Chapter 356: Hunting Far and Wide

The eldest young master of the Musi clan, Musi Ke, was so incensed that he smashed the cup of wine he held against the ground.

"Musi Te, that useless fool—he wasn't even able to take care of the two children of the Hong clan! And isn't Musi Fala aware of how important [Eclipse] is to the Musi clan?!"

Nothing on Tarkus could get past the Musi clan's eyes, and they found out about the outcome of the altercation almost immediately after it had occurred.

Just then, someone rushed in, shouting, "Young master, something's wrong, something's very wrong!"

Musi Ke frowned. "What's the problem? Just catch the two children."

The newcomer was the old housekeeper of the Musi clan, who had diligently served the family for over fifty years. He had watched Musi Ke grow up himself. Panting, he wheezed, "Zhang Lie of the Zenith Dojo has set a bounty on the Musi clan, and it's spreading all over the web! Look!"

"A bounty?" Musi Ke brought up an optical interface and quickly identified the bounty in question. When he saw it, instead of getting angry, he began to laugh. "Ha! I hope this Zhang Lie fellow doesn't think that this ridiculous bounty will turn anyone against the Musi clan. Thoughtless fool!"

The old housekeeper hesitated, then urged, "Young master, I think it best to consider this bounty more seriously. Zhang Lie might not be as strong as you, but the theory of limit fragments that he developed, along with the corresponding potions, really seem to be impactful. In the face of sufficient temptation—"

"Enough!" Musi Ke broke off the old housekeeper. "I'm well aware. It's been a long time since I went out fighting, so this should be a good warm-up activity."

"Young master, you—"

"Have my men meet up in front of the entrance to the Zenith Dojo on Earth!" Musi Ke commanded.

Before he could set off, however, another man burst into the room, his robes stained with blood, a prominent injury over his face. He shouted, "Run, young master! Something's wrong—a flock of black-cloaked men have rushed into the manor and are killing everyone in sight!"

"What?!" Before Musi Ke could respond, the man who had rushed in found a blade piercing through his chest. In a single blow, his head was decapitated from his body.

The next moment, a black-cloaked man stepped into the room. "You're Musi Ke, aren't you? There's someone who wants your head."

Musi Ke's eyes bulged. "Y-You're part of the Night Shadows!"

Night Shadows—the top assassin troupe in the world federation! Musi Ke quailed. "Who set a bounty on me? I'll pay you double it, no, triple— no, ten times the amount!"

The assassin chuckled. "The price was two limit-breaking potions. Is that something you can afford?"

Two limit-breaking potions?! "I'll give you money, all the money you want!"

.

"Money won't do me any good, now, will it?" The assassin smiled coldly as he raised a dagger, but just then, a beam of light shot toward Musi Ke from the side.

In anger, the original assassin deflected that beam of light, then turned to the assassin in the shadows behind him. "Fei Du, what're you trying to do?"

The new assassin stepped out of the shadows. "There are only so many hunters in the main family, after all. Should I wait my turn just because you found him first?"

While the two assassins argued with each other, smoke suddenly billowed throughout the room. The old housekeeper slowly approached Musi Ke and whispered, "Young master, this way!"

Musi Ke's eyes brightened. The Musi clan was large enough to have quite a number of enemies, and the main estate of the Musi clan had been built with safety contingencies in mind. In every room of the manor was a hidden tunnel, the end of which was a teleportation array that promised them a safe abode.

Right before the teleportation array, Musi Ke heaved a sigh of relief. "I really have to thank you for being here for me. Otherwise, I truly might have perished! Just you wait, Night Shadows. Once I escape from this place, I'll make you pay the price of daring to attack the Musi clan—"

Before Musi Ke could finish, he felt an icy shock by his chest, and he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

He turned to the old housekeeper in disbelief: it was he who had thrust a knife into his heart.

"Why? C-Could you want this limit-breaking potion for yourself, too?!"

The old housekeeper had been almost like his father. He had followed him around since he was little, and they had overcome many a challenge in the Musi clan together, in pain and suffering, exasperation and annoyance, happiness and joy.

No matter what happened, the old housekeeper remained steadfastly by his side, and he was the person Musi Ke trusted above all.

"You're not a hunter—what would you do with such a potion?!"

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

The old housekeeper's face was lined with sorrow. "I apologize, young master, but they've captured my granddaughter. They want your head in exchange, and I had no choice but to succumb to their threats! She's the only family I have left. On account of how hard I've worked for the clan for the last fifty years, please die peacefully—don't worry, once my granddaughter reaches adulthood, I'll immediately join you down here."

He twisted the silver blade in his hand, crushing Musi Ke's heart.

To his last breath, Musi Ke didn't understand why the world had gone so crazy over a few vials of potions.

In economics, it was often said that only goods in circulation would possess value. By announcing a bounty on the Musi clan with these potions as a reward, Zhang Lie had instantly raised the value of these potions by an order of magnitude.

In the past, conversations had been about just how much a vial of such a potion would cost, but now, they were about how many heads would be needed to exchange for one such potion, as well as how difficult it would be to amass these heads.

The impact of the Zenith Dojo's bounty rippled across the entire galaxy. If you had the strength, and if you didn't mind breaking the law, you could hunt down the Musi clan on Mars. If you didn't have the strength and did mind breaking the law, then you could at least be an informant and earn a hefty sum of money just by reporting the whereabouts of such members.

"Have you seen the subsidiary bounties that came out? If you're able to provide accurate information about a member of the Musi clan, you can get a million government points!"

"We'll be rich, rich! Send everyone out into the streets. We might not be capable of hunting down the Musi clan ourselves, but we can at least get this bounty just by numerical superiority!"

Zhang Lie was the one who had posted the main bounty, but the subsidiary bounties were subsequently issued by the major corporations and a number of top clans and organizations in order to accumulate more information about their targets: their identities, for example, in case there were any bastard children that might not otherwise be recognized as members of the Musi clan, or any secret hideouts that the Musi clan might have.

Any useful information would be rewarded with a commensurate amount of money.

Some black markets had even begun using the heads of the Musi clan as some sort of currency.

The cloaked Musi Ou rushed through a small alley, already having killed or defeated three waves of assassins.

In the three days since Zhang Lie had posted his bounty, he had experienced over a dozen attempts on his life. If not for the fact that he was a powerful third-realm hunter in his own right, he would already be dead.

He had cursed Zhang Lie a thousand times over in the last three days; by now, he was almost inured to the sight of assassins. After a long slog, he finally escaped yet another assassination attempt as he darted into a secret pub.

In the last three days, Musi Ou learned to avoid being forced into a fight—if he were forced to remain stationary, wave after wave of assassins would quickly swarm toward him. If he had to fight, he would have to end it quickly.

The pub was frequented by all sorts of criminals and wanted hunters. The reason Musi Ou had stopped there was because he wanted to rest for a little, and also to take on a new identity with which he would be able to flee farther away.

His pride as a member of the Musi clan had been beaten out of him over the last three days; he wished he could divest himself of that identity completely.

"Look, they raised the reward for the subsidiary bounties again! If you're able to provide accurate information about any member of the Musi clan, you can get up to two million points!"

"Two million— the Musi clan's done for!"

"They'll never be able to rise up again after this. Why on earth would they provoke someone like Zhang Lie? Don't they know what happened to the winged race?"

"If only I could encounter a member of the Musi clan! Don't you know how much a vial of Potion #1 is worth?"

The discussion in the pub caused Musi Ou's expression to turn even paler.

He ordered steak and wine, then secretly handed over a point card. "I need a new identity, as well as transportation to the planet Oden."

Oden was a newly discovered planet on the outer edges of the galaxy. No teleportation arrays had yet been set up there, and he could only get there by long-distance travel.

The hubbub in the pub died down instantly upon hearing his words.