Chapter 1242: The Silent Dead
In the city lord manor, Breuze had already told Su Zhen a few things regarding his mission before asking him,
"Has anything happened recently in the city that I need to know? It might help with my investigation."
Su Zhen thought for a moment before answering.
"There has been almost nothing peculiar happening recently besides the disappearance of the Zhu family’s elder group while fighting God Tarius’ followers, and the escape of one of my prisoners from the high-security prison."
"The disappearance of the Zhu family’s elders and a prisoner escaping?" Breuze asked with interest.
Su Zhen released a sigh and nodded.
"Yes, Your Excellency. Recently, God Tarius’ followers have been causing trouble throughout this region, and the Zhu family..."
Su Zhen explained everything he knew about the disappearance of that group. He also told Breuze about Pei Lang’s escape. Naturally, he explained what kind of crime Pei Lang had committed to end up on death row and be placed in the high-security prison.
After hearing that, Breuze nodded. He could not help but feel that all of it was connected. He had already visited the place where the Zhu family’s elders and God Tarius’ followers had fought, and it was still within this region.
The two incidents had happened within a short period of time and even close to each other. In his eyes, they could not simply be brushed off as a coincidence.
’Lord Avergis already warned us that this dangerous being might be tied to those rebel groups. These two incidents could be connected to the rebels, as they have reasons for doing all of this. This might be connected to that dangerous man,’ Breuze thought.
’Although there is also a chance that these are two separate incidents with no connection whatsoever and might even be the work of those Tarius followers, at least one of these incidents should have a connection to the rebels.’
After a few moments of thought, Breuze said to Su Zhen,
"This might be connected to what we are investigating. We will stay in the city for a while and examine it thoroughly before moving on to another location. Thank you, City Lord Su."
"Please do not mind it, Your Excellency. It is my job to assist your esteemed self," Su Zhen said.
After that, Breuze left the city lord manor to oversee the search.
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Time continued to pass, and night finally arrived. The competition still went on without any disturbance despite the group of cultivators moving around the city as if searching for something. The people felt curious, but they did not dwell on it too much.
Matters regarding high-level cultivators were not their business. Moreover, there was a grand tournament that was far more interesting than pondering the identity of an unknown group.
The forging competition was still ongoing even though night had already fallen, although the second day of the tournament was almost over and the competition would continue tomorrow.
The forging competition took much longer than the alchemy competition because the materials used needed more time to be shaped into artifacts compared to creating pills.
Even though the second day of the competition was almost over, the people’s enthusiasm had not lessened in the slightest.
However, there were also some people who were not interested in the tournament and continued doing what they had been doing, such as Breuze’s group, who were still searching the entire city for any abnormalities.
Since the sun had still been high in the sky until at this moment, they did not seem tired and continued moving across many parts of the city with focused expressions.
One of the groups, consisting of four people, was searching near the edge of the city. The area they passed through was quite quiet, as not many people traveled below them. There were also not many residents living in this part of the city.
They flew slowly while one of them occasionally looked at a sphere-shaped artifact the size of a fist. The artifact was made from a type of dark crystal, and there was something sealed inside it. A black substance could be seen clearly through the crystal from the outside.
"I think that man is not in this city. We have not found any trace of him despite already sweeping the entire city," one of them said as the man with short black hair observed his surroundings.
"Unless that man has something capable of blocking a divine-grade tracing artifact that can track beings from the First Heaven, then they can forget about hiding in this city," he added.
"But if he can hide from our tracing artifact, then we need to use more traditional methods like this. We have to rely on our own senses to detect any abnormalities. Just be patient. Lord Breuze still has not ordered us to leave. He might have found something that makes him want us to stay in this city for a while," his blond-haired friend retorted.
"I am quite curious about this powerful being. If this man is strong enough to make even our lord, Mighty One Above the Heavens, wary, then isn’t our presence here basically useless? There is no way someone like that could be contained by the combined force of a few Immortal Saints," a brown-haired man beside them said.
"Well, that’s true, but it is said that he only recently ascended to the Second Heaven, so he should still be at the Immortal Foundation Stage. Our lord might simply want to make sure there are no problems with this mission, so he sent all of us to handle this matter," the blond-haired man answered.
The brown-haired man nodded.
"What do you think, Vortrich?" he asked the last person who had not spoken since earlier and was flying at the very back of the group.
However, he did not hear the answer he expected, which made him turn his head to look at Vortrich behind him.
But the moment his eyes landed on the place where he was supposed to see Vortrich, he was stunned.
Vortrich, whom he had expected to be flying behind him, was nowhere to be seen!
"Vortrich!" the brown-haired man shouted as he called out to his friend while scanning the surroundings.
Hearing the shout, the black-haired man knew something was wrong and turned his head to look behind him. He was stunned when he saw that the friend flying at the very back of their group had already disappeared.
"Vortrich disappeared—"
He turned to look at the blond-haired man who was the leader of their group, but he froze when he saw that the man had also disappeared!
Only then did he realize that something was seriously wrong. He and the brown-haired man instantly moved into a back-to-back formation.
"What happened? I didn’t sense them disappear at all despite constantly spreading my spiritual sense. My senses still tell me they are there as if they never left. How is that possible?" the black-haired man said in a tense tone.
However, he did not hear any response from the brown-haired man behind him.
That made him turn his head to look.
His heart instantly turned cold when he did not see his friend who had still been behind him just a second ago!
"What the fuck is happening?" he shouted.
Before he could think any further, his eyes suddenly widened as something pierced through his forehead.
Before his sight plunged into darkness, he saw a silhouette that had appeared beside him like a ghost from nowhere. The silhouette was holding a dagger buried deep in his forehead.
He could not make out the features of his attacker, but he sensed something that made him realize who had attacked him.
’God Tarius’ follower!’
That was the last thought that crossed his mind before his consciousness completely disappeared and he entered the underworld.
After his death, both his body and the silhouette vanished, leaving the area quiet once again.
At the same time, the same thing was happening elsewhere in the city as another group was killed and disappeared without a trace. Without anyone noticing, several groups had already vanished.
The twins were already moving to carry out their mission, with Aldrian guiding them toward their targets.
With many areas of the city already having become his domain, Aldrian was able to monitor every movement of Avergis’ followers.
The twins demonstrated their assassination skills through their ability to kill without anyone noticing, regardless of where their targets were located.
Even when their targets were walking through bustling streets, they could still eliminate them and make the bodies disappear without anyone nearby suspecting a thing.
Among those the twins killed, many were Transcendence Realm cultivators from the higher heavens.
The night, which was still filled with a festive atmosphere because of the grand tournament, became a night of death for Breuze’s group.
In the span of just one hour, forty people from Breuze’s group died, and their corpses were placed in deserted locations throughout the city.
After killing forty people, the twins retreated as Aldrian ordered and returned to the inn, where they remained on standby for his next command.
Aldrian was satisfied with their work. At this moment, he was sitting in the stadium watching the tournament and wondering how Breuze would react when he learned that many of his subordinates were already dead.