."

Hobbren’s expression turned grave at those words.

It wasn’t because Renard didn’t know the exact location—even if he only knew the general area, Hobbren could search and find the monastery eventually. The problem was the area itself.

The Stormy Hills of the South was one of the five forbidden regions of the Astralis continent.

The place got its name because of the blue lightning that struck the mountains all year long without rest. Day and night, the sky above those peaks was filled with crackling electricity that could turn a man to ash in seconds. The lightning wasn’t natural—it was some kind of magical phenomenon that had persisted for centuries, making the entire region deadly to anyone who tried to enter.

Each of the five forbidden regions had been made forbidden for very good reasons.

The Great Green Forest housed terrible beasts which could wipe out entire kingdoms if they were ever allowed to roam free. Ancient creatures with power beyond imagination lived in those depths, and even the edges of the forest were dangerous enough to require constant vigilance.

The Cursed Crimson Lands were covered in mystery. The huge desert was mostly filled with unexplored areas because none who wandered in ever came back. Some said the sand itself was cursed, others claimed that monsters lived beneath the dunes. All anyone knew for certain was that caravans and armies had disappeared without a trace in those red wastes.

But the Stormy Hills were different—they were a literal grave for anyone who went in unprepared. The intense lightning energy was impossible to survive for lower-level cultivators. Even Master Zone fighters could be killed instantly if they were unlucky enough to be struck directly. The electricity didn’t just kill you—it burned you from the inside out, cooking your organs while your body was still standing.

And to think that House Aster had built their secret training center in such a place... Hobbren really hoped that his daughter was safe. How could children survive in an environment that killed grown warriors?

"As you may have realized, we’ll have to travel to the other side of the continent and pass through the Crimson Lands," Renard warned. "It will be a long and dangerous journey."

This time, Hobbren looked at the boy in front of him with eyes full of curiosity.

No matter how many times he observed this child, Renard continued to impress him. The boy knew things that most adults didn’t. He was bold and did reckless things that should have gotten him killed, yet somehow he always came out ahead.

And his intelligence and manner of speaking—it was as if he was a veteran master instead of a fourteen-year-old kid. The way he talked about dangerous places and secret organizations, the confidence in his voice when he discussed things that should have been far beyond his experience... It was unsettling.

Hobbren had a lot of questions about how Renard knew all of these things, but he didn’t ask. All he wanted was to save his daughter. If what Renard was saying was really the truth and his daughter was actually alive in the Silent Monastery of House Aster, then he would tear down the entire place stone by stone to rescue her.

And for the favor the boy was doing by providing this information, Hobbren wouldn’t mind serving Renard for a lifetime, much less the two years they had agreed upon.

Hobbren felt an overwhelming urge to leave immediately. His daughter might be in danger while they were sitting here talking, so he wanted to go protect her right this moment. Every second they delayed could mean more suffering for his daughter.

At that moment, Renard spoke as if he knew exactly what Hobbren was thinking.

"Do you think you alone could save your daughter? Even if you’re strong enough to fight them all, how exactly do you plan to rescue her?"

"I just need to kill them all and bring back my daughter," Hobbren said with deadly simplicity.

"Yes, you might be strong enough to kill everyone in the monastery," Renard agreed. "But what if they transport all the children to a different location when you start attacking? What if they threaten you with your daughter’s life while you’re fighting? Are you confident you wouldn’t let anyone slip past you in the chaos? And what do you think will happen if House Aster becomes aware of your actions?"

The questions hit Hobbren like physical blows, making him fall silent. He hadn’t really thought about any of those possibilities. He had been so focused on the idea of finally seeing his daughter again that he hadn’t considered the practical problems of actually rescuing her from a heavily defended facility.

What if his attack caused them to hurt his daughter? What if she was killed in the fighting? What if he succeeded in destroying the monastery but she wasn’t even there anymore?

He looked at Renard as if asking for a solution to these problems.

"I do have a plan," Renard said with a small smile.

It was actually a very complex plan, and just thinking about all the pieces made Renard’s smile grow wider. If everything went according to his design, he would not only have the Martial King as his loyal guard, but he would also gain something else very valuable from this mission.

’I can’t wait to meet her,’ he thought to himself.

For just a moment, there was a cold, calculating look in Renard’s eyes as he considered Hobbren’s daughter. Not the warm concern of someone planning a rescue, but the sharp focus of someone who saw an opportunity.

The look disappeared so quickly that Hobbren might have imagined it, replaced by the confident expression of a young man planning to help a friend.

"Here’s what we’re going to do," Renard began, and started explaining his strategy for infiltrating one of the most dangerous places on the continent.

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