Chapter 440 - Chief Mechanist’s Orders

“Zhu Hun?” Solomon called out softly, but no one responded. The scene he had envisioned of the black-robed Zhu Hun stepping out of the shadows did not happen. Only the faint chirping of summer insects drifted in from outside.

He shut the door behind him questioningly, then mumbled to himself. “Is there no one here?”

Still, no one answered, and the house remained silent. Solomon searched the entire cabin and found no one at all.

“It shouldn’t be like this. We agreed to meet tonight to get the mission intel...” He furrowed his brow slightly, feeling a bad omen but still trying to reassure himself. Zhu Hun might have had something important to do tonight, so perhaps he would return by tomorrow at this time.

Solomon had no choice but to leave, feeling slightly disappointed. After all, if he had obtained the precise location of the mission’s target tonight, he could have finished the first phase of the Shadow Hunter seat competition by as early as dawn, or at worst by the following evening.

Since his mission’s target had twice been snatched away mid-hunt by Cassius and killed on the spot, Solomon already had lingering anxiety. Each day he failed to capture his target made him fear more that it would die under someone else’s hand.

He certainly did not want to be eliminated in such a humiliating fashion as failing three missions in a row. That would not only mean failure but also make him a laughingstock.

He took a deep breath and left the cabin, disappearing into the darkness of the alley. Glancing back, he decided to return tomorrow, hoping that Zhu Hun would be waiting at his desk by then.

***

The sky looked like a black curtain dotted with stars late at night. The moonlight was a bit dim because a dark cloud quietly veiled the moon, causing starlight to become the main attraction. A chilly night breeze swept through a remote corner of the city, bending the weedy ground slightly, and carried with it a faint scent of blood.

It was subtle but unrelenting. It seemed to drift from the abandoned warehouse not far away. The rectangular warehouse lay in murky shadow, but it was spattered with traces of blood.

Cassius was an expert at interrogation, or rather, any practitioner of the Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist excelled at it. A gentle application of Death's Fang Force across the skin would tear one’s flesh, exposing bare bone as a multitude of teeth creeped and gnawed until nothing remained of the victim’s body.

The flesh on Zhu Hun’s two arms had been completely stripped away, leaving only pale bones that formed a crude skeleton of his hands. Yet, he remained rather tough, maintaining complete silence without revealing what Cassius wished to learn. In contrast, the white-haired man from the council beside him began screaming the moment half of his right hand was removed, promptly spilling every secret upon questioning.

All at once, he confessed every hidden piece of information he had about the council, which even covered how certain high-ranking council members collaborated with the Gate Organization on dark creature transformation experiments. Although it was not a vast amount of data, it was enough to understand what had been happening in that test site.

He revealed the date the test site had been established, the progress of the experiment, the source of their materials, the partnership time frame between the royal family, council and the site, and so on...

Cassius listened quietly, and everything finally became clear to him. No wonder the Dark Hunter Organization, as an official supernatural force, had ended up collapsing alongside the Hongli Empire in just two or three years.

It turned out they had been riddled by internal discord, with incompetent allies dragging them down and even stabbing them in the back. The Hongli Council and the empire’s royal family clearly served as those forces, since some of their members had already fallen to the lure of extended lifespan.

By taking advantage of the element of surprise, these individuals had placed the Dark Hunter Organization at a natural disadvantage.

The Dark Hunter Organization, the Hongli Council, the empire’s royal family, the Gate Organization, and the dark creatures each had their own tangled agendas in Florence. Clearly, signs of the future chaos were already surfacing.

Wooo...

A cold gust blew in through the gap of the iron door. Cassius stood up slowly, ignoring the white-haired man writhing in pain on the floor, and turned to look at Zhu Hun. He intended to spend the following days getting well acquainted with this Gate Organization member, hoping the man would enjoy it.

The moon set and the sun rose, then day turned to night, and a few days slipped by in a flash. Every night, Cassius entered the World of Calamity’s Tower of Refuge, traveling along well-known routes to Howling Canyon in order to challenge the undead opponents.

Actual combat amongst combat artists was unquestionably the best way to solidify a rapid yet unstable increase in power. It only took him a few days to completely internalize the breakthrough of eight acupoints in his Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist. The resonance phase with his Southern Dipper Sonic Snake Fist also concluded, bringing it to the same level. Moreover, Cassius broke through yet another acupoint, reaching a total of thirty-one.

At that point, his Red Falcon Fist reached thirty-one acupoints, and his Sonic Snake Fist also reached thirty-one, for a total of sixty-two.

His entire body now resembled a constellation map, with red and purple shimmering together like pieces on a chessboard, or a raptor entwined in deadly combat with a python. Cassius’s cultivation had entered a phase of rapid growth.

Ghost-Man and Iron Knight no longer joined Cassius, not even in the World of Calamity. They brought a large number of Soul Jades back to Black Rain Manor to submit their assignments and fulfilled Cassius’s instructions by infiltrating the knight-level group formed by the Tyrant Black Dragon and the Ripple Master, taking the opportunity to recruit qualified marked-ones.

***

The weather was rather clear on August third. The Special Forces Division had their offices in Florence’s commercial district. It was in a public building resembling a police station in structure but far more discreet, with no prominent signage at the entrance. At first glance, one would hardly see it as anything other than a private estate.

Inside the walls, White Dazzling Hunter Lita walked into a building with a yawn, finding the section where her squad gathered. She had arrived rather early, and her teammates were not there yet. The hall itself housed only a few people, all yawning in fatigue.

Lita glanced around the Special Forces Division, recalling the unusual disturbances of late. For some unknown reason, the Dark Hunter Organization’s headquarters had abruptly taken the city of Florence extremely seriously, sending large numbers of hunters to perform patrols. Around half of them ended up at the Special Forces Division, causing its manpower to swell rapidly in a short time.

Logically, with nearly several times more people than usual, they should have been able to arrange multiple shifts of patrol duty without any issue. However, the higher-ups had issued orders permitting only two shifts, ensuring maximum coverage throughout the royal city’s every corner.

Consequently, Lita and her squad had patrolled until late the previous evening, and although they had rested for quite a while, she still felt drained when she got up that morning. It could not be helped, since it was a top priority directive from headquarters.

Lita had encountered more than one patrol led personally by a Dark Gold Hunter while patrolling the commercial district with her squad. The Special Forces Division had only ever had three patrol teams for the two commercial districts, and their captains were only White Dazzling Hunters. She had only ever seen Dark Gold Hunter badges on the chest of the division’s chief and deputy chief.

But now, the situation was clearly different. She had even glimpsed two individuals wearing Shadow Hunter badges amongst the reinforcements that headquarters sent three days ago. It was apparent that a grave matter had befallen Florence, or else there would not be a need for such a dramatic mobilization. However, after three or four days of continuous operations, there seemed to be no remarkable results, except that almost all dark creatures were wiped out.

They had already been severely culled by Cassius on that fateful night. Now, as the Dark Hunter Organization scoured the streets round the clock, the remaining dark creatures had been wiped out. After all, they needed to feed, so they had little choice but to risk themselves, and the results were inevitable. Whenever they were forced to commit wrongdoing under tight surveillance, the outcome was obvious.

Lita sat down at her station, and her squad members arrived one by one. Moments later, a staffer came over to assign the next patrol duties. Everyone immediately tidied their uniforms, equipment, and weapons. Lita checked her gear and led her squad off, uncertain how long this situation would last.

Meanwhile, Solomon the Thorn was utterly panicking. On the first day he failed to find Zhu Hun, he assumed the man had an urgent matter to handle and would soon return. But on the second day, he discovered the cabin was just as he had left it, without any changes in the furniture, indicating Zhu Hun had never come back at all.

Solomon held onto a faint hope and waited another day. This time, he wrote a note and placed it in a conspicuous spot on the table. On the third day, disappointment arrived as expected. The note lay untouched, and no one had entered the cabin. Zhu Hun had vanished.

For a moment, Solomon had no words as he wondered how a partner in a perfectly good alliance could vanish. This defied reason, especially since that mysterious organization surely intended to elevate him to Shadow Hunter to confront the entire Dark Hunter Organization. Yet they had unexpectedly disappeared.

With Zhu Hun gone, what would happen to their collaboration? Whom could he obtain the advanced version of the Sinful Thorns Secret Technique from? And where would he find the location of his mission’s target?

Solomon felt overwhelmed by frustration, suddenly despising their single-line method of secrecy. He knew nothing of what might have befallen them, and now that something had gone wrong, he had no way to contact the mysterious organization. He could only run around like a headless fly.

He anxiously waited four full days, by which time half of his mission deadline had already passed. Only then did Solomon forcibly quell his anxiety and plan to use his own abilities to handle the first phase of the mission. Yet misfortune indeed befell him, for large patrol squads had appeared throughout Florence, all dispatched by the Hunters’ Association headquarters.

They patrolled day and night in droves, leaving no secluded corner unchecked. If they detected even a hint of activity from a dark creature, they would pursue like rabid hounds and either kill or capture it.

It was an order handed down by the Chief Mechanist!

Solomon could not help but worry about his own mission’s target. Could he truly be so unlucky? This was, after all, his third attempt...

Solomon harbored no doubt that these patrol teams from headquarters could kill his mission’s target; he had seen more than a few Dark Gold Hunters leading them. Moreover, once a fight broke out somewhere, nearby squads would answer the call and swarm the powerful monstrosities.

If his target was exposed and found prematurely by those patrols, whether it was killed or captured, it would mean Solomon had failed his third mission and would lose any right to continue in the competition.

Lion King Soss shared the same dilemma. Although he would not be immediately expelled, no one wanted to see their assessment derailed. Thus, three more anxious days passed. Whether through sheer luck or otherwise, Soss and Solomon both found their respective targets one after the other and finished the first phase. Before they had time to rest, they were summoned to a private hall in the Hunters’ Association and received a critical announcement.

“The previously scheduled second and third phases of the mission have now been canceled. You will proceed directly from the first phase to the fourth phase, and the winner will become the new Shadow Hunter...” Radiant Hunter Deleshart declared to the four people standing before him.

“Go straight to the final stage?” Solomon blurted out, stunned. Then how could he carry out the assassination plan against Cassius that Zhu Hun had promised him? The next second, his expression changed slightly. Since Zhu Hun had disappeared, there was no plan. Solomon’s eyes flickered as he slowly lowered his head.

“I recall that in previous Shadow Hunter seat competitions, the final stage was a real battle confined to one area, with all contenders fighting each other...” Claire said calmly.

“Everyone fighting at once...” Soss murmured, first glancing at Cassius and then at Claire and Solomon. It was obvious who the strongest foe in that fight would be. The others could only unite to defeat him...

Solomon’s gaze shifted back and forth. Cassius sensed their stares but showed no reaction. This had been predetermined from the moment his Qi had recovered to the combat artist realm. When his body returned to top-tier combat artist form, nearly no one within the Dark Hunter Organization could halt his momentum.

If he had not been obliged to follow protocol, honor White Aster’s lingering attachment and join the Dark Hunter Organization’s core leadership, he would have long tired of playing these games with youngsters. It was truly too dull.

Even interrogating Zhu Hun had not sparked much interest in Cassius. He knew he would always come to possess the source of the sacred spring water.

The hall’s doors swung open with a

click

, and four figures strode out. Cassius walked in the rear, his steps steady and forceful. He proceeded until he left the Dark Hunter Organization’s headquarters.

It seemed like he was heading toward the northern woods of District Six in Florence.

Seven days had flown by since the destruction of the test site. Yang Yan had perished, Zhu Hun had been captured, and the Gate Organization had lost contact with its leader. They would surely dispatch experts to investigate the test site. Cassius had placed a piece of bait there, with a sufficiently sharp hook inside, to see whether any plump fish would bite...