Chapter 113 - Traceless Technique & Moon Merchant Hall

It did not take long for One, Two, Three and Four to assemble and they were dressed in a blue cloak, as Aile directed them.

Three delivered a cloak to Zero, who helped Aile put it on. Aile then told them to get their mounts ready, and he would join them in a second. Zero too left with them as she always observed their action of getting ready. Making sure that if she ever was allowed to leave, she would not make mistakes.

Once they were gone, Aile called Leia to come close and then he touched her forehead and sent a technique to her.

Aile found this from the Heavenly Book of Myriad Stars, it was a concealing technique, it had 4 levels.

Once the first level was mastered, it would hide the cultivation level.

If the second stage is mastered, then it would hide the nature of one's element.

The third would hide one from a spiritual sense, but it was not a passive skill, one would have to use their energy to sustain this.

The fourth stage will make one vanish from people's senses if it remains active. Even if one looks, they will find the person with the active-technique as a peripheral existence and quickly ignore it. It was called the Traceless Technique.

The advantage of this technique was that unlike most others, it was not bound by a single element. Therefore Aile picked this so that he can share it with everyone he trusts. This will give them each of them an advantage, and he did not need to spend the precious energy of the Heavenly Book of Myriad Stars. It's only drawback being, it was a bit hard to learn, he did not mind that.

The advantage of it being able to be used by all of them far outweighed its negatives. Aile also did not need to spend energy on each individual's cultivation.

The energy of the Heavenly Book of Myriad Stars dropped from 30 to 27.

Leia looked around after confirming that no one was around. She leaned close to him and kissed him while she was on her tiptoes. Leia was happy that Aile solved her biggest worry and now she no longer worried about being lonely. This will give her so much freedom once she mastered the technique, as no one will know of her dual element. Her happiness was well translated in the kiss. After the quick kiss, she asked, "Can I gave this to Diana?" After finding out about her relationship with Aile, Leia wanted to know her better, and this was a suitable opportunity.

Aile smiled at her and nodded.

As he walked to the exit, she said, "Take care of yourself."

Aile looked back and saw her concern expression and nodded at her. While deep inside, he was overjoyed seeing such a beautiful and attentive person worry about him.

As he was heading towards the back door where their rides were placed. He noticed someone was watching him. He immediately extended his senses and there at a corner he saw Diana.

He quickly dashed to her location and was going to say goodbye to her, he also needed to tell her something. She saw him and was surprised.

Aile knew that Diana was easily flustered, so he decided to tease her a little.

Aile asked, "Why are you here and why are you spying on me?"

Diana blushed and said, "I was not spying," with a distressed expression.

"I was just leaving, and here you are? Maybe you will tell someone?"

"But I would never." She did not even realize his smirk and that he had already informed her yesterday of his whole plan. So why would he suspect her, but she was taken by surprise and not given enough time to think about it clearly.

"Ok then tell me why you were here or prove to me that you are not a spy?"

"How do I prove?"

Aile moved his face close to her and touched his lip then hers and said like this.

Diana realized that he was just playing with her, her surprise turned to excitement. She gently hit him, pecked him and then held him in her soft embrace. After flirting with her for a bit more, he told her that if Emily or Fiona comes in the next few days, she should make them wait until he returns.

She nodded, and after getting another kiss from her, Aile left towards the back exit.

Once he was there, he noticed that One, Two, Three and Four were ready and waiting for him. They all had covered up with a black cloak. Aile then gestured them to continue and follow him, the five of them headed to the city. Before reaching the crowded location in an alleyway, they all got down from their mounts, and Aile told One to change to his blue cloaks.

He then gave the rest of the mounts to him and told him to go to the Moon Merchant hall, where they will meet again. Moon Merchant hall was the merchant hall, Aile created to compete with his first Merchant hall (Sun Merchant Hall), creating the illusion of competition.

Now that he was creating an alternative adventures union what better place to link it with then Moon Merchant Hall. Then no one will doubt it as everyone had observed the competition between the two halls economically. If now they start competing with military power, it would not be a surprise.

Then they sneakily entered the Moon Merchant Hall in black attire, and once inside, they change to their blue. Then animatedly walked around, gathering people's attention. Once one arrived with their mount, they created a scene, as they left to the gathering. This would surely rise to speculations and act as their identity once the spy of different factions sends this information to the two powers.

Soon they arrived at the gathering location, it was in the middle of the town towards the eastern gate.

On one side, was the Royal group commanded by Marquis Andrew. On the other was the White group directed by Hunter. Between the two was the two adventurers group one headed by Hazel and the other by a short skinny man with a thin moustache.

Seeing their small group's arrival, everyone looked at them with surprise. They all were dressed the same in the blue robe and a stretchy mask that covered their nose and mouth. Thus they all knew that it was unlikely for them to be a random group and most likely related to a power.

Aile and his group arrived and did not join any side and went to the middle where the two Adventurer's Union groups were at. They simply just stood there not making a conversation or befriending people.

He knew that once people get the news of their affiliation, they will contact them, the White Clan had many dealings with Moon Merchant Hall. Thus it was likely that they will try to send their goodwill. It did not take long for their news to reach everyone, and soon Marcus arrived, noticing the movement, Aile saw Marcus and Ellie coming towards him. Violet immediately followed Ellie from Hunter's side.

They arrived in no time in front of Aile.

"Hello, are you from the Moon Merchant Hall?" asked Marcus respectfully.

Aile nodded.

"Welcome, we are going to have a meeting of strategy soon would you like to join us."

Aile had given the leading role to One, and he knew this would happen. One and Aile followed them While the rest stayed. This showed that they were willing to befriend but not join the White Clan side.

Once they were close to the White Clan's group Hunter nodded at them and then said, "Hello friends, thanks for coming, we will be leaving as soon as our guests arrive."

After listening for a bit more, Aile figured out that the person who was coming was Duke White's second son. That was a bit disappointing.

Aile gauged the strength on the White Clan's side and noticed that the highest level cultivator was Hunter. He knew that he was around the 7th level, but revealing to the public that he was 6th level. Then there was two 5th level, a few high 4th level cultivators, including Marcus. Then there were thirty 4th level cultivators and finally, Ellie and Violet who were at 3rd level.

The other side had similar strength, Duke Andrew being around 6th level. With a few 5th level practitioner and many 4th level practitioners.

Hazel's Adventure Union had her as a 6th level (she was actually around 7th level), one 5th level and many more 4th level. Just from the standpoint of how things looked on the surface, she had the weaker side.

The other adventurers union consisted of many 5th level cultivator. Although they did not have a 6th level cultivator, they had many 5th levels making the gap with numbers.

Aile and his group were mainly around 4th level. However, due to their teamwork, Aile was sure that his team can take a 6th level cultivator if need be by themselves. And he too can fight a 6th level practitioner to a draw. Nonetheless, they did not have the numbers or overwhelming strength.