"You''re exactly right."


    Wilbur was a little shocked and found the whole situation rather hard to believe. "But there were Shadow Men in Wearson Valley too, and there was Shadow energy there too. Why hadn''t the Shadow Kinge here through those Shadow energy, but chose this one instead?"


    Bernard said, "The Shadow King''s Shadow energy ispletely different from the Shadow energy of regr Shadow Men. The Shadow King can only enter another dimension through his own Shadow energy, and then destroy that world. Unfortunately, this world is the one the Shadow King is currently infiltrating."


    "What?"


    This was thest thing Wilbur had expected. "The Shadow King can just... go to any other dimension he wants as long as it''s through his own energy?"


    "No, he needs to make a sacrifice every time. Shadows represent darkness, and it takes a cultivator''s own heart to break the dimensional barriers to form a connection with the Shadow King and then gain his power. Kearson secretly borrowed the power of the sixth dragon cauldron to seal the power of the Shadow King into his body. Master knew about this, but he was busy with something else and thus could not sort this out... only for the worst possible oue to happen. Thankfully, Rostead is a pretty small country. The effects of something like this happening here won''t be too severe, and Master just wants to use this as a test for you. The only way you''ll pass it is by killing the Shadow King."


    "Kill the Shadow King?" Wilbur asked, falling silent after that.


    Just then, Bernard said, "Of course, you''ll be rewarded for doing that too. You''re going to have to get it yourself, but we''ll tell you where the eighth dragon cauldron is. Our priority now is killing the Shadow King. Rostead is going to be in chaos once the Shadow King descends. Lots of people might die. To prevent such a tragedy, we''ve tracked down where the Shadow energy is- but something unexpected happened."


    "What is it?" Wilbur was shocked. "Is this something even you guys couldn''t control?"


    Perry exined, "We thought that Kearson was the only person sacrificing his heart to the Shadow King so that he would have a tenth of Kearson''s physical powers when he descended, but we found another sacrifice-Hart Jackson''s father."


    "Hart Jackson? The owner of that jade shop?"


    Bernard nodded. "After getting the three hundred million dors from you, Molton and Haron split the money two ways and separated. Haron left Rostead, and Molton returned to Rostead. Upon Molton''s return, he immediately spent twenty million dors on finding an assassin to kill Hart. This news shocked the Jackson family greatly. Despite Molton being found dead in his house within an hour of Hart''s death, Hart was his father''s only son. Hart was going to be the heir to the Jackson family fortune, and his father loved him the most, but now Molton had killed him."


    He paused for a moment, then continued, "Hart''s father, Locke, had sacrificed his own heart to gain the Shadow King''s powers. He had worked hard for several decades to make a name for himself and his family, and the Shadow powers caused him to be in unbearable pain every night. Locke had endured this pain this entire time. But now, Locke''s son is dead, and all the effort he had invested in the past few decades had all been in vain. Everything had lost meaning to him. Locke''s n was to sacrifice himself to invite the Shadow King to this world after Hart''s funeral today. Rostead has a big storming for it."


    Wilbur was in shock. He had not expected Molton to pay an assassin to take someone else out. "Is there any way to prevent this tragedy from happening?"