Chapter 190: Cain, Ron, and Elara’s Past

"Naturally, we will only know how strong that bastard is after I see his information the moment we meet. And only at that time, I could know whether this plan is necessary."

Cain added, "Because if his strength was truly that monstrous, then we will just execute that plan. If not, then feel free to kill him, since I can just focus on completing my mission."

Ron suddenly frowned.

"Wait."

"You can see people’s information and gauge their strength now?"

"To an extent."Cain raised an eyebrow.

"Since when?"

Cain shrugged in response, then explained.

"It depends on how strong the other person is. But if they’re still around the 3rd Echelon, I should be able to see them."

He did not bother explaining every detail of Dragon’s Eyes.

Ron’s interest grew immediately.

"Then you saw that Heavenly Demon’s information?"

"Naturally."

Ron sat straighter.

"How strong is he?"

Cain thought about the question.

"At the same Echelon?"

"Yeah."

Cain glanced toward the distant black-haired man.

"The strongest person I’ve seen."

"Really?" Ron’s eyes lit up.

"Yup." Cain nodded.

"What are his Talents?"

Cain shook his head and chuckled. "I’m not telling you."

Ron stared at him.

"Why?"

"It’s his personal information. Besides... He’s not our enemy anyway." Cain smiled faintly.

Ron opened his mouth, but Cain cut him off.

"I’m not going to tell people’s abilities just like that unless they’re our enemy."

Ron looked disappointed.

"You’re no fun."

Cain shrugged nonchalantly.

Ron remained quiet for a few seconds, then another idea appeared.

"Then rank everyone." He said as he leaned closer with a smile.

Cain stared at him.

"What?"

"Just tell us who’s strongest."

Ron gestured toward the people scattered around the northern town.

The people in his group immediately became interested.

Nathan looked over.

Sonya stopped drinking.

Even Jack raised his head from his food.

"Why do you want to know?" Cain chuckled lightly.

"I’m just bored." Ron shrugged.

Cain originally wanted to refuse, but then he reconsidered as knowing roughly how strong the people around them could actually be useful before entering the Central Base.

It would help everyone understand who could handle which threats.

"Fine."

Ron smiled happily when he heard that Cain didn’t refuse this time.

Cain raised one finger.

"But I’m not explaining anyone’s Talents."

"Yeah, yeah."

Cain thought for a moment.

"If everyone were to be in the same Echelon..."

He smiled smugly as he shrugged.

"I’d be first."

Several people immediately reacted.

Elara rolled her eyes.

Sonya chuckled lightly.

Nathan shook his head with a helpless smile.

"Of course you’d say to yourself." Ron snorted.

"I’m just telling the truth." Cain shrugged.

"Stop bragging and continue."

Cain chuckled.

"Second would be the Heavenly Demon."

That answer was received much more seriously.

Nobody argued as they had all witnessed what Mo Xuanye had done against the 3rd Echelon commanders.

Cain continued.

"Third would be Aurelia."

Several people looked toward the blonde woman sitting farther away.

Ron raised his eyebrows.

"She’s that strong?"

"Yes."

Cain answered without hesitation.

Aurelia possessed a Divine-rank body and SSS-rank Sword Heart.

Her Light Skills were powerful.

More importantly, her control over the manifested swords made her dangerous across multiple ranges.

At equal Echelons, Cain placed her very highly.

Ron rubbed his chin.

"And fourth?"

Cain looked at him as he already had an answer in mind.

Ron.

If Cain were completely honest, Ron’s strength was truly terrifying after he obtained the Divine Lightning Body and the Heavenly Thunder Dragon Spear.

But telling Ron that would create another problem.

Cain could already imagine that shameless bastard repeating it for the next several months.

He decided that humanity had suffered enough today.

"After those three, it gets harder."

"Why?" Ron frowned.

Cain explained.

"Well, it will be hard to rank people’s strength since everyone has their own pros and cons."

Ron stared at him and raised an eyebrow.

Cain continued before he could question it.

"The next group I’d consider among the strongest includes Tang Ziyue, Sonya, Elara, Northern Tyrant, You, Nathan, Jack, Alex, Dmitri, and Ethan."

Several people became quiet.

Sonya looked pleased as she was included within the top 10 right after the top 3.

Elara seemed more interested in the other names.

"What rank would I roughly be placed within these 10 names?" Ron’s eyes lit up.

Cain ignored the dangerous happiness appearing in his eyes.

Before he could elaborate, a voice came from behind them.

"Oh?"

Everyone turned.

The Heavenly Demon—Mo Xuanye was walking toward the broken wall, a faintly amused expression appeared on his face.

"I’m the second?"

Cain stared at him.

Ron looked between the two, then his lips slowly curved into a vicious smile.

Cain knew that expression as nothing good ever followed it.

Ron nodded seriously.

"Yup."

Cain narrowed his eyes.

Ron continued before Cain could stop him.

"He even said that if the two of you were at the same Echelon, he’d definitely beat you without even going all out."

Mo Xuanye raised an eyebrow.

Cain stared at Ron, but Ron ignored him as he doubled down.

"Have I mentioned that he’d beat you silly?"

The surrounding became silent.

Mo Xuanye looked toward Cain.

Instead of anger, his expression filled with curiosity as he raised an eyebrow at Cain.

"Is that true?"

Cain sighed in his heart.

This situation felt strangely familiar.

Ron had always possessed an impressive ability to create problems whenever he was bored.

Cain suddenly remembered one of the worst incidents from their university days.

Ron had once dated a woman who treated him terribly. Everyone around him could see it, but Ron had been stupidly in love and kept forgiving her no matter what she did.

Eventually, Cain became tired of watching his friend repeatedly make excuses for her.

So he interfered.

He said several carefully chosen things at the right moments, nudged a few situations in the proper direction, and before long, the relationship ended.

Ron became furious with thim at that time.

Several months later, after his head finally cleared, Ron admitted that Cain had actually helped him.

Unfortunately, there had been a rather troublesome period between those two events as Ron decided to take revenge.

One night, while the two of them were drinking at a club, Ron deliberately stirred up trouble between Cain and another guy until the argument became heated enough that everyone involved took it outside.

Cain still remembered that night clearly.

Even though Ron was the bastard who caused the entire problem, he was at least a dependable bastard when things became serious.

The two of them ended up fighting four people at once.

It was a complete mess.

That night, it was truly a messed up fight where all of them ended up in a bad state.

Fortunately, the four people they fought were just ordinary university students without any proper fighting experience. Otherwise, Cain and Ron might have been the only ones sent to the hospital.

Cain had spent half the night afterward wondering why he was still friends with that bastard.

He never found a particularly satisfying answer.

Maybe...

Maybe it was simply because Ron was genuinely a good friend, even if he occasionally took things far too much.

After all, they had been friends their whole life and a lot of things had happened in between.

Back in high school, someone from a local gang had harassed Elara by groping her ass while passing beside her.

Cain only learned about it later.

And when Elara finally told him more, he discovered that the same guy had apparently been acting creepy toward her for quite some time.

Cain became furious.

The next day, he walked into his classroom, grabbed a baseball bat, and prepared to leave without telling anyone where he was going as he had no intention of involving the others.

Ron happened to see him. He just looked at his furious expression and the baseball bat in his hand.

Then, he didn’t ask a single question as he simply walked toward the corner of the classroom, picked up another baseball bat, rested it against his shoulder, and followed him out.

In the end, Cain broke the bastard’s arm and beat his face until it barely resembled what it had looked like before.

Ron wasn’t much gentler as he cracked one person’s bone and nearly broke another guy’s jaw.

The incident became serious enough that afterward, Cain, Ron, and Elara ended up moving to their current city for their final year of high school.

Later, the three of them decided to apply to the same university as well.

Fortunately, the university was actually a good fit for them as It had strong athletic programs and plenty of opportunities for people like them.

Cain finally came back to his senses and shifted his attention to Mo Xuanye.

He merely shrugged with a faint smile.

"Maybe. Who knows?"

Mo Xuanye studied him for several seconds.

Then his lips curved upward as he murmured softly.

"...Interesting."

He walked closer and sat down on a section of broken stone.

There was no irritation in his expression.

If anything, he seemed even more interested in Cain now.

"Please continue with what you were about to say before." Mo Xuanye rested one arm against his knee.

"I want to hear your perspective."

Cain chuckled lightly.

He had expected Heavenly Demon to possess a rather domineering personality.

But, his response just made him more curious as he wanted to know more about the possibly strongest human (after him) in their world.

"Alright then."

Cain did not immediately continue as he noticed that several people had already begun walking toward them.