The Devil's Cage

Garcia saw 'Lude' walk out, his eyes showing a grudge he didn't bother to hide.

Since the last time Garcia had failed to capture 'Lude' and the team of meticulously trained elites were wiped out by 'Palreynold', although Professor Duyer did not overly criticize him, Garcia's position in Duyer's lab plummeted.

Due to the plummeted status, his name was not listed on the expedition to the Mystic State that Professor Duyer led himself. This had never happened before.

After he got the news, Garcia was in utterly stupefied. He knew what it represented: he will be forever moved away from the core and the authority of Duyer's lab.

It was an unacceptable fact for Garcia.

His plans for the future was to inherit Duyer's lab and the professor had hinted that to him more than once. It was because of that hope that Garcia gave up on the school and devoted himself to the lab.

And yet this had happened.

Give up and run?

Impossible! The school would not accept traitors!

Move forward?

He would have to redeem himself from the mistake: retrieve Index of Eat!

With the Index of Eat, he could reclaim his position in the lab.

Therefore, despite being heavily injured, Garcia never gave up on the hunt for Lude and Palreynold.

His hard work paid off eventually.

Garcia got news: a store front in an alley of E Block was the secret hideout for Sil Sect.

He sent men to verify the news multiple times and once it was verified, Garcia had the store under his sight.

He knew Lude or Palreynold would surely show up.

Regardless of who showed up, he would get to his target eventually but Garcia hoped Lude would show up, not just because Lude was directly related to Index of Eat, but also because when compared to the stronger Palreynold, Lude should be weaker.

It wasn't a wild guess though, it was the result of some careful analysis based on the news Garcia had accumulated.

Whether when it was Lude in disguise or after he was exposed by the First Seat, Lude had always habitually hid behind the scenes and provided his schemes. Records of Lude in battle were only a few or next to none.

Despite someone suggesting that Lude may be hiding his strength, after some serious thought, Garcia discarded the possibility.

Putting himself in someone else's shoe, Garcia didn't think a powerhouse would stay back and allow Derton to die in that desperate situation.

Starting off from that point, Garcia assumed the dead Derton must have a higher rank than Lude in Sil Inner Sect and should be the same rank as Palreynold.

It also made sense as to why Lude joined Derton's lab and followed Derton instead of the other way around.

Of course, for the sake of safety, Garcia utilized all the power that he could gather in his research lab and even spent a fortune to hire some men.

And then, Lude showed up, just as expected.

Without further thought, Garcia moved out with his men and locked his target down at the store by heavily surrounding it.

Garcia curled his lips when Lude walked out of the store front.

"It seems that my luck hasn't run out. At first I was worried that if Palreynold came out of that door, my men might not able to take him down but if it's you, I guess it's an easy catch."

Garcia took a deep breath and tried to speak as calmly as possible but his trembling voice betrayed how excited Garcia was.

How could he not be excited?

One would only understand how precious something was after losing it, like love and power, and both were an intoxicating poison. Once touched, it would never go away.

"It seems like I am looked down upon."

Bloody Mary shrugged and glanced over the people who surrounded the storefront.

There were quite a number of people but what about their strength?

Some was too miserable to even look at.

After the High Demon ascended to Superior Demon, its strength had underwent drastic changes. In addition to its status of "Hetero-form", as long as the attack inflicted couldn't erase it from existence, it was nearly invincible.

Bloody Mary knew it very well, hence the delight on its face.

However, its boss quickly flashed over its mind. The stronger it was, the most its boss would exploit its abilities.

Resist?

Stop joking, it still wanted to exist.

It knew how ruthless its boss was and once someone was deemed hostile, despair would loom among the enemies.

There would not be ground to turn around and there would not be a buffer.

Any kind of ground to turn around and buffer was a smokescreen from its boss in order to prepare for a stronger attack.

Therefore, Bloody Mary would never want to be opposite its boss.

Huu!

Bloody Mary heaved a heavy breath.

The delight that came from its heart vanished into nothing instantly, what replaced the delight was a faint sorrow.

When the faint sorrow spread across its mind, Bloody Mary gave up its original plan to 'play' with Garcia. It decided to end it quickly and go back for the sunrise and sunbath, which would calm its soul better.

It raised its right hand and snapped its finger.

Pak!

After the snap, the men who surrounded the store entered a blank state, their ferocious hostility gone. Some even started to bleed through their nostrils, short of breath or even out of breath altogether.

[Illusion]!

After Bloody Mary reached the rank of Superior Demon, its powers followed also. Bloody Mary's [Illusion] had a Spirit authentication no lesser than SSS rank and Intuition authentication no lesser than I rank. Although it would grow weaker with the increasing targets, the number of targets before its eyes were still within range.

Pak Pak Pak.

One after another, the men fell down like dominoes, Garcia included.

As a matter of fact, Garcia was among the first to fall.

The excited young man put up zero resistance against Bloody Mary's [Illusion] and he shut his eyes once and for all.

As for Garcia's men?

Bloody Mary had no intention to spare them.

There was already a witness, so the men served no purpose at all.

After searching for some loot, the Superior Demon looked at the blank store owner.

"Take what you need, tell Ude what happened here, and find a place to hide. If you can, leave Theorate for now," Bloody Mary said.

"Yes sir!" The store owner bowed in reverence.

Power was the easiest way to earn respect and the effect would double in front of a pile of dead bodies.

When the store owner looked up, Bloody Mary was long gone. He was slightly stunned but when he saw the scattered bodies in front of his store, the spy from Sil Sect knew what to do.

He quickly went back to his store and told Ude what had just happened through the hidden communicator. Then he grabbed the necessities before entering the secret passageway.

After the store owner left the place, Senile and Leonard arrived at the scene with a group of guards.

They had just came back from their rest and when the first thing that greeted them was a bunch of dead bodies, their faces quickly turned ugly.

Somehow, after the freshmen started school, both of them saw more dead bodies than ever.

"Damn it!" Senile mumbled but he wasn't slow. He squatted down and checked the bodies one by one. By tacit agreement, Leonard ordered the group of guards to seal off the scene and brought two more in to the store.

10 minutes later, Senile and Leonard met up in front of the store.

"No visible external wounds, seems like they died of some mental impact. The store is clean and nothing was left behind. We found a secret passageway but it was locked in the end. I ordered the men to start digging, so give them some time. It's just that I don't think we will find anything useful at the end of the passageway."

After a brief conversation, Senile and Leonard noticed the troubled expressions on each other's faces.

"You go contact Professor Tyrese. I'll continue looking. Let's hope that I can find something useful here," Senile told his colleague before he searched around the store again.

Leonard wasn't surprised since he knew his colleague's habit, but after Leonard turned away, Senile's eyes shone with hesitance and gradually became firm.

…

E-15 Mystic State.

A group of Mystic State 'newbies' was experiencing the surprising factor of hunter.

An 'eleboar' the size of an actual elephant was hit by an arrow infused with a strange energy and collapsed to the ground. Duyer lowered his bow and guided the 'newbies' on how to skin it and cut its meat kindly. Although some made mistakes, it was considered a good first attempt.

However, a clumsy fella accidentally sliced an 'eleboar's' front leg tendon.

The front leg tendon was the most delicious part of an 'eleboar'.

Regardless of whether it was steamed or braised, it would leave a memorable taste.

Duyer frowned. After two more similar mistakes in the following procedure, Duyer lost his patience. He called his assistant over.

"Kick him out of my group," Duyer said.

The assistant nodded and took note of the student.

The one named by the professor looked pale right away but the others around him turned a blind eye because they were used to it.

People made mistakes, even Duyer himself. Therefore he gave the students three chances as room for their mistakes. Any mistakes done within the three strikes were forgivable but after that, Duyer would kick the person out without mercy.

"Professor, Garcia…"

After taking down the name, the assistant looked at Duyer but the words wouldn't come out from his mouth properly.

"You are afraid that I will kick him out of the lab?" Duyer looked at his assistant.

The assistant did not answer but his look said it all.

Duyer slightly shook his head. His principales would not change, not even for Garcia, who he thought very highly of.

Fortunately, Garcia only made one mistake, and in order to lessen the chances of Garcia causing another mistake, Duyer did not put his name on the list in the expedition.

Duyer knew Garcia very well. Garcia may look steady and bold on the outside but he wasn't as calm as people claimed he was. How would a young man grow without going through rough times?

How would Duyer pass his lab to Garcia if he couldn't correct his mistakes?

"Don't worry, Garcia won't let me down."

However, the moment those words subsided, the high frequency communicator that Duyer brought rung.

Despite being modified to a higher frequency, making a call in the Mystic State was impossible. The best the communicator could do was send text messages.

When Duyer saw the words on his communicator, that calm and kind face of his sank to the bottom of the sea.

GaChak!

The communicator was crushed with his bare hands and thrown to the ground.

The assistant made out some words on the screen, which wasn't completely broken.

Garcia died while hunting down Lude…

The assistant's face turned pale when he saw the words.

…

Ude, the overseer of Sil Sect, had a black mantle over him and squatted down in the bushes like a nightingale.

He was looking at the bright mansion further away.

The mansion belonged to a direct descendant of Ryde Family.

The descendant managed a part of Ryde Family's business. A ball was being held in the mansion tonight, the collaborators invited to celebrate the success of their work and partake in the discussion of the next phase of the collaboration.

The atmosphere was exceptionally merry and joyful.

Even in Ude's position, he could hear the joyful laughter and chatting through the night breeze.

But soon, it would become cries of agony.

When Ude saw the few decent members of Sil Sect silently approach the mansion, he curled his lips into a grin.

Since he had his target in mind, he will not change it.

Or rather, he had no options left since this was his only chance.

Buzz!

A hidden communicator that he kept in his pocket buzzed.

Despite being in an operation, Ude took out the communicator because only one person would contact him through this secret channel.

The store owner in Theorate!

The only reason the store owner contacted him through this secret channel was because of Sil Inner Sect!

Words appeared on the screen.

Borrowing the light from the moon, Ude captured all the words in his sight.

His heart immediately skipped a beat and his body trembled.

Has a grudge with Ryde Family.

Was annihilated once.

Illusory power with area of effect.

When all the messages were combined together, a name appeared in Ude's mind.

Arnold Sect! Only Arnold Sect fit all the requirements!

It also explained why Sil Inner Sect was being so careful and why the normal Sil Sect used items to compensate for their lack of core secret techniques!

Before the preparation was complete, Sil Inner Sect couldn't afford to expose their secrets to their enemy.

'I see! Sil is just a cover name, my true identity is a member of Arnold Sect! The Rydes? You will perish tonight!'

Ude had completely accepted his new identity and was deep in character. Once he thought about Ryde Family setting up Arnold Sect to destroy their core power and plunder their hard-earned wealth, a grudge from the bones appeared in his mind.

The grudge grew deeper when he realized he hadn't mastered the true core techniques of his sect in his age.

Almost instantaneously, Ude jumped out from the bushes and sprinted towards the mansion.

Moments later, a blazing fire rose to the sky.