Chapter 173
Chapter 173
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 173
Chapter Title: Layers Upon Layers of Killing Intent (3)
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He had entered through the annex and slipped out through the annex.
He had gone into the Heavenly Annihilation Division, the world's most enigmatic assassin organization, and come back out.
Of course, it wasn't as if he'd properly entered and exited on his own terms. He'd been captured alive the moment he tried to go in, and thrown into the Thunder Prison to boot. Even escaping the Thunder Prison hadn't been his own doing. How could that have been thanks to his own abilities? If they hadn't deliberately let him go, he never would have gotten out.
He'd entered and exited the Heavenly Annihilation Division without engaging in a single fierce battle.
He hadn't even run into anyone. There wasn't a single person worth calling an enemy. And yet this was the heart of an assassin organization housing hundreds, even thousands of killers. All he'd encountered were one or two people at most.
This wasn't an infiltration. It was nothing of the sort.
He'd just been like a toy mouse stumbling through the maze they'd set up for him, until they graciously opened the exit out of good fortune.
Even after escaping the Heavenly Annihilation Division, a bitter taste lingered in his mouth.
Far from rescuing Noksa, he'd wound up shoving him toward death instead.
Because of that, the recruitment order was gone. There was no longer any need to be bound to the Heavenly Annihilation Division.
In such cases, the Heavenly Annihilation Division would deploy the lesser retribution squad.
No, they already had. To wipe out every single branch member who had betrayed them. Though they hadn't achieved their goal, and their dispatched cleaners had ended up getting cleaned instead.
The lesser retribution was still in effect.
A blade could come thrusting at him anytime, anywhere, in the name of the Heavenly Annihilation Division, and it wouldn't be the least bit strange.
Vanguard stared at the annex and spoke.
"So, where to now?"
"Who knows."
"You don't have... anywhere to go?"
"That's not what I meant. What I meant was, we can't decide where to go."
"What kind of talk is that? We can't decide where to go?"
"Huhu! First, we head to Iron Ball Grandpa's place. Rest up for a bit, recover our strength... and prepare for battle."
"Battle against who? The main branch?"
Four Thousand Four shook his head.
"The main branch will decide who we fight. Could be an assassination contract like old times."
"You're... going to follow the main branch's orders? Why?"
Vanguard pressed him.
In Four Thousand Four's case, there was no longer any recruitment order tying him to the main branch. In a word, there was nothing holding him back. The lesser retribution would keep coming at him, but that was something he had to face sooner or later... No, something he was already facing, so it wasn't a big deal.
But to follow the Heavenly Annihilation Division's orders now? It made no sense whatsoever.
Four Thousand Four chuckled dryly.
"Whether I want to or not, I'll have to. They let us go nice and easy, telling us to obey orders obediently."
The underground passages were riddled with terrifying traps and mechanisms.
The Heavenly Annihilation Division hadn't activated a single one. They'd let Four Thousand Four go peacefully. It meant they were confident they could manipulate him from the shadows—and that confidence had to have a basis.
Even Four Thousand Four lacked confidence in resisting that.
If the Heavenly Annihilation Division manipulated him from the shadows, how could he refuse? He wouldn't even realize it, and he'd run himself to death, fight till the end.
Four Thousand Four thought of North Fate.
If North Fate tried to manipulate him, there would be no way to resist. If someone like North Fate set a trap, it would be airtight, with no escape hatch left behind.
On the other hand, he wondered if North Fate would really be deployed.
If someone like North Fate personally stepped in to control a single assassin, that would probably be a massive deal.
He'd be caught up in something enormous without even knowing it.
So he hoped North Fate wouldn't get involved. He hoped someone else would do the controlling.
"Do you know Iron Ball Grandpa's hideout?"
"I do."
"Good. Let's head there."
Four Thousand Four took a step forward.
Golden Eye Black Hawk, Green Fragrance White Rat, Ten Directions Linked Birds, and Emerald Shadow Stone.
These four are collectively known as the Zhuge Clan's Four Supreme Tracking Arts.
Golden Eye Black Hawk is a hawk. It pursues from the skies. Green Fragrance White Rat is a small rat. It tracks by scent. Ten Directions Linked Birds form a heavenly net and earthly web. They create an encirclement to capture the target.
Emerald Shadow Stone is a stone.
Like a magnet drawn by magnetic force, it's a stone that emits light upon detecting a specific energy. And because the light it emits is a clear emerald hue, it's called Emerald Shadow Stone.
What energy does the Emerald Shadow Stone react to? The secret lies in the Blood Meridian Seal Art performed by Zhuge Soso.
The Blood Meridian Seal Art is no simple seal. It's a double seal, hiding one seal within another.
Even if someone breaks the Blood Meridian Seal Art through some stroke of fortune, they won't detect the inner seal contained within. They won't even realize it exists, let alone think to break it.
A tiny, exceedingly minute seal had been placed on Four Thousand Four's body.
This inner seal has no effect on the body whatsoever. That's why the subject remains utterly unaware. It simply lurks in the meridians, ceaselessly repeating its subtle motions.
It cycles repeatedly between meridian and meridian.
This flow emits a unique energy detectable only by the Emerald Shadow Stone.
In other words, anyone who receives the Zhuge Clan's Blood Meridian Seal Art is forever ensnared in their surveillance net, without ever realizing it.
This is the Zhuge Clan's fourth supreme tracking art, capable of pursuing a target even from ten li away.
The Emerald Shadow Stone began to glow brightly.
"He's out."
"I expected as much, but I didn't think the Heavenly Annihilation Division would let him go so easily. They're planning to control Four Thousand Four right up to the end."
Zhuge Soso stared only at the Emerald Shadow Stone.
There was no need to look at the high mountains or deep valleys. The Heavenly Annihilation Division's main base was here, but entering was impossible. It was forbidden among the forbidden—not even the thought should cross one's mind.
This place was hell.
And Four Thousand Four had waltzed right in.
North Fate Bloodblade had passed her the Heavenly Annihilation Division's secret token through her eighth lesser disciple.
It was tantamount to revealing a secret passage into the Heavenly Annihilation Division.
Yet Four Thousand Four hadn't used that passage. He'd used a third path that neither he nor North Fate had even conceived of.
How absurd was that?
If the martial world had known about the annex, if they'd pinpointed its location, they would have attacked it somehow. The annex was riddled with traps and mechanisms too, but they would have broken through even at great cost.
The martial world knew nothing of the annex.
North Fate Bloodblade probably didn't know about the secret passage through the annex either. If she had... If she'd known and still given him another secret path... it could mean she'd laid out two routes just to see which one Four Thousand Four would choose.
In the end, North Fate and Zhuge Soso had reached the same conclusion.
Four Thousand Four had deep ties to the Heavenly Annihilation Division—deep enough to know of the annex passage. And secondly, he already knew far more about the Heavenly Annihilation Division than they'd imagined.
"You can follow that guy, right?"
Zhuge Soso said, gazing at the handsome young nobleman.
When she glanced at Mian Xiaosal, Zhuge Ming looked at him too.
Mian Xiaosal was silent. Up until they'd arrived here, he'd been chattering nonstop... but now, like a lie, he'd lost his words. Instead, his eyes burned fiercely.
'There's something there!'
Zhuge Soso and Zhuge Ming shared the same thought. But they didn't show it.
"Lady Soso."
Mian Xiaosal called her calmly.
This wasn't his usual teasing tone. It was as if he were dragging up words buried deep in his heart.
"Yes. Speak."
"It's time you told me for real. Whether I'm lacking as your match."
"No. You're not lacking. You're overflowing."
"Then you'll accept me?"
"Didn't we settle that in the Poison Grove?"
"If you and I share no bond at all, then from this moment, I'll abandon all desire."
Mian Xiaosal was saying he'd leave.
"Brother!"
Without a moment's hesitation, the instant Mian Xiaosal finished speaking, Zhuge Soso turned her gaze to Zhuge Ming.
Zhuge Ming grasped her intent. So
"Hm! Maybe you should reconsider..."
"Please handle tracking that man, Brother. Young Master, thank you for everything up till now."
Zhuge Soso bowed politely to Mian Xiaosal.
The one who had brought Mian Xiaosal into the Zhuge Clan was the clan head himself. By drawing in Mian Xiaosal—one of the five supreme masters of the martial world—the Zhuge Clan had added another layer of security.
Of course, Mian Xiaosal had never revealed his true martial prowess thus far.
He'd fought just enough to suit the situation. Played around appropriately with designated opponents. If he'd shown his true skills, people like Sword Sage and Dao Sage would have fallen in an instant. Poison Lord's poison arts aside, of course.
Mian Xiaosal was someone the Zhuge Clan could never fully embrace.
The only reason he'd stayed with the Zhuge Clan until now was to win Zhuge Soso.
No one was unaware of this.
And now, Mian Xiaosal was formally announcing their parting. Zhuge Soso formally accepted. Without even confirming the clan head's true intentions in bringing him in, they were choosing to part ways.
"Can you tell me why you're pushing me away?"
"On a scale from one to ten in martial prowess, you're a solid ten. Though you've only shown about five or six. Honestly, I'm curious what your full ten would look like."
"That's not the reason you're pushing me away."
"Temperament."
"Temperament?"
"Ours don't match. If we married, we'd surely be miserable. Up till now, you've been accommodating me, but after marriage..."
"On a scale from one to ten, what would you rate my temperament?"
"Three."
"Calling me a brute, eh."
"It's my standard. Don't take it to heart. It's a conclusion based on assuming my own imperfect temperament is perfect. By someone else's standard, yours could be a ten."
"Lady Soso, do you realize you've just pushed me away in the cruelest way possible?"
"You're the same, Young Master. You only ask things like this when you want something from me. It was the same in the Poison Grove, and it is now. You're asking a favor, saying 'I won't do it unless you accept me.' Honestly, I don't trust a man like that."
"Hahaha!"
Mian Xiaosal burst into hearty laughter.
"Lady Soso, I do have options."
"Is that so?"
"There's a saying in the martial world: North Fate and South Smile. There's also Invincible Wen Zhao. North Fate and South Smile has nothing to do with me, honestly... Which beauty among women is prettier? Invincible or Wen Zhao? Invincible Wen Zhao—that suits my tastes."
"And you're agonizing over that right now?"
"Indeed. Invincible or Wen Zhao. Huhu! Rejected by Wen Zhao, so I'll go find Invincible."
"Go ahead."
Mian Xiaosal raised his hand high. Then, without a shred of lingering attachment, he shot off into the distance and vanished.
"He really left."
Zhuge Ming said hollowly.
"Invincible Iron Moon is right here."
"What!"
Zhuge Ming startled and looked at Zhuge Soso.
"Mian asked the same thing in the Poison Grove. I told him to go then too. But he didn't. He kept hovering around. But now he's going."
"You pushed him that hard. I'd have run off too if I were him."
"He's going to Iron Moon because Iron Moon's there."
"You sure it's Iron Moon?"
"Mian said it himself. Invincible or Wen Zhao. He said that because he knows he can find Invincible. If she weren't around, he'd never leave."
"Well, whatever. Now that Mian's gone... I'll keep an eye on Four Thousand Four. Don't worry."
"No. Things have changed now. We just follow from afar like this."
"Because of Iron Moon?"
"If Iron Moon's there, even you can't handle her, Brother. And Mian's bound to hold a grudge now. We can't let those people spot us. We tail them from a distance."
"Hm! But what do we do once we're tailing him?"
"Four Thousand Four treats the Heavenly Annihilation Division like his own home. He even knows the Soul Scattering Heart Technique. He's a crucial link between them and us. There's a lot we need to ask him."
Zhuge Soso stared piercingly at the Emerald Shadow Stone.
The Emerald Shadow Stone grew clearer and more brilliant by the moment. It radiated an ever stronger light.