Chapter 166: Assassination

After being taught a lesson by Su Chen, Golden Blaze felt put out — even though he was arrogant, he wasn’t an idiot, and so he didn’t continue to try and provoke Su Chen anymore.

After dinner, Lily took the children into a room with a lit bonfire to tell them stories, while the men continued to talk with each other.

This time, they were discussing what Craftsmen loved the most: the subject of crafting and creating.

Mair was a puppet master, well-known even throughout all of Sky Country. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to settle down in the high-status area of the city.

Su Chen hadn’t researched puppets very much, but after obtaining the consciousness crystal, his ability to remember things and perform calculations had greatly increased. Learning about puppets and their construction methods wouldn’t have been very difficult, but he had never really placed much attention to that subject.

This time, however, he had the Divine Armaments Workshop’s blueprints, which made Su Chen much more interested in puppet construction methods. As soon as this topic of conversation came up, all of his hesitation disappeared.

“So Darkness Prison Metal is considered one of the best construction materials not just because of its powerful defensive properties, but also because of its malleability? Damn, I thought that these sturdy-type metals were incredibly difficult to work with.”

“They are under normal circumstances, but that’s only if your methods involve Origin Energy. The Intelligent Races rely too much on these methods and often ignore other processes that can achieve similar effects, sometimes perhaps with even greater efficiency. The Allocation Forger was developed by my Master. Even though it revolves around some small tools forged out of special metal, it is incredibly effective when used in conjunction with Darkness Prison Metal.”

“Is that the three-segmented attachment with a big hole on top of it?”

“No, it’s the awkward-looking irregular polyhedron. If you look at it closely, you will feel an irresistible desire to smooth it over.”

“Oh, I remember that. I was wondering who had created such an odd object when I robbed the Divine Armaments Workshop, and what use it had…… Now I realize that I probably should have taken it with me,” Su Chen said with some regret.

Su Chen wasn’t an official Craftsman, so it wasn’t until this moment that he realized what he had missed during his plundering.

He had grabbed the blueprints, but he had forgotten to take the equipment required to produce the titan-class puppets. Even though he was still capable of producing these puppets, it was obviously going to be more difficult without the equipment. Furthermore, based on what Mair was saying, it appeared that the amount of work would be substantially more at that.

After learning all this, he regretted not taking everything in the Divine Armaments Workshop away with him. This was quite a blow to his reputation of taking everything in sight. Su Chen had concluded that being unlearned was indeed a problem. Next time, he would be sure to study what he was robbing much more carefully.

Mair and his wife were also stunned by Su Chen’s willingness to learn.

Su Chen didn’t make things hard for Mair by forcing him to steal the equipment of the Divine Armaments Workshop or anything like that. Instead, all Su Chen did was continue to discuss puppet construction related techniques with him.

Mair was a good person to choose as a teacher, and it was rare for him to meet someone so eager to learn from him. Even though he logically knew that he shouldn’t say too much to this enemy of the Harpies, his longing to impart his knowledge was impossible to suppress.

Both parties were mutually interested, so they burned most of the night away discussing this topic passionately. And Su Chen was actually the first person to call it a night, forcing Mair to go to bed somewhat unwillingly.

At this point, Golden Blaze was having a hard time keeping his eyes open.

“Are you really planning on living like this forever?” Golden Blaze asked helplessly.

“Isn’t this quite a good life?” Su Chen responded with a chuckle. “The Craftsmen have a fairly high status in Sky Country. It’s very unlikely that the Harpies will force their way in here.”

“And what about later?”

“Later? Let’s take it one step at a time. I haven’t been able to think of anything long term yet,” Su Chen replied somewhat irresponsibly.

Golden Blaze was about to go insane from Su Chen’s nonchalant attitude. “Do you think that you haven’t caused enough trouble yet? First, you robbed the Mother Goddess Sect, then the high-class region, and finally the Divine Armaments Workshop. What else do you want to do? Assassinate a high-status Harpy?”

He had only mentioned this casually to make a point, but unexpectedly, Su Chen’s eyes lit up. “Assassination…… Hm, why haven’t I thought of that? I’ve robbed so many places that it’s about time I tried to assassinate someone. Very nice, very nice. I like that idea a lot.”

What did I just do? Golden Blaze was stunned.

At Skycatching Jail.

Divine Feather Weave walked out from the main gate, let out a long sigh, and massaged his arms, which were sore from all the writing that he had been doing earlier.

“Sir, are we going to return now?” asked a Harpy soldier as he stepped forward.

“Yes, let’s. We’ve been working hard for the past three days. I’m about to keel over,” Divine Feather Weave replied.

The battle with the Desolate Beast had just ended, so there were still many things to take care of. With Halcyon Wing Streak still around and stirring up so much trouble, Sky City’s officials had no hope of resting. Divine Feather Weave was responsible for the internal security of the city, so there was an exceptional amount of pressure on him. It had been three days since he had even gone home.

Thankfully, the matter had been mostly taken care of by now. With the exhaustion taking its toll, Divine Feather Weave wanted nothing more than to go home.

He stepped on the carriage, which drove off toward his home.

Divine Feather Weave sat in the carriage, quietly reading some books.

“You seem like you’re in a good mood today, sir,” said the soldier driving the carriage.

“I’m doing alright. We’ve been working very hard for these past few days, but we’ve finally got a clue just the other day,” Divine Feather Weave replied somewhat carelessly.

“Oh? Is this related to that Halcyon Wing Streak?”

“Mhm,” Divine Feather Weave murmured.

“Can you talk about it?” asked the soldier driving the car.

Divine Feather Weave was highly amused by the driver’s presumptuous question. “When did you become so curious about these things? Well, it’s not exactly a secret anyways.”

There wasn’t much of a need to keep any information secret during this time period, and so Divine Feather Weave calmly said, “I think that this Halcyon Wing Streak is highly likely to be the human Su Chen.”

“Su Chen?”

“Yes. Though you wouldn’t know his name, this guy has an incredible reputation amongst the humans, to the point where they even call him a Worldly Sage. He and his instructor were able to improve the human cultivation system a number of times. Now, humans are able to reach the Light Shaking Realm without a bloodline, which has vastly increased the strength of the human race as a whole.”

“So it’s him. Is there a reason why you suspect that he’s the one who’s infiltrated our country?”

“Because this guy has already done something like this in the past,” Divine Feather Weave explained harshly. “He was the one who used an illusion technique to wreak havoc in Ravager territory. There, he manipulated the Beasts into attacking the Ravagers, causing a devastating calamity.”

After explaining Su Chen’s deeds, Divine Feather Weave paused for a moment before saying, “Halcyon Wing Streak can move around as he pleases in Sky City not just because he has an incredible spatial teleportation skill, but also because of his exquisite mastery of illusion techniques.”

“But there are quite a few humans who are highly skilled in illusion techniques.”

“It’s true that there are quite a few of them. But to fully understand the significance I’ll need to first explain what happened two years ago.”

“Two years ago?”

“Yes. Two years ago, something strange happened in the Chaos Tower. A Harpy somehow snuck into the control center of the Chaos Tower without being detected at all, and he used that opportunity to steal many of the secrets related to the Chaos Tower. We searched far and wide, but this Harpy who called himself River Sun had somehow managed to disappear into thin air. This mysterious Harpy had the following characteristics. First, his illusion skills were quite high, and it is probably impossible for anyone to see through him without the aid of True Light. Second, he also must have been skilled in spatial techniques; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to bypass the tower’s defenses so easy. Third, the Zhu Clan’s arrival also took place on the same day. But fourth of all, and most importantly, Chaos Tower’s control mechanism has nothing to do with resources or cultivation as it is instead a feat of engineering. However, these profundities it contains wouldn’t interest most Origin Qi Scholars. Only a human like Su Chen, who has the capacity to develop a cultivation system that removes the need for a bloodline, would have such a thirst for knowledge. From this, we can basically confirm that Su Chen, River Sun, and this fake Halcyon Wing Streak, are all probably the same person. And furthermore, based on the deceitfulness of his actions, his greed, and his ruthlessness, it appears quite apparent that all of the clues point in his direction.”

“So that’s how it is. Sir, you are truly wise,” the soldier praised as he sighed in admiration. “Have you notified anyone else about your suspicions yet?”

“Not yet. His Majesty is as pragmatic as always. Right now, this is only a guess of mine that I haven’t confirmed yet though I have already secretly informed those on the front lines to send me information about Su Chen to confirm my suspicions. But I don’t believe that I’m wrong. Haha, now that we know what his bottom line is, things will be much easier to take care of.”

“Yes, things will become much more difficult once his bottom line is figured out,” the driver said in response.

Divine Feather Weave was stunned. “What did you say? Why would it be difficult?”

“What I mean is…… Harpies are truly Harpies. You guys are much harder to deal with than the Ravagers. Eternal Night alone is already quite the tough nut to crack. It’s only fitting that his officials are also no pushovers.”

When he heard this, Divine Feather Weave instantly went on high alert.

He instinctively unfurled his wings, and shot out of the carriage.

However, the soldier driving the carriage kept his head lowered and ignored him, instead chuckling coldly.

Divine Feather Weave knew that the situation wasn’t good and flapped his wings hard, flying as fast and as far away as he could.

He was above Sky City at the moment, and the city’s merchant district was right next to him.

Divine Feather Weave shot towards the merchant district. He knew that the sooner he reached a place that was crowded, the sooner he would be safe.

The carriage driver didn’t chase after him and only watched on as he laughed coldly.

Divine Feather Weave was delighted. He believed that this brat’s arrogance had given him an opportunity to survive.

But he had only been flying for a little when he realized that there was actually nothing but clouds below him. Where was the merchant district?

This…… What had just happened?

Had he somehow managed to fly out of Sky City’s range in such a short time period?

Impossible!

Sky City was under very strict lockdown, with each entrance and exit under close supervision. How was it possible for him to leave without even knowing it?

Something was wrong!

Just the fact that he was flying at top speed should have made quite a commotion. Why hadn’t the nearby Harpy soldiers noticed anything wrong at all?

Could it be…...

A sudden ray of understanding dawned. As he looked around himself, he found that his surroundings suddenly began to appear more and more ethereal.

“Do you finally understand now? You came to your senses quite quickly. Unfortunately, it’s too late……” a low voice sounded in his ear.

Pu!

Divine Feather Weave felt his body tremble.

He lowered his head, only to find a massive, gaping hole in the middle of his chest.

And Divine Feather Weave hadn’t even been able to feel the attack strike him.

“Fata…… Morgana……” Divine Feather Weave choked out with great difficulty.

“You do know quite a bit about me.”

As Su Chen spoke, Divine Feather Weave’s surroundings suddenly shifted. He found that he was still sitting in the carriage. When had he ever escaped from the carriage?

“You can already…… project in…… reality……” Divine Feather Weave muttered with great difficulty as his life faded away. “Spirit…… Burning……”

“Not yet, but soon,” Su Chen replied.

He withdrew his hand. Divine Feather Weave’s head tilted to the side as he slumped onto the ground, lifeless.