The Shining Star Above The Heaven-Chapter 923: Protection?

On one side of the Orian Continent, inside one of the cities within the Cerdian Kingdom, a man could be seen using his movement technique to run from his pursuers. The man had short brown-reddish hair and a young-looking face with a scar on his cheek. He was wearing a brown robe that covered his entire body and head.

His movement was fast, and sparks of flame appeared from his feet each time he stepped on the ground or when his feet touched something as a foothold.

The man was trying so hard not to get caught, and from his strained expression, it could be seen that he had already been running for a while. His aura at the high marquess stage was vivid enough for anyone to sense.

He ran from one alleyway to another, evading many passersby without crashing into them. The passersby who saw him running from something felt confused, but a few seconds later, they saw his pursuers.

Several figures in black robes moved swiftly after him. Some of them were at the marquess stage, but there were also a few who were even at the duke stage.

Looking at the scene, the passersby wondered what had happened.

The man who kept running gritted his teeth. At this moment, he felt not only tense but also regretful.

'Damn it, to think that I happened to meet their eyes. Truly a bad luck. If only I had not stopped to buy a drink in that tavern,' he thought.

'To think that place was one of the safe houses of the Dark Viper.'

The Dark Viper was one of the underground organizations where people could use their services, such as espionage, assassination, and even searching for a person. They were one of the underground groups that had connections across the continent and many clients.

From commoners to nobles, they accepted tasks from anyone who did not want to dirty their own hands.

The man knew that the ones pursuing him were from the Dark Viper because he knew their style and how they operated. He had escaped from them several times over the past few months.

'Damn you, nobles,' he thought as he kept running, but the pursuers seemed to be getting closer.

He knew that one of their clients was a noble whose descendant had been killed by Zorzal. That was the only thing that made sense for why these people were suddenly pursuing him.

With Zorzal having suddenly disappeared and them being unable to catch him, they must have turned their attention to him or the others in his group.

Since he was being pursued by the Dark Viper, he had lost contact with the others as he had to keep changing locations. He had already thought about escaping to another continent, but then he realized that those nobles and the Dark Viper must have already anticipated it. They would likely already be waiting for him to appear.

'Shit, they almost got me. It looks like I have to fight to the death this time,' he thought. He knew that his tricks of escape would be useless this time because his pursuers would not be fooled again.

He knew that his probability of winning was zero because he was outnumbered and also lacked the strength to face all of them. There were even a few duke stage cultivators among them.

He decided to stop his movement in one of the deserted alleyways and turned his body to look at his pursuers. After a few seconds, several figures finally appeared and stopped not far from him. There were ten of them, with three at the duke stage while the rest were at the marquess stage.

All of them stopped at positions that made his escape impossible. Some were on the rooftops, while the rest blocked both sides of the alleyway.

"Tired? Well, it looks like it's the end of your escape," one of the duke stage cultivators said to him with a slight mocking tone.

The man did not answer. Instead, he thought about how he should fight them in a way that might give him a chance to live.

"Do you think about fighting us? Well, too bad—"

Grab!

"Uwokh!"

Suddenly, before the duke stage cultivator could finish his words, someone grabbed his neck from behind. This made the others look in his direction with stunned expressions.

They were shocked, as a person had suddenly appeared behind the duke stage cultivator without any of them detecting this person at all!

A middle-aged man with a burly figure, wearing tight attire that showed his powerful muscles. He smiled as he lifted the duke stage cultivator easily and—

Crack!

With his grasp, he easily broke the man's neck, killing him instantly. Before the other Dark Viper members could make their move, several figures suddenly appeared as well. All of them attacked those on the rooftops and the ones blocking the other side of the alleyway.

The burly figure did not stop after killing one of them and continued his assault. With a casual punch, he destroyed the skull of another duke stage cultivator, then used an elbow strike to attack the last one. Their heads were entirely deformed and unrecognizable.

As for the other Dark Viper members, they were also easily killed. Everything happened so fast that they could not even react to the presence of these attackers.

The man who witnessed it all was truly speechless. He did not know who these people were or why they suddenly attacked the Dark Viper members. However, whoever they were, if they decided to target him as well, he could only resign himself to his fate.

There was no way he could survive facing these people. The burly man was a pseudo immortal foundation stage cultivator, while the rest of the figures were emperor stage cultivators.

His body tensed as he waited to see whether these people were friends or foes. Sweat rolled down his forehead, and he could only remain wary, even though he knew he could not do anything in this situation.

"Valik, isn't it? Come with me. You had better stay at our place until the situation is safe," the burly man said, which made the man, who was actually Valik stunned.

These guys came to save him?

"You came to save me?" he could not help but ask.

The burly man smiled. "Well, can't you see?" 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Valik frowned. "Who are you? Why did you save me?"

"We are from the Adventurer Guild. As for the reason, let's just say it's something from higher up, so you don't have to worry too much," the burly man answered.

Valik grew even more confused because the situation was truly strange. The higher-ups of the guild had sent someone to help him? What the hell was going on?

As far as he knew, the Adventurer Guild never did something like this, sending people to save their guild members. That was because the status of guild members was not truly tied to the guild, as they came from various backgrounds. Therefore, the higher-ups of the guild had no obligation to save every member if they fell into trouble.

The adventurer status existed only so they could gain benefits as adventurers, such as taking tasks and receiving payment after completing them.

If the higher-ups of the Adventurer Guild were treating a guild member like him this way, then something big must have happened behind the scenes.

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In the capital city of the Martal Empire, Zander had already found accommodation by staying in one of the inns. Evalina also stayed in the same inn and even took the room beside his. Zander did nothing besides cultivating.

Although he did not have an appropriate environment to cultivate, he could still cultivate normally, though it was much slower.

As he continued cultivating, unknown to him, outside the inn there were already several people approaching with ill intent toward him. They did not hide themselves by covering their faces or bodies. Instead, they blended in with the crowd so that no one was suspicious of them.

'Remember, act fast after we go in. The moment you see the target, incapacitate him, take him, and escape. We only have ten minutes at most to leave the city,' one of the men in the group said through voice transmission.

'Yes, my lord,' the others responded, and after that, they began moving toward the inn with the intent to start their mission.

However, as they reached the inn's gate, the figure who acted as their leader finally noticed that some of their members had disappeared.

'Where are Croz, Truel, and Ulric?' he asked.

The others also finally realized that they were missing some members and looked at each other.

The leader sensed that something was wrong and spread his spiritual sense to check their surroundings. He soon discovered another strangeness and looked toward the rooftops of the nearby buildings.

'The team standing by on the nearby rooftops has also disappeared!' he thought.

"Argh!"

Before he could think further, he suddenly heard a yelp from some of his members. When he turned his head, all of his members had disappeared right in front of him!

He did not have time to process what was happening before he suddenly felt his body engulfed in darkness. Before he realized it, he had already appeared in a different place.

He found himself in a deserted alleyway, already being choked by someone. Before he could say anything, a dagger was stabbed straight into his forehead, killing him instantly.