Pill Hunt (5)

For the past few days, there would be a wet bag delivered to the front door of a tall mansion which the alliance took as their headquarters. With the status that the alliance currently occupied in the city, even if there was someone daring enough to send them such a dirty package, it was assumed that it had to be some sort of offering from the poor. However, alliance members were forced to learn an unbelievable truth after one sniff. The liquid that leaked from the bag and stained the floor, was blood.

The moment this discovery was made, the bag was hastily sent to the leaders of the alliance for them to make a decision. Only when the alliance leaders had gathered in a room by themselves, was the bag opened and the identity of this present revealed. All brows were furrowed by the sight of a man's severed head, but it was the one with the closest relationship to the man who was the least upset. This man was an assassin from the Tower of Killers, and had been sent to kidnap Emily, but it was clear what the result was.

Although it wasn't well-known, the Tower was a major ally of the alliance, and so when the alliance began considering kidnapping Emily to lure out the red woman, the Tower volunteered for the task. The option to kidnap one of the siblings from the Sphere clan also existed, but since they were technically part of the alliance and lived on a higher floor of the Myriad Flower Pavilion, they couldn't make a move on them lightly. The Tower had its own motives for seeking Emily, but everyone else pretended not to notice that and allowed the Tower to take up this task. Although their people specialized in murder, their skillset also made them suited for abduction, so the alliance leaders didn't believe there would be a problem. Unfortunately, this proved them wrong.

"Did that senior take action?"

"I doubt it. If he made a move then it wouldn't be anonymous."

"That means someone else took action and killed one of the Tower's elites."

Most were reluctant to say this, but not White Snake. The underground guild was often in conflict with the Tower, so it wasn't strange to see tension between them, but no one wanted to interfere since they knew that both sides had access to secrets that could destroy them easily. The elder from the Tower of Killers glanced at White Snake, but his facial expression betrayed no emotion as he spoke.

"True, it seems I must apologize for this failure. I shall increase the number of assassins and have them make a second attempt."

Like he said, five elite assassins were sent next time, but that only resulted in a greater number of heads being returned. While White Snake had a rare smirk on his face as he watched the elder from the Tower, Daniel asked an important question that had been overlooked.

"If that senior isn't responsible for this, who's protecting her?"

Although it was a good question, many of them already had an idea of what the answer was, and of them, Hanser informed Daniel of it. Contemptuously, of course.

"Is your brain truly that dull? Someone connected to that girl who's not only capable of defeating the assassins, but also killing them, isn't it obviously the man who protected her during the preliminaries of the Minor Ranking evaluation?"

Once he heard that, Daniel felt ashamed for not realizing sooner and tightened his lips. That handsome young man, called a prince by Emily's fans, and also known by those with the keenest ears as 'Shui', though this name wasn't confirmed to be real. He was a talent that could make even Daniel and Hanser admit their inferiority, which made him a troublesome enemy despite not having a force to rely on. He had already proven that he could defeat elite assassins while outnumbered, but since he was able to prevent these assassins from escaping, everyone realized that he was still hiding some powerful moves.

"Do we continue targeting her?"

They didn't say it, but some alliance leaders were beginning to get worried about offending Shui. Although they told themselves that he wouldn't want to be enemies with the forces behind them, the fact that he had the ability and a motive to kill them was a problem. However, White Snake snorted at this group.

"Cowards. Why should we be scared because the Tower is failing at their job?"

The elder from the Tower of Killers felt slightly bothered by the chattering bug, but he was still determined to find a solution to this problem. While the room was silent with anxiety, the elder from the Eclair clan shared his proposal.

"If the assassins aren't strong enough, then how about sending a large amount of them and overwhelming the enemy?"

His status alone earned him praise from some alliance members, but even those who didn't like him couldn't find a glaring problem in his plan to criticize. No one suggested that a Master take action, because they didn't want to provoke the one in charge of Myriad Flower Pavilion who refused to meet with them. It was decided that the underground guild would send assassins in the Earth Realm and Sky Realm along with the Tower. Faceless and Fox Demon were requested to join, but both declined.

White Snake had sent Daisy to overlook the operation, which contributed to why they achieved some success on this occasion, if it could really be called success. They were unable to secure Emily or defeat the one protecting her, but they were able to confirm that he was indeed the prince, and weren't annihilated for the first time. They learnt that the prince was also following the rules of the inn, so he wasn't fighting inside it, but in an array that was arranged to trap any assassin heading towards it. Those who had snuck into the inn in advance were ambushed and killed before the start of the battle. More than ninety percent of them had died, but it was enough hope to plan another operation.

This time, every force in the alliance had to offer people for the operation so their number was enough to insinuate an attack on the inn itself, but the plan was to hold down the prince outside of the inn, while a smaller group would infiltrate it.

No one knew what to expect, but although this operation ended in failure as well, the gains were considerable. Majority of those sent had been killed, but a few of them had finally managed to get past the prince and enter the inn, with one of them even bringing back valuable information.

This survivor apparently overheard Emily talking to someone who said that they would be making a move when reinforcements from the Hornfrost clan arrived. After checking with the clan's representative who was part of the alliance, it was confirmed that their reinforcements were likely to arrive first, which added to suspicions placed on them. Naturally, the clan representative tried to prove his innocence, but if it wasn't for the elder from the Eclair clan, the alliance would have ousted him and used him as a hostage against his clan.

"No, we shouldn't make hasty judgements. They could have purposely leaked this information to cause internal conflict. Besides, we already knew that there would be trouble once reinforcements arrive. For now, we should keep our guards up, and no one is allowed to arrange private meetings with the Hornfrost clan until this is settled."

A couple opportunistic alliance members grimaced at this move from the elder, but now that he had a premise, they couldn't go against this decision.