It was already morning as the sun rose from the horizon to bathe the main Mercenary Guild Association main branch in a golden hue.
It was located in a city of its own, and from here all the branches around the Maple Continent take their orders.
Aside from the Imperial City, it was the most highlighted city on the Continent, with individuals from powerful families casually roaming the streets.
Disciples from various academies could be seen as well, especially coming and going from the ginormous supposed thirty-floor Mercenary Association building.
The bustling noise was on a high as hundreds of them chattering could be heard. However, that chattering at the entrance slowly faded away as a tall figure in a featureless mask slowly floated down from the air.
His bare feet touched the ground and instantly, the staring disciples all cleared a path to the large double door entrance.
Without pausing the figure calmly walked forward.
Whispers echoed from the crowd.
“No way, that’s the Faceless Hero. I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to be here to see him.”
“He’s so tall, what the heck?!”
“Why isn’t he wearing any shoes?”
“Hey, did you hear he showed up in Crystal Lake City and defeated the City Lords' son Ji Ning in less than a dozen moves?”
“Yeah, that’s crazy, Ji Ning is a top genius! That puts him at fifth on the Chosen Rankings, just unbelievable how fast he climbed to that position.”
Various topics about his appearance or his accolades came from the crowd. Despite the existence of Chosens being mostly secretive with battles between them going unannounced. The Faceless Hero was just too much of a sensation that his meteoric rise was known by almost every old and upcoming youth in this early generation.
But what was more discussed in surprised voices were the two people walking behind him.
They wore similar masks as the Faceless Hero and dressed in black robes. Neither their genders nor ages could be discern.
All eyes followed them as they entered the building.
After entering the building Li Shen sent a mental message to Lihua and Li Wen.
“You guys stay here until I return.”
Li Shen then moved to a nearby teleportation circle to head to the 21st floor.
This main Mercenary Association building had a similar structure to the smaller branches spread out on the continent.
The 1st floor to the 10th floor was for auctions, the higher one goes between those the higher the quality, rarity, and prices of the items sold would be.
From the 11th floor to the 20th floor was where medicinal pills, Spirit Artifacts, Martial Arts Techniques, and anything you could think of that was useful to cultivators were sold.
As for the rest of the floors, that’s where information was sold.
Want to know about the newest genius sensation that made his debut?
About the new trends going around in the underground?
What about ridiculous information like what hand the Sword Emperor and Patriarch of the Profound Sword Sect used to fondle his wife’s breasts?
Everything is available!
Well, not everything. Information on a few selected people had been restricted, only accessible to people of a certain percentage.
Similarly, why if one counted the floors outside they’ll get 31 but only 30 floors were registered.
As for why that information about Shin’s father was available, Li Shen found out the Sword Saint had a loose tongue when he was drunk.
Also, one should note despite the Mercenary Association branches being similar to this, everything was relative to their positions. Only the main branch deals with the scope of the entire continent and beyond.
After being teleported to the 21st floor, Li Shen drew eyes as he approached an empty booth.
It wasn’t only his fame that drew attention but because of the fact that he was hardly seen here.
One of the many rumors going around about him was that he had become an official member of the Mercenary Association, but it wasn’t confirmed.
Li Shen had indeed joined the Mercenary Association, but he hardly used his membership. He only used it in times like this, when he needed information he couldn’t find out using the Faction's resources or quickly enough.
Upon entering the booth, a simple layout of a circular table and sofa greeted him.
While sitting down a light suddenly sprung from the top corner of the room to form the projection of a transparent hologram male person.
Bowing to Li Shen, he said.
“Hello respect sir, I will be your informant for today.”
Despite the suddenness, Li Shen wasn’t fazed, though he was the first time.
He had never seen inventions like this before, and the Mercenary Association was full of them. Like the jade slip that Lihua had used to show the layout of a village landscape.
Li Shen didn’t know who invented these mechanics from runes inscriptions but they were good.
One thing he realized though was that they followed similar principles to things he saw in some memories of his past lives. And that got him to wonder.
But he had better luck finding its creator than finding a needle in an ocean. The Mercenary Association went to great lengths to keep it a secret.
Without much thought, Li Shen spoke about what he came here for.
“I want to know which Demonic Cult Sect uses a scorpion as their calling card.”
Li Shen was prepared to wait for a moment as usual for this thing to go through its database before answering but was caught off guard when it immediately answered.
“I’m sorry sir, but no Demonic Cult Sect uses a scorpion as a calling card.”
Li Shen frowned behind the mask.
“Then do you have information of an individual using it?”
Again an instant response came.
“I’m sorry sir, but that information is classified.”
Hearing this, Li Shen was unperturbed and simply flipped over his palm and took out his Mercenary Association card.
It was black and blank and acted similarly to a jade slip. This was again a feature of the Mercenary Association that came off to people as strange.
Li Shen casually flicked the card onto the table.
Immediately after it stopped spinning, runes immediately appeared around the card analyzing it.
“I’m a member of the Association, so give me the information.”
However, the confidence Li Shen had was squashed when he suddenly heard.
“I’m sorry sir, but your membership is inadequate to negotiate for the purchase of this information.”
The runes on the table then disappeared before the card was dismissively ejected off it.
Despite his surprise, Li Shen still manage to catch the card, albeit he had to stretch for it.
“What is this? What level of membership do I have to access this information then?”
“I’m sorry sir, but that information is classified.”
"Huh?"
Li Shen was confused, he hadn’t expected such a piece of simple information was inaccessible to him even after revealing his position as a member of the Association. He only wanted to know who was responsible for killing those villagers and his Faction Members, but now, it seems this person’s information was being protected.
‘I wasn’t sure whether it was a group or a single person responsible for the village massacre, but because of how I phrased the question I discovered it was the latter. But what now? I can’t even find out who this person is.’
Li Shen might have said that death was a part of the cultivation world, but he wasn’t going to let the brutal killing of his members go.
He didn’t know how his members' identities were discovered, but it was obvious the person responsible was sending a message. And Li Shen received it, loud and clear.
Thinking for a moment, Li Shen looked around the room.
His red pupils gaining a hint of gold.
The world around him then became dark and filled with golden silk-like threads.
**
-Regular readers-
We've reached the first goal! So as promise, two extra chapters this week!!
Even though this was short and lasted for one week, BANGER chapters are coming up so I need you guys to still vote! vote! vote!
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺