Chapter 475: Art of Assassination

Ashlock had some minor apprehensions about his daughter's plan, but at the same time... what could the Wilson family possibly do about it? Having millions of spirit stones in storage was an impressive amount of wealth, but in this world, it was the strong who ruled, not the rich.

It was no good having vast wealth if you couldn't protect it—especially if you dared to flaunt it before the Princess of a Divine-level sect that ruled over the Wilderness.

Honestly, Ashlock wasn't sure what Oswin Wilson was thinking. Hadn't he seen the portals appear throughout the city? Didn't he know the rumors surrounding his sect and Stella? Was Oswin truly this clueless, or had wealth given him unearned arrogance?

If the man's Soul Fire Realm cultivation stage was anything to go by, the Wilson family was not particularly powerful by themselves and relied heavily on paying rogue cultivators for protection. This theory was backed up by the fact that none of the cultivators surrounding Oswin shared the same affinity—which was common in noble cultivation families.

However, just because the Wilson family relied on borrowed strength didn't make them inherently weak. So, while Stella had been making her way over to the mountain to follow Oswin inside, Ashlock had been busy scouting the area with his Eye of the Tree God skill. He took mental notes of the defenses, the number and cultivation stages of the guarding cultivators, and simulated everything that could go wrong in his head.

He really didn't want a repeat of past mistakes.

"There's a dozen Star Core Realm cultivators guarding the mountain—an adequate force to deter most and deal with any monsters roaming around here," Ashlock mused. "Though I wonder how much the Wilson family has to fork over daily to keep them around? It can't be cheap at all, as that's more Star Core Realm cultivators than most noble families have in total."

While slaughtering a dozen Star Core Realm cultivators was easy for him now, it was important to remember that not even a year ago, a single Star Core cultivator was strong enough to threaten his entire sect. A lot has changed since then. With the evolution of Larry to SS grade, Nyxalia being Mythical grade, and multiple sect members reaching the Nascent Soul Realm, the Ashfallen Sect now lived up to its status as a Divine-level sect.

It's not that the Wilson family was some small fry—quite the opposite, in fact. If he took a step back and looked at it from a more grounded perspective, it was somewhat understandable where Oswin got his arrogance from. What other Soul Fire Realm person had enough wealth to make a dozen Star Core Realm cultivators answer their beck and call? Furthermore, most sects kept to themselves, and powerful cultivators rarely left their cultivation chambers to deal with matters directly.

Vincent Nightrose had been such an example.

"With typical cultivator behavior in mind, Oswin probably thought he could simply escape far away with the millions of Yinxi Coins, and the Ashfallen Sect's Patriarch would let him go rather than give chase," Ashlock chuckled. "Unfortunately for this guy, we are far from a normal sect, and Stella has a track record of reacting to getting robbed with violence."

After one final round of analysis, Ashlock concluded that the most likely bad outcome from all this was a hit to their reputation. If merchants thought their lives were at risk when doing business with the Ashfallen Sect, that could affect future deals.

"Which means we have to leave no witnesses. Rumors are likely inevitable, but so long as there's no definitive proof, people will still make deals with the largest force in the Wilderness."

Deciding to go all in, he assisted his daughter from the shadows.

"Alright, Stella, you focus on getting your two million Yinxi Coins back. I'll deal with the small fry out here."

Stella answered with action. She emerged from the aether as an untraceable black-cloaked figure wearing a mask. Two daggers wreathed in aether shimmered in her hands as she stepped before the guards stationed at the entrance Oswin had just passed through minutes prior.

They barely had time to register her presence.

"Hey—"

"Who the fu—"

Her arms moved with deceptive grace, slicing through the air. The daggers seemed to miss their throats by inches.

Then reality caught up.

Razor-thin dimensional tears flared where her blades had traced, and a breath later, both heads slipped free of their spines with surgical precision. Twin fountains of arterial blood painted the air. Stella pointed a finger at them, suspending the bodies and blood like crimson petals in bloom.

Before a single drop could reach the floor, Stella silently dissolved back into the aether and took the bodies with her.

Hardly a second had passed, and two Star Core Realm cultivators, who ranked as high as Elders or maybe even Grand Elders of noble families, had been deleted from existence without a trace.

They hadn't even had time to protect themselves with Qi, summon a technique, or get a sentence out.

Stella had snuffed out their lives like one would blow out a candle.

However, while her presence had been masked under the Phantom Veil Amulet, the disappearance of two Star Core Realm presences immediately alerted the rest.

It was time for Ashlock to step in.

Not wanting to trigger the Qi detection formations, he covered his daughter's back by summoning a portal in the forest at the foot of the mountain, and from it emerged Khaos and the other void Ents. Like Stella, they could move without leaving much of a trace and were the perfect Ents to silently dispose of cultivators.

The headless Khaos flexed her four arms, ending in lethal claws, before silently disappearing into the void. Since the mountain was quite big, the cultivators were spread out and easy to pick off one by one.

However, their targets didn't go silently into the night.

"What is happening?!" a woman's Qi-empowered voice boomed across the mountain range. "Are we under attack?!"

"Assassins are here!" a man shouted, and there was a pillar of fire in the distance, "Group up! Group up!"

"Someone sound the alarm!" a third shouted, their voice distorted—likely by a mask often worn by those from the Eternal Pursuit Pavilion.

Ashlock sighed. It seemed going about it quietly wasn't quite enough. Multiple Star Core Realm cultivators suddenly disappearing without a trace or a fight was bound to raise some suspicion.

Pulling out his soul weapon—The Sword of New Beginnings—from his storage, Ash sent the hungry demonic sword to hunt down the nosy ones. Since doing this stealthily had likely fallen through, he decided to focus on brutal efficiency instead.

Tonight, there would be a slaughter.

***

How many more could there possibly be down here? Stella wondered as she pulled three more decapitated cultivators into the aether. Their deaths had been even more swift and brutal than the two guards at the entrance, as she didn't want them to have the chance to unleash a technique and trip the Qi detection formation. Luckily, the Phantom Veil Amulet let her use her full range of abilities without letting off a whiff of Qi.

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Looking down at her bloodied twin blades, she honestly found it a little scary how quickly and ruthlessly she had managed to dispose of them. Their cultivation stages, while lower than hers, didn't suggest the possibility of such a swift death.

Maybe the art of assassination has more charm to it than I had initially thought? Besides the thrill of killing, the process of trying to inflict the most damage in the shortest period and flawlessly executing a plan is immensely satisfying.

Her brain pulsed with the early signs of a headache as her bloodline relaxed. Without its help, she wouldn't have been able to kill three Star Core Realm cultivators fast enough for them to react.

"Luckily, none of them had defensive artifacts," Stella said as she stripped the corpses of their spatial rings, systematically broke the protections on them, and quickly searched for anything valuable.

"A few spirit stones, a technique manual, clothes, snacks, a chipped sword, some pills... mostly garbage," she grumbled. Not that she was surprised. A cultivator would have to be quite desperate to sell their services to a weakling like Oswin. Perhaps they had some crippling debt to pay off, or maybe they were raised and trained by the Wilson family, and their progress in cultivation was their payment.

Either way, the contents of their spatial rings weren't worth anything compared to the two million Yinxi Coins and the millions of spirit stones she was after.

"Oh, one of them has a pendant from the pavilion," she said, staring at the artifact in her hand. Her finger hovered over it as she debated opening it to see if they had any Yinxi Coins worth stealing. She let out a sigh. "No, you don't need to take that risk," she assured herself before crushing the pendant into pieces.

The three bodies followed suit as she tore them apart and disintegrated them in the flames of the aether. While the corpses could have served as food for Ash or Larry, with the beast tide coming, she doubted they would care much for these ones. It also wasn't worth the risk if any of them were being tracked—much like she was doing to Oswin right now.

"Just how deep does this passage go?" Stella said, sighing as she followed the wisp of her Qi that she had put on Oswin through the aether. It was a strange experience moving through the aether. By tapping into the 'aether plane,' which was simply an upgraded version of the spatial plane she used to rely on, she could perceive a very abstract view of reality.

Usually, this was good enough, but the presence of the formations was dampening her perception. It's also why she couldn't locate the spirit stones and was forced to tail Oswin.

So, while it was riskier, she could stick closer to the 'in-between' where reality and the aether realm intersected, allowing her to witness the world as if she were peering into a crystal-clear lake.

The problem was, much like a fish could look up at a human standing on the lakeshore, so could a cultivator. If not for her Phandom Veil Amulet, they would feel a presence, as if someone was watching. Only a cultivator with higher cultivation than hers of a similar dimension-warping affinity would truly be able to perceive her. For the strong, she was a ghost, and to the weak, she was nothing but a whisper.

Meanwhile, for Oswin? He was utterly clueless about the reaper on his tail. Finally reaching a grand doorway, it seemed their journey together was nearing its end.

***

"Just listen to me!" Oswin roared, slamming the table with his fists—the projections of other Wilson family Elders rippled in response to his outburst. "I need you to reroute as many airships as you can to my location."

"Consider it done, but you still won't tell us why," an elderly man said, eyeing him suspiciously. "I get that the beast tide is on its way, but you should have a few more weeks to move the stock from that warehouse."

"I'll tell you all when the time comes," Oswin huffed and cut off his Qi connection to the table, shutting off the projections. He stood there for a moment, his face flushed red from anger.

"Those stupid Elders, why can't they just listen to me," he clicked his tongue and, while leaning against the desk, he looked down to catch his breath, yet what he saw made his chest freeze.

A sword was floating there, with its tip pointing straight at him.

"I knew you were going to rob me, but to think you even pulled the wool over your own family's eyes."

Oswin's eyes widened—he recognized that voice. Slowly looking up, there she was across the table from him. Like a ghost, she had appeared from nowhere.

Since when was she sitting there... or the bigger question, how was she here?

"If not for you keeping my name in your mouth, that sword would have shot up and skewered you," she added.

"There's a misunderstanding," he insisted. "I was calling over those airships so I could move the spirit stones—"

"Did you perhaps forget our arrangement?" the Princess asked, raising her hand.

Oswin felt a sudden tug on his clothes like an invisible hand was trying to rip something out—his top tore, and the communication jade he had been given flew into the Princess's waiting hand.

She waved it toward him. "All you had to do was call this, and we would handle the delivery. No airships required."

Oswin felt the blood drain from his face. This wasn't good. Turning to the doorway, he screamed, "GUARDS!"

Silence answered his call.

The Princess set the communication jade down on the table with an audible clink. "I took care of the ones on the way here—nobody is coming to save you."

"Bullshit, there were multiple Star Core Realm experts positioned in the tunnel. GUARDS, THERE'S AN INTRUDER!" He roared at the top of his lungs, straining his voice. Yet, once again, only silence answered his call.

This must be some kind of trick. Oswin wracked his brain, trying to think of what to do. There was no way the Princess of a Divine-level sect was weak, but maybe...

A wave of spiritual pressure crashed down on him, punching the air out of his lungs and almost bringing him to his knees.

"Don't even think about trying to fight back," the Princess said, crossing her arms. "Now, send me back the money, and I'll be on my way."

Oswin grimaced.

"What's with that face? You haven't given me any spirit stones, so nothing was lost. Hand over the Yinxi Coins, and we will be even," she said. Her tone was calm and collected.

Meanwhile, Oswin's mind was a mess. His eyes darted around the room, trying to come up with a solution.

There should still be guards outside. If I give back the Yinxi Coins and she lets me go, then I can call on them to restrain her and take her for everything she has—money and body included.

He licked his lips. "Very well, Princess."

Slowly bringing out his pendant, he found the payment.

[Do you wish to refund this 2,000,000 Yinxi Coin payment?]

His heart twisted. After debating for a moment, another small pulse of spiritual pressure compelled him to accept the prompt. His balance, which had looked outstanding for once, plummeted.

"The Wilson family doesn't usually offer refunds, but I accept I'm in the wrong this time and have returned your money. Now that we are even, I'm going to be heading out," Oswin said, turning to leave. He side-eyed the Princess, but the empty-headed girl just watched him go with a smile.

After exiting through the doors, he picked up his pace. At first, it was a fast jog, but it soon turned into a full-on sprint. Reaching the top, he took in a lungful of fresh nightly air.

"I can't believe she let me go," he wheezed in disbelief. Taking a second to compose himself, he grinned. She was still down there, trapped in the mountain and under layers of formations. With nowhere to go, all he had to do was send his guards after her, and everything she had would be his.

"Guards!" he shouted into the night, "Assemble on me!"

Hearing a rustling behind him, he turned to face his savior.

The foliage parted to give way, and his face quickly fell.

"No..." he whispered as a towering, headless, four-armed monster that looked like it had crawled out of the abyss walked toward him. It was at that moment that Oswin realized the Princess hadn't let him go... she just couldn't be bothered to finish him off.

"Please, no..." he whispered, but the abyssal monster didn't stop. With a swift swipe of its claw, he was torn to pieces.

***

"If you're breaking in, I suppose everyone has been dealt with?" Stella asked as she stood before a vault deep in the mountain. Around its doors, she could see Ash's ethereal roots wrapping around and melting the formations.

"Correct, and I've begun to move the spirit stones inside already," Ash replied. His roots pulsed, and the doorway was torn apart. "I'm thinking of pouring in a load of monsters from the beast tide in here once we are done to help cover up our tracks a bit with their demonic Qi."

Stella nodded as she walked in, "That sounds like a good idea."

The vault was a lot more cramped than she had been expecting. Walking past shelves stacked with labeled boxes, her mood soured. "I had been hoping for a giant pile of spirit stones, but I guess this is more orderly."

A line of boxes floated overhead and through a portal at the end of one of the thousands of corridors. This was going to take a while.

"Say, Stella, do you think you could grab some Mudcloaks to help me move all this?"

Yawning, she nodded. "Sure, why not. I also had something to ask the Celestial Warden, so I'll head back to the pavilion."

A portal opened before her, and she went through. After enlisting the help of the Mudcloaks and taking back her VIP pendant from them, she casually made her way to the Celestial Warden's office.

Making herself comfortable, she closed her eyes and awaited his return.

"What are you doing in here? I thought you went home?" the Celestial Warden asked half an hour later as he walked into his office.

"I was, but then I remembered something," Stella said, swinging her feet off his desk.

"Oh yeah?" he asked, raising a brow. "What is it?"

"That I owe you a favor. You wanted me to introduce you to someone, right?"

The Celestial Warden smiled lightly. Making his way across the room, he paused before his desk and looked straight at her. "You're right. There's someone I've been longing to meet, and I know where they are."

Stella suddenly had a sinking feeling at his serious tone. "And who might it be?"

"Her name is Nox," the Celestial Warden said, confirming her worst fear, "and I know the Ashfallen Sect has her."