Rivers of the Night

Theron looked at the sword as though he hardly recognized it. With one thought, it could become a blade of steam and mist, embodying water, changing its shape, and adapting to an attack or defense with a push of his intention. With another thought, he could make it as heavy as a boulder falling from the skies.

Its material didn't seem to have changed at all, and yet it felt sharper and more substantial than ever before, making Theron wonder if it could even cut Ironvale's black sword.

Taking a breath, Theron stood to his feet. Taking his father's sheath, he slipped the sword in with a seamless ease.

With this blade… he was certain.

He could kill a Gold Mancer.

There was an indifferent coolness to Theron's eyes as he had this thought, as though it was only natural, as though Gold Mancy wasn't the main goal for practically every cultivator on the continent.

Cultivation itself, though… wasn't ever something that Theron cared for. There was a reason he had only started it around nine or ten months ago.

What he wanted from cultivation was the power it could give him, and the leverage for revenge.

'It's time to go.'

Today, he would be leaving the province.

The rage-fueled voice of the old man had stopped echoing a long time ago. But Theron knew that he wouldn't be able to make it back in time, not with where his target destination was. Even for a man like him, traveling across provinces was a heavy ask.

This would give Theron more than enough time to leave.

Theron popped a Bloomstone into his mouth, and his injuries began to heal in real time as his Mana quickly replenished. He took a step and vanished, his speed sending him forward at a breakneck pace.

Right now, even to the eyes of low-tier Gold Mancers, he would look like nothing more than a blur of crimson, his blood boiling to the point steaming crimson rose from his pores.

[Blood Escape].

**

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"You have some nerve, Mesmeralda!" the old man roared.

"Get over yourself, Andros," a familiar old woman snarled.

"You two, can't we just get alon—?"

BOOM!

The two turned and attacked Patriarch Gian at the same time.

The trio snaked through the air, a three-way battle royale echoing through the skies and collapsing clouds. It looked as though a Tribulation was descending from the clouds above, heart-shuddering and cataclysmic in its momentum.

"Hey, hey. Is there a need for all of this?" Patriarch Gian smiled, but there was a coldness in his eyes that made it clear that he wasn't here to mediate. "I'm here just the same as you all, aren't I?"

"I thought you were my good friend, but you stabbed me in the back," Andros, the old man, growled. "If I don't take your head right here and now, my name isn't Andros Vellanci!"

"Andros Vellanci? Abandoning Cadence of the Crypt, are we?" Mesmeralda sneered.

"If I was acting in the capacity of Cadence of the Crypt, you would both be dead already."

There was a dreariness to the old man's voice that carried countless centuries of killing intent. One could practically hear the souls of his victims rolling off the tongue.

"I think we all know that someone made it quite certain that you wouldn't be able to do that, now didn't he?" Patriarch Gian said calmly. "Don't you think it's pathetic to be manipulated by a little boy like this?"

"Did you, or did you not go behind my back to support another Daggers of the Night branch?" Andros replied coldly.

To this question, Patriarch Gian could only fall into silence. There was no refuting it.

The best sort of scheme was an open scheme—it was the reason none of them could escape this hold.

There was no way that Gian could let Mesmeralda go because she had learned the methods of the Luminescent Moon Sect from Ruu—the very same methods that Theron had taught the Silver Assassin, only for those methods to be tortured out of her on her deathbed.

There was no way that Andros could let Patriarch Gian go because his actions were not only toying with his bottom line by supporting someone he shouldn't, but also because he had no choice in the matter. There was no way either of these two would let him go because his title of Cadence of the Crypt was too looming.

If they let him go now, he would certainly kill them in silence sometime in the future. As such, trying to escape now would only lose him momentum and cost him his life. That was unacceptable.

The only reason Andros had come here in the first place was because Ruu had left too many clues in her actions, making it clear that an assassin was acting. But he was also head of the branch—he knew every mission that came in and out of this place.

So why would there be an assassin in a place he didn't authorize?

He came to investigate, only to end up in this situation.

As for Gian, there was no way he could let Andros go because of the lurking danger of having such a powerful assassin after him. But just the same, how could he let Mesmeralda go when she had the secrets of his Sect?

Plus, Mesmeralda was a far inferior pure assassin to Andros, but she was a rare Space Mancer. He couldn't let her go easily either, or else he'd probably never have the opportunity to catch her again.

Just like this, three powerhouses clashed in the air continuously, trying to decide a victor. All of them knew well that they had been manipulated by a little boy, and yet there was nothing at all that they could do about it.

At best… they could try to quickly kill their enemies here and then find Theron to deal with him in the future.

As for Theron himself… he had returned to the most unexpected of places.

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Merchant Greycoat's estate.