Lingxiao Immortal Clan.

at the same time.

Hunyuan Immortal City.

The black market, the Shadow Tower.

Despite its great reputation, it was actually just a small, unremarkable shop.

Moreover, very few people come to visit, since ordinary people wouldn't casually ask him for help to assassinate others.

At that moment, inside the shop counter, an elderly man was reclining in a chair, reading a book.

He is the owner of a branch of the Shadow Tower in the Hunyuan Immortal City, with the Daoist name "Dark Stream," and is a core member of the Shadow Tower.

Moreover, his cultivation was extraordinary; he had long since reached the peak of the old-school Nascent Soul stage.

Because of his strong aptitude, he was even valued by the higher-ups of the Shadow Tower in his early years, who supported him in attempting to break through to the Void Refinement Realm.

Although the matter failed, he still gained something. His divine sense barely broke through a major bottleneck and had reached the power of seventy percent of the Void Refinement stage, which was far beyond what ordinary cultivators could compare to.

Such divine sense is indeed of extraordinary help to one's strength.

Therefore, his strength is particularly formidable. It is even rumored that he once escaped from the clutches of a Void Refiner in his early years, and even killed two ordinary Nascent Soul Perfection cultivators at the same time, earning him a fearsome reputation.

However, he was already quite old, and he was no longer willing to engage in such bloody and violent activities.

In addition, he has some connections at the Shadow Tower headquarters.

He then smoothly stepped down to the second line and eventually took charge of the Shadow Tower branch in the Hunyuan Immortal City black market, living a leisurely life.

However, at that moment, he inexplicably sensed something and immediately took out three broken life tablets from his storage bag.

'what? '

'I truly never expected that my Shadow Tower's three Nascent Soul stage assassins would all fall. It seems the backer of the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance is no ordinary person.'

'Or perhaps there are other powerful entities behind the Lingxiao Business Alliance, but the outside world is unaware of them.'

"No wonder. While the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance has been aggressively expanding its business in the Immortal City, its powerful spiritual chef backer is still cultivating in that fifth-grade high-level spiritual land within the inner territory of the Hunyuan lineage. They have plenty of resources and aren't afraid of troublemakers."

The old Taoist priest looked surprised and became curious about the powerful backer behind the Lingxiao Business Alliance.

After all, he was the owner of the Shadow Tower branch in Immortal City, which is why he was the one who received the Autumn Leaf Merchant Alliance when they came to the Shadow Tower looking for assassins.

Furthermore, it was he who arranged for the three Shadow Tower assassins at the Nascent Soul stage to assassinate Yan Siyi in Black Stone Valley.

During this time, he also made a special inquiry about Yan Siyi's situation to prevent any unexpected incidents from occurring.

However, he had not heard of any unique methods used by Yan Siyi. He only knew that she was secretive and seemed to have only come to the territory of the Hunyuan lineage in recent decades.

Moreover, apart from this person, the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance has no other powerful figures.

Under such circumstances, the three assassins he had arranged, who were at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, should have been able to kill him easily.

But now an unexpected incident has occurred.

This is particularly strange.

Moreover, he had dealt with those three assassins quite a bit and knew they were quite capable.

Even he wasn't entirely confident, yet he managed to kill him so quickly.

Even within the entire Hunyuan Immortal City, there are probably not many people or forces capable of accomplishing this.

'It seems that the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance's backing has reached the Void Refinement stage; otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to accomplish this.'

"Furthermore, according to previous intelligence gathering, the background and connections of the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance remain unknown... making them quite special, and we'll have to pay close attention to them in the future."

The old Taoist priest frowned slightly, and immediately raised the difficulty of assassinating Yan Siyi to the Refinement Void level in the Dark Shadow Tower's booklet of assassination difficulty ratings.

In this way, if Shadow Tower encounters someone who wants to assassinate them again in the future, Shadow Tower can be prepared and will not have to send ordinary assassins to their deaths again.

Instead, they could directly send a Void Refinement level expert to deal with it.

He then informed Qiu Ye, the leader of the Qiu Ye Business Alliance, and others about the failed assassination attempt on Yan Siyi, and offered to refund the assassination fee.

This is the rule of the Shadow Tower.

As for the three assassins who had died tragically earlier, the old Taoist priest paid them no heed.

After all, those three assassins were not members of the Shadow Tower's elite forces.

Moreover, over the years, those three assassins have made a considerable profit through Shadow Tower.

Furthermore, the Shadow Tower had already signed a life-or-death agreement with the three assassins when they entered the Shadow Tower to commit murder.

If something goes wrong, it can only be attributed to their own lack of skill, and has nothing to do with the Shadow Tower.

Even if their descendants come looking for them, the Shadow Tower will not be afraid.

Of course, if something happens to a direct descendant of assassins trained by Shadow Tower from childhood, that would be a different story, and Shadow Tower would not only investigate the matter further.

They even compensate those direct assassins if they have offspring, in order to win people's hearts and strengthen the sense of belonging among the other direct assassins of Shadow Tower.

However, on the other hand, what if this mission was carried out by three direct-line assassins from the Shadow Tower who had reached the Nascent Soul stage?

Even if they are no match for Yan Siyi and the others, they will still have a good chance to retreat.

After all, those assassins have access to many valuable items in the Shadow Tower, including sixth-order Void Refining Talismans.

……

Soon after.

Inside the Primordial Immortal City.

Qiuye Business Alliance flagship store, a quiet room.

The Qiuye Alliance Leader and others from the Qiuye Merchant Alliance stared at the information recorded in the message talisman sent by the Dark Stream Old Daoist, their brows furrowed with fear and confusion.

"How can this be?"

The leader of the Qiuye Alliance and others found it hard to believe.

They truly hadn't expected that the Shadow Tower's dispatch of three Nascent Soul stage assassins to attack Blackstone Valley would all fail.

Moreover, the information contained in this matter is extremely vast.

If everything is true, then... the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance is an entity they cannot afford to offend.

Moreover, with the methods of the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance, investigating the origins of those assassins would be a piece of cake.

At that time, they will probably only have to wait to die.

Even if they were in the Immortal City, it would probably be the same.

After all, although the Immortal City is on the surface extremely safe, it is protected by the Hunyuan lineage.

However, for some powerful individuals, this place is no different from the outside world, and killing them would be a piece of cake.

"Leader, we told you not to risk hiring assassins to do this, but you wouldn't listen. Now look what's happened, you've brought a huge disaster upon yourself."

"Now we'll see how you get out of this mess."

"If this matter involves us, we'll drag you down with us even if it means our own deaths."

The elders of the Autumn Leaf Merchant Alliance angrily rebuked the Autumn Leaf Alliance Leader.

"You bunch of beasts, you were all smiles when you decided to hire assassins, but now you're pulling this stunt?"

"Don't forget, we were all involved in hiring assassins."

Instead of arguing here, let's go to the Shadow Tower together and see if the news is true.

The Autumn Leaf Alliance Leader was furious and let out a furious snort. Furthermore, his ability to serve as the leader of the Merchant Alliance wasn't solely due to his high cultivation level, but also because of his quick wit.

Upon hearing this, the other elders' anger lessened and their expectations increased; some even prayed that the message they had received earlier was false.

After arguing for a while, they immediately went to the Black Market Shadow Tower to verify the authenticity of the news.

When they confirmed with the old Taoist priest that the assassination attempt had failed, and even received the deposit back from him, they were immediately chilled to the bone.

Inside the Shadow Tower at this moment.

"It's over."

'It's all over.'

When the Qiuye Alliance leader and other high-ranking members of the Qiuye Business Alliance learned everything, their expressions changed drastically.

"Gentlemen, although my Shadow Tower failed to carry out this assassination, not even one of my Hunyuan Shadow Tower branches was able to do it."

"This place is just a branch of my Shadow Tower. My Shadow Tower has many branches elsewhere and has cultivated many powerful individuals. It has a strong foundation and many powerful individuals."

"If any of you still intend to assassinate the backer of the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance, I can immediately send a message to find at least two assassins at the Refinement Void level to do this."

"However, the cost of this matter is also relatively high, requiring 200,000 fifth-tier spirit crystals. Half of that, or 100,000 fifth-tier spirit crystals, is required as a deposit. If the matter is not completed, the deposit will be fully refunded."

Seeing the expressions on the faces of Alliance Leader Qiu Ye and the others, the old Taoist priest An Liu couldn't help but feel that this was a good opportunity to make money, and immediately asked.

"Could we find two assassins at the Void Refinement level?"

"The Shadow Tower is truly powerful."

"But this matter requires... 200,000 spirit crystals."

"Even if you sold my Qiuye Merchant Alliance, they still couldn't afford it."

When Qiu Ye and the others first heard this, they felt as if they had grasped a lifeline. However, when they heard the cost of hiring two Void Refinement Assassins, they were filled with despair.

Previously, they had struggled to raise the 10,000 fifth-tier spirit crystals needed to hire the three Nascent Soul stage assassins.

Although the spirit crystals were returned.

No matter how hard they tried to raise the money, even by selling off their businesses across the Qiuye Merchant Alliance, they could only manage to gather a maximum of 20,000 spirit crystals, far from enough to reach 200,000 spirit crystals.

That's a huge sum of money.

If all of these spirit crystals were used to buy high-level breakthrough spirit items, there would be at least a chance to produce two or three Nascent Soul Perfection cultivators, and with good luck, four or five.

Secondly, you can buy about ten top-grade fifth-tier spiritual treasures.

"It's alright if you don't have money. My Shadow Tower has another way to help you get through this crisis."

"For example, all of you, and even your descendants, have signed special Yuanhun contracts with my Shadow Tower. In the future, you will work for my Shadow Tower and obey my Shadow Tower's orders. Moreover, the properties under your command will also belong to my Shadow Tower."

"In that case, although my Shadow Tower cannot arrange for a Void Refinement expert to help you kill the backer of the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance, we can arrange new identities for you and take you to other places."

"I assure you again, no matter how strong the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance's backing is, as long as they don't touch those top-tier Void Refinement forces, they will have a hard time finding your whereabouts, and your lives will be spared."

The old Taoist priest chuckled wickedly.

The cost of this matter was not significant for Shadow Tower.

The Shadow Tower is, after all, a behemoth, and the Clear Cloud Realm is extremely vast, with many hidden smaller realms under the command of various major forces.

Under these circumstances, hiding Qiu Ye and the others would be an easy task.

Moreover, this matter would bring small benefits to Shadow Tower.

After all, although the Qiuye Merchant Alliance is not as strong as the Shadow Tower branch in Immortal City, even a small mosquito is still meat.

Secondly, although the strength of Alliance Leader Qiuye and others is average, it is still considered quite good by some ordinary cultivators.

In addition, there are a large number of them.

If we can take this opportunity to bring them under the command of Shadow Tower, we can use the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance as leverage to enslave them and make a fortune.

Most importantly, if this matter succeeds, the Old Daoist Anliu will also receive a share of the profits, enough for him to make a small fortune.

'Damn it, that person's suggestion... it's utterly ruthless!'

Upon hearing this, Qiu Ye, the leader of the alliance, and the others shuddered.

The old Taoist priest made it sound nice, saying that they would only need to do things for the Shadow Tower in the future.

But how could the work of an assassin organization like Shadow Tower be so easy?
If they agree to that proposal, they will likely suffer worse than death in the future.

They were immediately frightened and quickly said goodbye and left.

'What a pity, I didn't take them in this time.'

Old Daoist Anliu watched the departing figures of Alliance Leader Qiuye and the others with a slight sense of regret.

……

at the same time.

The leader of the Qiuye Alliance and others, who had just left the Shadow Tower branch, were filled with worry.

"Leader, what should we do next?"

The elders of the Autumn Leaf Merchant Alliance, with a hint of reproach, all questioned the Autumn Leaf Alliance Leader.

"What else can be done?"

"Gather all your assets and the alliance's businesses, and offer them to the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance. Let's see if we can exchange money for lives."

The leader of the Autumn Leaf Alliance said with extreme reluctance.

Although this move is tantamount to ruining one's future, it is still much better than waiting to die or becoming a slave to the Shadow Tower.

"Hey."

"If I had known this would happen, I really wouldn't have dared to hire the Shadow Tower to commit the crime."

Upon hearing this, the elders of the Autumn Leaf Merchant Alliance sighed repeatedly, filled with regret.

But it's too late now.

Subsequently, to avoid being attacked by the Lingxiao Business Alliance, they immediately returned to their respective homes to gather all their profits and land deeds for their various properties, and then went together to the Lingxiao Business Alliance headquarters to find the Alliance Leader, "Ling Wantong," who was stationed there.

"Alliance Leader Ling, we were blind to your greatness and offended your alliance. We deeply regret it."

"By the way, Alliance Leader, this is all our wealth, all the properties of our Autumn Leaf Merchant Alliance. We are willing to offer it up with both hands."

"In fact, if Alliance Leader Ling does not mind, we are willing to serve your alliance with utmost loyalty."

"We hope that Alliance Leader Ling can put in a good word for us with your powerful backer and give us a way out."

The Autumn Leaf Alliance Leader and others were extremely humble. They immediately took out all their wealth and were practically kneeling on the ground to kowtow to Ling Wantong.

'It seems that Ancestor Pengyun and the others have indeed resolved the crisis at the Shadow Tower.'

Upon seeing this, Ling Wantong's expression brightened with joy.

He had just received a message from Ling Pengyun and others, which briefly explained how the crisis at the family's temporary residence in Blackstone Valley had been resolved.

At first, he was a little unsure about this, but after witnessing the actions of Alliance Leader Qiuye and others, he felt at ease.

Furthermore, since he couldn't make the decision for the current leader of the Autumn Leaf Alliance and others, he relayed the matter to Ling Pengyun and the others in Black Stone Valley.

...(End of chapter)