Reincarnation Of The Strongest Spirit Master-Chapter 1439: A Puzzling Question!

William watched Becky’s restless pacing and knew his intuition was correct. His enemies likely had dozens of contingencies planned based on his potential actions and aggressive responses.

By remaining stationary and focusing on internal affairs, he would render those preparations useless. The enemies would lose their momentum, their traps would sit empty, and they would eventually be forced to improvise—and that was when they would make mistakes.

"So, what do you plan to do now? Don’t tell me you actually plan to rest until the war is over," Becky said, rolling her eyes as she stopped in front of him. "Even if you swore on your spirit that you intended to sit here and drink tea, I wouldn’t believe you for a second!"

"Of course not!" William coughed, a small smirk playing on his lips. He had briefly considered teasing her by saying he was retiring, but he knew her patience was thin. "I’m going to target the third most important thing to those bastards. If I can’t reach the masters yet, I’ll take away their toys."

"You mean... the Dark Masters?" She paused, her brow furrowing in thought. "But you told me you already killed almost every cell around the Novice Kingdom. And you’ve already exterminated the high-level forces who came to the Northern fortress. By all accounts, you’ve already broken the back of their strongest units."

"I can’t target the ultimate bastards behind the curtain just yet," William said, raising a hand to stop her before she drifted too far off the mark. "I was referring to the mutated monsters—the ones that drove those Mystic Arts practitioners out of their hiding and enticed them to accelerate their plans in the first place."

"Yes, about that..." Becky turned her sharp gaze toward the three bound Dark Masters. "I believe these three must have more information regarding those mutations than what they’ve shared so far. They were on the ground during the deployments."

"We... we told you everything we know!" the oldest dark master stammered, his face paling the moment Becky’s attention landed on him. The fear of her golden rope was still fresh in his mind.

"Even the monsters who hired us didn’t share much about the mutations. They viewed them as a side effect, a biological byproduct that even they didn’t fully control more than what is already known in the Upper Realm."

"Hmm," Becky mused. She knew the basic facts: that the mutated monsters were born from the detonation of those specialised spirit bombs, a violent side effect of stirring up and polluting the local spirit power. But the deeper mechanics remained a mystery to her.

She turned to the primary source of secrets in her life, looking to William for an explanation. He simply offered her a calm, empty smile.

"There is no point in discussing the anatomy of something that’s going to die soon enough," he said, his voice light as he began to walk toward the city centre. "Let’s go. We’ve rested enough, and the air here is starting to feel stagnant."

"..."

Becky immediately regretted pushing the point. She was certain William possessed far more information than he was revealing, yet for some reason, he was being uncharacteristically tight-lipped.

As she followed him, she began to reflect on his behaviour over the past few hours. He was acting strangely—not just exhausted from battle, but guarded in a way she hadn’t seen before.

Her gut feeling, honed by years of surviving the Upper Realm’s shadows, told her he was fearing something specific.

[Are you afraid of leaking information to the monsters?] She decided to test her theory, sending the message through a tightly coiled strand of spirit telepathy. [Do you think they are watching us right now?]

[They are.] His answer came back swift and short, confirming her deepest dread. [Do not speak or ask about anything sensitive, even using spirit telepathy. These monsters have existed since the dawn of time; who knows what esoteric methods they use to intercept the vibrations of the soul or spy on our very thoughts!]

Becky felt a chill run down her spine that had nothing to do with the northern winds. She found it hard to believe that they were being monitored so closely, yet when she recalled how little information actually existed about the monsters to begin with, William’s extreme caution suddenly made perfect sense.

The possibility weighed heavily on William’s mind—the idea that the monsters possessed hidden, mysterious means of spying on them. He didn’t know the full extent of the enemy’s intelligence network, but the gravity in his spirit telepathy had already communicated to Becky just how deadly serious he was about this threat.

She followed him in a tense silence, the two of them weaving through the organised chaos of the recovery efforts. They headed toward a sprawling command tent in the distance.

This was the nerve centre where Lara had established her seat of power, overseeing the massive undertaking of the city’s reconstruction while simultaneously managing the shifting progress of the war.

Right now, William didn’t care about the masonry or the logistics of supply lines. He needed the latest tactical updates from the front, specifically regarding the outliers.

"I thought you would take at least a few hours to rest," Lara said as they approached. She stepped away from a group of architects and officers, moving to meet them halfway.

Her face was a mask of exhaustion, but her eyes remained sharp. "But then again, who can truly stop you... Please don’t tell me you are here to request an immediate return to the main battlefield."

"The mutated monsters—give me the latest updates on their positions and activity," William said. He didn’t entertain her curiosity or engage in the usual pleasantries. He cut straight to the bone.

"The mutated monsters?" Lara paused, a flicker of confusion crossing her face. "They have been under check for a long time now. In fact, they have been the least of our troubles throughout this entire campaign. Why are you asking about them now, of all things?"