All of Ludwit City was on high alert after Luke's actions. It was impossible for such an explosion to go unnoticed, so all families took extra precautions.This was especially true for the City Lord, who sent personnel both to the Rockwell Family Manor and to control the situation in Ludwit City. The ordinary citizens were particularly frightened by the explosion, so it was his duty to reassure them that they were safe.While he sent ordinary subordinates to control the situation in Ludwit City, he sent a heavyweight to the Rockwell Family Manor. Edison Merrick, the City Lord's cousin and Ludwit City's second-in-command, arrived at the courtyard where the explosion had occurred.His expression was grim. The situation in the Rockwell Family was spiraling out of control and was beginning to affect all of Ludwit City."Greetings Patriarch Colin, I am sorry for your loss. Please know that we are here to help the Rockwell Family with any problems they may have." The commotion was such that
"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH." A thunderous cry of agony came from the mouth of Luke Steward, who on the Aurora Continent was better known as Shadow. Since its creation, many heroes and villains had set foot on this continent, but Shadow was likely one of the most famous.Extravagant. That's the word most people would use to define him. A villain, who contrary to the norm, didn't care in the least about hiding and committed his villainous deeds in broad daylight.While the popular consensus was that Shadow was a scary villain, he did not see himself as such. He considered himself a true hero, one willing to break with order and rules in order to bring justice. Public beheadings? An almost daily occurrence. Blowing up the royal palaces of different kingdoms? A boring trick. Turning the streets into rivers of blood? His favorite activity.All this could make out that his nickname, Shadow, was nothing more than sarcasm, by which people made fun of him. However, Shadow was a nickname he earned dur
Three years had passed since the great battle between Shadow and The Circle that took place in the site that was now known as the Forsaken Mountain located in the Rolemor Kingdom. This was an event that captured the attention of all the inhabitants of the continent. Many doubted the veracity of Shadow's death but, considering his character and the fact that he had been missing for several years, everyone finally concluded that the great villain that once tormented the continent had moved on to a better life.At first, both the major royal families and The Circle had strong doubts about his death, employing an enormous amount of resources to find his whereabouts, but in the end, they came to the same conclusion as the common people. The human being's ability for self-conviction was certainly to be feared....Three years ago, Luke had also thought that blowing up the pendant would sentence him to death, but he couldn't have been more wrong. The pendant had teleported him to the outskirt
It was just another day for Luke. He would get up, take a perfume bottle filled with cheap liquor and spray it all over his body, as well as fill a bottle with fruit juice to make it look like he was drinking alcohol. Also, Luke obviously wasn't stupid, so he put black and white dyes in his hair, and wore makeup to look like a man in his fifties.Everyone in Ludwit City thought Luke was a drunkard, but it was just a character he was playing. One of the main rules of assassins was to always keep a cool head, something he had learned the hard way during his youth, so it was impossible for him to get drunk on a daily basis.The routine was simple, go out around lunchtime to beg for money and then spend the rest of the day wandering the streets or in some shady bar. The truth was that he didn't need money, as he had stolen enough on his journey to the Doira Kingdom and from the stupid kids of the noble families of Ludwit City, but it was necessary to keep up appearances. A person with eno
"Ohhh, look who showed up. Come sit with us and have some wine, hehehe."Luke only managed to take a few steps into the Piggy Bar before he was recognized by the owner of the place, Tristan Midwell. Tristan was a man in his forties with a big belly, who despite being the owner of the Piggy Bar spent most of his time drinking and chatting with the people of Ludwit City. Luke always ridiculed the guy by calling him 'everyone's friend'.Tristan had been the first person Luke had spoken to after arriving at Ludwit City, and with whom he maintained a close relationship to this day. It certainly wasn't that he enjoyed his company, but because he was one of the strongest people in the city. From the information Luke had with him, there was only one person stronger in Ludwit City: The City Lord, Anthony Merrick, who was a cultivator at the 0-Star Fourth Rank.Prior to the devastating attack of the Magical Beasts 200 years ago, the Merrick Family belonged to the nobility and resided in the cap
After a week of monitoring, Luke had a good idea of the routine followed by the three direct descendants. The group consisted of eight people: the three direct descendants and five guards.Aaron and Tilly had been in the First Rank for some time, while four of the guards were experts in the intermediate stage of the First Rank. The only person in the Second Rank was the oldest guard, who appeared to be in his early thirties.Luke knew all of this thanks to his Eighth Rank Core, which allowed him to easily see the cultivation level of others.After training for about six hours inside Rotten Valley, the group would return following the same route, passing outside the Piggy Bar. Unlike at noon, when the whole group would go together, on the way back Adam would walk quite far away from them."There's no way I can carry out my plan at noon. I must take advantage of the boy going away from the group in the afternoon and make my move at that time. I must act now, every day that passes is adv
With the three guards following Luke, it was time to play a bit of a game with them. The first rule of an assassin was to prefer lone targets over those who were in groups.Therefore, the first step in getting rid of these flies that were bothering him was to get them to split up. This was not at all complicated, he just had to force them to seek him out separately.'I don't have much World Energy available, I have to do this perfectly. I can't afford to mess around with these guys for too long.'With this in mind, Luke sped off in the direction of a large alleyway and disappeared into the shadows. Escaping from them was certainly not very difficult, but doing so involved using his shadow element spells. Although the chance of them being able to recognize the spell was almost non-existent given the rarity of the dark element, if they reported the events to a more experienced cultivator there might be a chance they would recognize it.While The Circle had stopped the active search for
Stepping into his house, Luke quickly opened the bags he had stolen from the guards' bodies and emptied their contents on the floor. He had suffered internal injuries that needed to be treated soon so as not to leave sequels.Although his Core had also been affected, it wasn't something considerable thanks to how robust he was. Treating his internal injuries was the most important thing.Luke ignored all the money and items inside the bags, focusing on finding medicinal pills. He spotted a few and swallowed them as if they were nothing.Given his previous cultivation level, he had consumed very powerful medicinal pills, so he had some immunity to lower quality pills. Thus, although the amount he consumed could have killed a First Rank cultivator, for Luke they were only enough to close and stabilize the wounds he had suffered."Damn it, I need to get higher quality medicinal pills no matter what. Now that my plan is in motion, I'll have to expose myself to great dangers and fight with
All of Ludwit City was on high alert after Luke's actions. It was impossible for such an explosion to go unnoticed, so all families took extra precautions.This was especially true for the City Lord, who sent personnel both to the Rockwell Family Manor and to control the situation in Ludwit City. The ordinary citizens were particularly frightened by the explosion, so it was his duty to reassure them that they were safe.While he sent ordinary subordinates to control the situation in Ludwit City, he sent a heavyweight to the Rockwell Family Manor. Edison Merrick, the City Lord's cousin and Ludwit City's second-in-command, arrived at the courtyard where the explosion had occurred.His expression was grim. The situation in the Rockwell Family was spiraling out of control and was beginning to affect all of Ludwit City."Greetings Patriarch Colin, I am sorry for your loss. Please know that we are here to help the Rockwell Family with any problems they may have." The commotion was such that
"What have you heard is going to happen in the Rockwell Family?" Although she held a high position, Elder Mylah had not heard any rumors of a possible attack. Still, it didn't seem strange to her that Luke had information since he was more powerful than she was.He probably had access to channels of information that belonged to the other families in Ludwit City. That was information she had no access to."Not much. I just know that something big is about to happen. I'm not sure if it's a robbery, a murder, or something else. Just make sure you keep an eye on Adam." Luke wouldn't be stupid enough to tell her that he was the source.Although Elder Mylah didn't think much of the rest of the family, she had already made it clear that she wouldn't do anything to endanger the lives of other family members. Luke didn't want to put a stone on her conscience, so he didn't tell her that he was going to kill Tilly. "I understand, I'll keep an eye out to make sure nothing happens to Adam. Some o
One month later. Myriad Vault's first month had been a success. Although a repeat of the opening day's profits was nearly impossible, Luke's spatial ring was receiving close to a million spiritual stones per day. Luke estimated that this number could be 50% higher without the City Lord's intervention, but there was nothing he could do. Right now, their positions were simply too far apart. Right now, he had no bargaining power to prevent him from interfering in his affairs. However, what bothered him the most about the City Lord's intervention was not that. It seemed that the other families were afraid of angering him if they interacted too much with Myriad Vault, so the third floor was currently empty due to a lack of interested customers.The business with which he had hoped to earn a huge amount of spiritual stones and favors from was a complete failure at the moment. Although he felt frustrated, he did not lose his cool. He knew that eventually someone would decide to take the b
Luke had never expected such a dirty trick to be played on him. The City Lord had prevented a shift in the balance of power in Ludwit City, while making sure that the owner of Myriad Vault did not make as much profit as possible.This was nothing more than a strategy to keep control of Ludwit City. Luke had finally found someone fairly smart in this place. Despite being driven out of the capital of the Doira Kingdom, the Merrick Family could not be taken lightly.This event, in turn, made Luke rethink his assessment of the distribution of power in Ludwit City. How the City Lord could force the other three families to limit their spending with such a simple action was astounding.Just how powerful was he? Luke knew that he was the only person in the Fourth Rank, but that shouldn't be enough to make the other families so obedient. It didn't make sense for them to be so afraid of him when they had cultivators at the peak of the Third Rank, so there must be another reason. He had such a
No matter who it was, absolutely everyone who entered Myriad Vault to inspect the situation had the same reaction. Everyone could see what a huge opportunity this new shop that had appeared out of nowhere in Ludwit City represented.Every servant who entered Myriad Vault immediately went to report the situation to their families after seeing the items being sold here. If they did not take advantage of this opportunity, the other families would definitely do so and a rift that could jeopardize their position of power would appear.After receiving the news from the servants, the main discussion among the families was not whether to buy the treasures of Myriad Vault, but how much money they could raise to buy as much as possible.Even though they had received the news that they had a huge inventory, this did not appease them at all. It was impossible for them to have enough to satisfy the demand of the entire Ludwit City, so it was only a matter of time before there would be nothing left
Two days later.The deadline Elder Mylah had given him had finally arrived. Luke had spent the previous day organizing all the elixirs and treasures, as well as making sure his arrangements for Myriad Vault were in place.It had to be said that Elder Mylah understood his intentions perfectly. The shop was not the most majestic in the Ludwit City business district, but it was up to his standards.The employees had been recruited from other shops and offered better wages. That way, they would not have to spend time training them and making sure they met the standards, so they could shorten the time to open. In addition, customers would see familiar faces, giving them a sense of trust.For his part, the manager of Myriad Vault was Elder Mylah's trusted servant. He had been at her side for dozens of years, so his loyalty had been proven countless times.Myriad Vault had three levels on which different types of business were conducted. The higher the floor, the fewer things there were.The
Elder Mylah nodded when she heard that the shop would be called Myriad Vault. It was impressive enough, just that there should only be treasures valuable enough that the name would not become an object of ridicule. At this point, she had no choice but to take Luke's word for it."All right, you better deliver, or I'll be the laughing stock of Ludwit City. It will take me a few weeks to get the shop ready, so you need to be ready when the time comes." Luke was satisfied with the timeline Elder Mylah gave him. He knew it would take time and a lot of work to get a shop with the characteristics he wanted, so this timeline was more than reasonable."I will continue to train this child every day so that his cultivation does not stagnate, and I will meet with you here once a week to discuss the progress of our plan. I hope we will have pleasant cooperation." While Elder Mylah surely knew of places where they could meet in secret, this alley was still more comfortable for Luke.Everyone agre
"Let's say I accept your proposal and support this kid in the competition, how do you plan to accomplish it? I have to admit that his cultivation level is admirable considering the limited resources he has access to, but there are several in his same generation who are better than him. This was Elder Mylah's greatest concern.The day when the new Patriarch of the Rockwell Family would be chosen was just around the corner. She didn't understand how he could have him ready in such a short time. "Leave it to me. We've only been training for a short time, but this kid has shown a talent that is unmatched in all of Ludwit City. His cultivation level may fell short, but I'll make sure to give him the tools to ignore this gap. Show Elder Mylah what you have learned this week."Elder Mylah's eyes lit up after Adam followed the masked man's instructions. He had made great progress with Thunder Rupture these days, and now he was moving as fast as thunder.It was like a small thunderstorm in a
Those words in the note sent Elder Mylah over the edge. Adam felt like his organs were about to explode from the pressure of Elder Mylah's World Energy.Boom!Finally unable to contain her fury, she sent Adam flying into the wall of her courtyard. No one in the entire Rockwell Family dared to talk about this subject in front of her, but now this boy, who was nothing more than a bastard son, was doing it."Who sent you here? Do you think you can play games with me?! Tell me your true intentions or say goodbye to your meaningless life!" Elder Mylah had Adam by the throat as she said these words in a threatening tone.The anger in her eyes and her killer instinct were palpable, it was clear that if he said one wrong word she would snap his neck like that of a chicken."My master sent me here. If Elder wants to know more, she will have to meet with him. I am only the messenger." Adam felt hurt inside. Ever since he had met Luke, he had been attacked again and again. He was no different th