Rivers of the Night

Chapter 740: Three

Theron met the female assassin’s gaze, his eyes calm. The latter seemed to take a moment to look at Alpha. As for Theron, he was scanning her reaction to see if there was anything she recognized about Alpha.

As far as Theron could tell, the female assassin’s scope of the world was probably far larger than the Umbra Clan. If she didn’t recognize anything, it was all the more important for Theron to get Alpha more real experience in doing things.

Of course, the female assassin was also quite good at hiding her real intentions. She wasn’t the sort of woman he could casually be sure in his reading of. But he at least had a baseline understanding of her that made it somewhat easier.

’Good,’ Theron said.

"The Merchant King," the female assassin suddenly said.

Theron’s eyes narrowed. Was that so?

He had sent the female assassin to check on who was restricting the flow of Twin Seed Poppy. But this wasn’t the response he expected.

"But from what I can tell, he is only a periphery party. His palms are being greased, so he is acting in favor of some others. However, he isn’t entirely unrelated either..."

The female assassin went into a long, complicated, winding tale. But the more she spoke, the more comfortable Theron was with leaving tasks to her. She was thorough. He had only given her one lead, but she had learned so much in a single go.

How very interesting.

"Ultimately, I cannot confirm with 100% certainty. But from what it looks like, there were six active parties back then. The inheritance was divided during their battle. The Nightingales fell not long after. The Umbra had already been rising at the time, and they gained a strong portion of it for themselves to take that final step. Then there was the assassin’s guild, led by a person who was likely the close friend of Kenshaw Drake. Kenshaw Drake himself. Finally, there was the Shonagh and the Mercenary Guild’s branch."

Kenshaw Drake. That was a name that Theron had never heard before until the female assassin mentioned it. But this was none other than the name of the nameless cultivator.

Back then, when the inheritance appeared, six parties were involved. Well, there were far more than six parties, but it could be said that these were the only six to have key roles to play.

The Nightingales ended up with nothing, but they were important because what the Umbra Clan did earn is what resulted in the final nail in their coffin.

Kenshaw Drake and a man the female assassin only knew as Blen were close friends. Blen was from a region outside of this galaxy, who the female assassin posited to be from an extremely powerful Clan.

But travel between galaxies in this day and age was extremely difficult—something that even Quasi Kings couldn’t do. According to the female assassin, the King Realm was the lowest requirement, and yet even they only had a 30% survival rate.

That was to say, the female assassin posited that Blen was from an extremely powerful Clan but had somehow gotten stuck here. Stranded, he ended up befriending Kenshaw Drake through unknown means. The ultimate result was actually their falling out. Kenshaw ended up with a large portion of the inheritance, leaving Blen with little to nothing.

Finally, there were the Shonagh Clan and the Mercenary Guild. This story was the least interesting—or the most, depending on your perspective.

This all occurred in the Shonagh Clan’s territory, so it wasn’t a surprise that the Shonagh were among the few to get a real portion of the inheritance for themselves—a portion that was now in Theron’s hands.

What made this interesting was the fact the Mercenary Guild should have never acted at all.

It was the female assassin’s guess that the Merchant King had once been a part of the Mercenary Guild. Now, on the surface, he was technically excommunicated, but he was still very much alive and well.

Clearly, whatever the Mercenary Guild gained out of all of this was good enough to risk their reputation of neutrality.

The final assessment the female assassin made was that the Merchant King and Blen—the latter of whom had gone on to form the assassin’s guild—were working together, one in the light and the other in the dark, to restrict Twin Seed Poppy.

Theron’s gaze couldn’t help but flicker.

The female assassin was quite sharp. She didn’t know that he had stumbled into an assassin’s organization while trying to take a Mercenary Guild test. But she had managed to find the conclusion to all of this all on her own with a single lead.

But this also managed to confirm some of Theron’s own thoughts, and he knew exactly who his enemies were now.

As of now, everything should be accounted for.

The Angel and Demon Doctrines.

The pill formula.

The Primordial Earth.

The Entanglement Inheritance.

There were six parties. The Nightingales ended up with nothing. The Shonagh got the piece of Primordial Earth. The Entanglement Inheritance landed in Kenshaw’s hands, including a large segment of the pill formula.

Then the question was... who ended up with the Angel and Demon Doctrines? And who had the last piece of the pill formula?

The answer to the latter was almost certainly Blen. But the answer to the former wasn’t nearly as clear.

The reason for that was simple. If they wanted to lure Theron out, they only needed one—either the Doctrines or the pill formula. The fact they put out both made less sense.

Why do that? Now Theron had all four pieces of the inheritance and no need to share it with anyone else.

This meant that the Angel and Demon Doctrine was a different play, likely by a party that didn’t know the dynamics of everyone else.

Since Blen and the Merchant King were working together, it was unlikely that the Doctrine came from either the assassin’s guild or the Mercenary Guild...

Or was it?

The female assassin had said something very curious.

She specifically mentioned "branch" when she mentioned the Mercenary Guild.

In addition, Blen should already know to target Theron, and if he was in cahoots with the Mercenary Guild, why would they send Theron to another section of the galaxy to take a test, pulling him out of Blen’s range of influence?

What was the point of testing him if what they wanted was his death and the items on him?

’Branch...’ Theron’s eyes glowed with a fierce light. ’Ilzan said very clearly that Matriarch Macie was taken away by the Mercenary Guild. Why do I feel like this is related?’

The Nightingales. They were the sixth party and they ended up with nothing.

Did they really end up with nothing?

Wasn’t it the Nightingale Ancestor who pointed out the Angel and Demon Doctrine to Theron in the first place? If not for it, Theron wouldn’t have had the knowledge to notice the oddity in the first place.

Suddenly, one piece after another began to slide into place.

It seemed that he didn’t have just one enemy in the Mercenary Guild. He had at least two.

No... he had three.