Chapter 82: Ghastly Shadow Translator: KurazyTolanzuraytor Editor: Lucas In a vast courtyard, an old man stood at a side, his face gloomy. “Grandfather, what’s wrong?” A white-clothed youth walked out of his room. The old man frowned as he slowly said, “That Duan Ling Tian seems to be related to the Alchemist Guild’s Guild Master, Su Mo...” “How could that be possible? He’s a Branch Family disciple and a disciple with another surname at that; how could he strike a relationship with the Alchemist Guild?” Li Qing shook his head continuously, unwilling to believe it. “For some unknown reason, in these last few days, Su Mo would go look for Duan Ling Tian at noon every day.” Li Tai was slightly fearful for a brief moment. Although he was the Li Clan’s Grand Elder, in front of Su Mo, he was nothing. Not mentioning that Su Mo’s strength was above his, solely based on Su Mo’s identity as a Grade Eight Alchemist, if Su Mo wanted to deal with him, he wouldn’t even need to do it himself; only a single word from Su Mo would cause a group of people to come for his life, just to kill him as a favor to Su Mo. This was precisely the influence of a Grade Eight Alchemist. “Grandfather, could it be that the enmity for my crippled finger will just be let go like this? I’m not resigned!” Li Qing’s expression was gloomy and his breathing became hurried. “Qing, you can be at ease; Grandfather will definitely help you take revenge... Now, since Su Mo and Duan Ling Tian are related, I cannot get involved directly, so I will have to ask someone else to deal with him.” Li Tai’s face emitted a cold smile. “Grandfather, what do you mean?” Li Qing was puzzled. “Money makes the world go around.” Li Tai’s brows furrowed. “Grandfather, you mean we should hire Ghastly Shadow?” Li Qing’s eyes shone. Ghastly Shadow, the top organization of assassins in the Crimson Sky Kingdom. They rose like a hurricane twenty year ago and swept through the kingdom. As long as Ghastly Shadow accepted the assignment, the rate of success was 100%. Of course, this was closely linked to the rules of Ghastly Shadow. If one wanted to post an assignment in Ghastly Shadow, a deposit must be paid and the target identified. Three day later, one needed to reconfirm with Ghastly Shadow to see if Ghastly Shadow was willing to accept this assignment. If they were unwilling, the deposit would be refunded. If they were willing, the balance fee must be paid. Ghastly Shadow only accepted assignments that they were confident about. As far as Li Qing was concerned, Ghastly Shadow was an organization with such formidable assassins that killing Duan Ling Tian would be a piece of cake. Deep in the night, in the Li Clan Estate, a robust figure flashed out. Before long, the figure arrived at a secluded old building in Aurora City and walked in. The hall was very vast and had dim lighting. Behind the counter, a young man with a slightly pale face sat there. When he noticed movement, he raised his head and looked with an icy cold gaze at the figure who arrived. “I want to post an assignment: Li Clan, Duan Ling Tian! This is the deposit.” The figure was straightforward. He withdrew a stack of silver and slapped it on the counter, then turned around and left. “Li Clan, Duan Ling Tian.” The young man registered. Dawn. When the first light of morning illuminated the earth, Duan Ling Tian walked out of his room and stretched. It was a new day! “Huh?” Duan Ling Tian looked forward only to notice two young girls happily chatting in the courtyard. “Little Fei, you’re here so early. Did you miss me?” Duan Ling Tian’s eyes narrowed, greedily sizing up the hot, devilish body of the young girl... Li Fei glared at Duan Ling Tian and angrily said, “I didn’t come to look for you, I came for little sister Ke Er.” Duan Ling Tian made nothing of it. As he ate his breakfast, he pricked up his ears to overhear what the two young girls were chatting about. In the end, he realized that the two young girls were chatting about interesting stories from their childhood. After he finished his breakfast, Duan Ling Tian went out alone and left the Li Clan Estate. Su Mo had brought him good news yesterday. Out of the five rare materials that the Blood Crescent Inscription required, two would arrive in Aurora City within the next two days. As such, he started to prepare the other materials. Inscribing the Blood Crescent Inscription required a total of eleven materials. Six of them were comparatively ordinary. Arriving at the large trade market of Aurora City, Duan Ling Tian entered the medicine store he sold the Six Treasures Body Tempering Liquid at. Out of the six materials, three were ordinary medicinal materials. “Manager!” Duan Ling Tian greeted the manager as soon as he entered. Before long, under Duan Ling Tian’s puzzled gaze, the manager brought him into a small room in the medicine store. “Manager, what is it?” Duan Ling Tian inquired. “Someone wants your life.” The manager gazed fixedly at Duan Ling Tian as he said this in a straightforward manner. “Huh?” 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞 Duan Ling Tian’s pupils constricted. At this moment, Duan Ling Tian even had a misconception that the manager’s disposition had changed. If the past manager was only a completely sordid merchant, then the current manager vaguely emitted a sense of unfathomableness. It looked like his suspicions from earlier were correct, this medicine store manager was definitely not simple. “The Li Clan’s Grand Elder, Li Tai, posted an assignment in Ghastly Shadow last night. The target is you,” the manager bluntly said. Ghastly Shadow? Duan Ling Tian’s pupils constricted. He had heard of this assassin organization that was famous throughout Crimson Sky Kingdom. “You’re from Ghastly Shadow?” Duan Ling Tian abruptly laughed. “Yes, in the daytime, I’m the manager of this medicine store, but at night, I’m the person in charge of Ghastly Shadow in Aurora City.” The manager slowly nodded. “Manager, doing thing like this, I bet it’s against the rules of Ghastly Shadow, right?” Duan Ling Tian’s gaze slightly twitched. “Rules are dead, but people are living. I don’t wish for my business partner to be killed because of some people. That would mean losing my road to riches for no reason.” The manager was extremely frank. As far as he was concerned, the little amount of silver that Li Tai paid for the assassination wasn’t even enough to be considered spare change compared to the profit he gained from Duan Ling Tian’s Six Treasures Body Tempering Liquid. He naturally knew how to choose between the two. “Then what you mean now is, you’re refusing his assignment?” Duan Ling Tian asked. “Of course.” The manager nodded. “If I post an assignment targeting Li Tai now, would Ghastly Shadow accept?” Duan Ling Tian asked again. “Of course. Ghastly Shadow only recognizes money... But the Li Clan’s Grand Elder’s price is extremely expensive,” the manager answered. “How much?” “1,000,000 silver!” “So expensive?!” “Of course. Li Tai is the Grand Elder of the Li Clan after all, an existence at the eighth level of the Origin Core Stage... If you really want to post this assignment, since we are business partners, I can give you a 20% discount.” “20% discount? Even then it would be 800,000. You Ghastly Shadow people are really greedy.” “You can owe a debt without interest, and it would be deducted from the profit of the Six Treasures Body Tempering Liquid.” “Forget it. 800,000 silver, I’d loath to part with it... I’ll just do it myself.” “You?” “What, doubting me?” “Slightly.” “How about this, I don’t need Ghastly Shadow to kill him, but help me with a small matter...” After getting the agreement of the manager and buying the medicinal materials he required, Duan Ling Tian left the medicine store satisfied. 800,000 silver... To kill Li Tai. To Duan Ling Tian, it was really not worth it. But Li Tai had actually posted an assignment to kill him. Duan Ling Tian’s eyes flashed with a trace of coldness. After buying the remaining materials, he returned home. At noon today, Su Mo didn’t come. Duan Ling Tian had already taught him everything he could teach. The remainder was something he could only rely on himself to comprehend. Three days later, deep in the night, in the point of operations of Ghastly Shadow in Aurora City. Li Tai looked at the young man behind the counter as he asked, “How’s the confirmation of the assignment I posted three days ago? For killing a first level Core Formation martial artist, 100,000 silver should be enough, right?” “100,000 silver? Customer, are you joking?” The pale-faced young man’s eyes flickered with a cold light that would cause chills to run down people’s spines. “What?” Li Tai’s heart jerked and he had a bad premonition. “According to the information our Ghastly Shadow collected, this Duan Ling Tian is the first ranked youth genius in Aurora City’s Hidden Dragon List for this year... Just this point alone would require a fee of at least 300,000 silver.” The young man slowly said. “300,000 silver? OK.” Li Tai grit his teeth. Although it pained him, he still agreed. “Customer, I haven’t finished.” The young man frowned. “What else do you have to say?” Li Tai questioned. The young man continued, “We also discovered that Duan Ling Tian is close to the Alchemist Guild’s Guild Master, Su Mo... Su Mo is a member of the Alchemist Guild, and killing someone close to him is very risky for us. Thus, combining the above facts, the price for this Duan Ling Tian’s head is 1,000,000 silver.” “1,000,000 silver?” Li Tai was stupefied. Even though he guessed the assignment wouldn’t be possible when the young man mentioned Su Mo, he didn’t expect that Ghastly Shadow would set the price at 1,000,000 silver for Duan Ling Tian’s head. Not to mention he didn’t have so much silver on him, even if he had brought out that much, he wouldn’t be willing to spend it. A mere first level Core Formation kid, even if his strength was bizarre, he was only comparable to a third level Core Formation martial artist. To him, killing such a kid was as simple as cutting grass. The young man looked at Li Tai as he asked, “Customer, may I ask if you still want to post this assignment?” “No, return the deposit to me.” Li Tai hurriedly shook his head. What a joke! 1,000,000 silver... This amount of money was enough to even post an assignment in Ghastly Shadow to kill an Origin Core martial artist. After Li Tai left. A middle-aged man slowly walked out from an inner chamber. “Manager.” The young man hurriedly bowed to the middle-aged man. If Duan Ling Tian was here, he would surely be able to recognize with a glance that this middle-aged man was precisely the medicine store manager. “I’m curious though, how will he kill this Li Tai...” the middle-aged man thought in his heart. The corners of his mouth had a trace of a smile. Li Clan Estate. “Grandfather, how is it?” Li Qing hurriedly asked as soon as he noticed that Li Tai had returned. He knew what Li Tai had gone out to do, so he was waiting all along for the result. “I canceled the assignment.” Li Tai shook his head. “Huh?” Li Qing was dumbstruck. “Grandfather, why?” “Humph! That Ghastly Shadow actually asked for 1,000,000 silver.” Li Tai’s expression sank. “What?! Killing a mere Core Formation kid for 1,000,000 silver? Are they conducting daylight robbery?” Li Qing had an expression of disbelief. “They discovered the relationship between Duan Ling Tian and Su Mo, so they were slightly afraid and thus asked for such a high price... Qing, don’t worry, even though Ghastly Shadow won’t accept this assignment, Grandfather will still not allow that Duan Ling Tian to continue living.” Li Tai looked at Li Qing as he guaranteed this. “Thank you, Grandfather,” Li Qing said excitedly. If Duan Ling Tian didn’t die, he couldn’t eat nor sleep in peace.