597 Deception

"Report." A disciple suddenly appeared right in front of a certain cultivation room. This certain room looked more guarded than the other rooms. There were a few similar rooms like this and all of them had a disciple reporting before them.

"What happened?" The disciples, who guarded the room, furrowed their eyebrows and asked. They were pretty displeased because they were interrupted, but didn't quickly push this guy away. The dangerous situation didn't allow them, so they asked, "What is your report? We need this to be done as fast as possible."

"We need to inform Lady Chloe." The guy panted while looking at the two people in front of him. He paused a few seconds to catch his breath, but those people were so impatient. 

"What? Just spit it already!"

"We need to inform Lady Chloe… Lady Chloe that we have spotted the mysterious masked people." The disciples finally said his pieces with great difficulty. 

"What did you say?!" As the closest guards of Chloe, they knew exactly what happened in this situation. The appearance of masked people would surely bring chaos upon this place. The guards exchanged looks with each other before nodding their heads at the same time. "We need to wake Lady Chloe up."

"No need to do that." Before they even turned around, a soft female's voice resounded from behind the door. The stone gate slowly opened as Chloe walked outside. "I have heard it. What do you mean by the information?"

"We have found the masked people in the woods. It would seem they decided not to participate in this place and just left." The disciple reported.

Chloe furrowed her eyebrows, thinking about something. "Did they do anything? Tell me in detail."

"They didn't do anything. I witnessed their appearance myself. They showed up inside the forest, saw this place for a few seconds, and left." 

"Hmm? They didn't do anything? Maybe they are setting up something?" Chloe muttered to herself, with a volume high enough for the disciple to hear. 

"I believed they didn't do anything." The disciple shook his head. 

"Oi. Are you saying Lady Chloe wrong?" The guard narrowed his eyes and released killing intent. 

"No, no. I believed such a case because I saw them heavily injured."

"Heavily Injured!" Chloe opened her mouth in surprise before asking, "Give me the report of their appearance."

"I only saw two people. The first one was a male with golden hair. His clothes were tattered with blood smeared everywhere. He couldn't even stand up and needed to rely on the second person. The second person was a female with long black hair tied into a ponytail. She had the same condition as him… might be a bit better." The disciple reported hurriedly.

Chloe kept muttering for a few minutes like how Alex predicted her would be. The long wait led the other young leaders to meet with each other before going toward her group.

"What are you talking about?" Ganga narrowed her eyes at Chloe, who was busy muttering something. "Why don't you share your thoughts with us?"

"That's right. We also need some answers to this situation." Mio nodded. Mitras simply stared at her, demanding the same thing, but he didn't let out a single sound.

Their words distracted Chloe's train of thought and snapped her back into reality. She looked at the trio while narrowing her eyes. "You guys…"

Although she wanted to be angry, she couldn't because they would surely participate in her plan. She thought for a moment and said. "There is nothing we can do. They might be attacked if they come here, so they escape."

"According to the report, there were only two of them left and they were heavily injured. This will be the perfect chance if you want to strike them." Mio said, inciting the heart from other young leaders. She was planning to murder with a borrowed knife, just to avenge the Black Devil Sect. It somehow became her obligation after the cooperation.

Unfortunately, Chloe stopped anyone from thinking into something that 'stupid' or at least she didn't want them to ruin her own plan. She said with a serious expression. "Rather than attacking them, it's better to stay here and cultivate."

"That's true. It's better to cultivate." Mitras nodded as he thought it was better to be safe than sorry. After all, Alex's matter was against the Black Devil Sect, considering his people were fine. Ganga also agreed with Chloe's plan. 

Mio pondered for a moment before gritting her teeth. She had no choice other than to agree here. Besides, she reached the peak state a day ago, so she said, "Alright. I also agree. I am going to have my tribulation soon… maybe a few hours anyway. After I become a Martial Monarch, the realm will send me off."

She thought that by leaving this realm first, she could inform her family about this matter beforehand.

After coming to a conclusion, all of them went back to their own cultivation room.

"Riel." Chloe narrowed her eyes, calling her trusted subordinate.

The one who called Riel turned out to be one of her guards. He appeared beside her, clasped his hands, and bowed to her respectfully. "Do you have any task for me, milady?"

"I have one job for you and I want you to do it secretly," Chloe said with a chilling tone. It would be bad if other people knew about it, so she warned him before even giving her order.

"I am happy to serve milady. Please order me." Riel kneeled on one knee. "I won't say anything and will keep the mission as a secret with all my strength." 

"Good." Chloe nodded, thought for a moment and said. "I want you to bring five disciples to track upon those two masked people."

"Does milady want to kill them?" Riel's expression turned grim. 

"No. I don't want to be killed. Instead, I want them to be alive." Chloe smiled brightly, but it still held the chilling aura. It looked like this mission was very important to her. 

"I live to obey."

"I want you to help them until they are recovered. However, keep your identity as a secret for the time being. I want to make them feel indebted to you… before the debt is going to me and my Martial Arts Pavilion."

"Young Lady wants to recruit them?" Riel knew how her brain worked, so he somehow realized her intention. 

"Yeah. Unfortunately, we can't let the other influences know this since they might be suspecting us and the Black Devil Sect won't swallow this matter. Since they kill those people with their masks, I can just ask them to take off their masks and live like normal people. The noticeable one would be their hair, but it is easily solvable by hair-dye." Chloe smirked, picturing how she could acquire the power that could bring benefit to her Martial Pavilion.

"By making them feel indebted, it will be easier to recruit them. I see… Milady is really a genius." Riel praised her.

"Enough about me. Go now before they are too far." Chloe waved her hand, telling her to proceed with the mission.

Looking at Riel's back, Chloe's grim expression turned into a happy one. She thought that as long as she could acquire this mysterious group, it would surely benefit the Martial Arts Pavilion.

She made this a secret at first because she had another thought in her mind. In case they were found out by the Black Devil Sect, and it wasn't worth it to protect them, she could simply brush the matter off. 

She could just say, we don't know they were the masked people and they had sneaked inside the pavilion. Although it might have some impact on their influence's reputation, it was at the level where it could be ignored.

However, if they turned out to be useful individuals, they would gain greatly. She thought, 'Is this what it means by striking when someone is low?' 

Chloe let out a hollow laugh while walking back into her cultivation room.

Unbeknownst to her, a disciple of Martial Pavilion Sect was looking at her mysteriously. If one took a look at his eyes carefully, they would notice that his eyes were a bit sharper than normal humans.

This person was Narman, and he somehow managed to listen to their conversation with his long pointed ears that had been disguised as normal human ears.

He stared for a moment before informing Alex through the system. 

Outside the forest, a bit further to the north, Alex and Anna leaned on a big tree, knowing that their plan was successful.

Narman calling him was proof that his plan succeeded. However, when he asked Narman, he suddenly got a response different than his expectation. "Narman, it's a success, right?"

"Yeah. The plan is a success and the five influences decide to not create a ruckus and act like nothing happened."

"Good." Alex nodded happily. 

"There is actually one more matter that I need to bring to your presence."

"What is it?" Alex asked while frowning. A problem at a time like this would surely come from one of the young leaders. 

And as expected, when Narman informed him about Chloe's plan, Alex let out a long sigh. He said, "Alright. Knowing it is enough for me. They won't be able to catch us with my Teleportation Array. As for the time we need to leave the realm, I will come out as 'one' of them." 

"Understood. Good luck to you, Young Master." Narman nodded.

The card fell into silence, so Alex tossed it back into the Inventory. Anna looked at him with a worried expression. "What are we going to do with this? Should we attack the Martial Arts Pavilion?"

"No. We will let them be. I don't want to have other trouble than we already have." Alex sighed. "Though we have two options now and I don't know which one is better. First, we can still use this appearance and leave this realm before hiding. The second option would be changing into a fresh appearance and come inside their rank." 

"For the first option, are we still going to leave this place together with the other rogue cultivators?" Anna asked.

"No. I am sure they have already anticipated it. Although they won't touch us because the ruckus we and Nelson made, they would still put us under surveillance. If we come to an inn or dark alley and teleport, they might suspect us using the teleportation array. Whether they think it's my Space Element or an array plate, I don't want to see that from happening." Alex shook his head helplessly.

"If it were me, I would choose the former. We and Nelson have caused a big ruckus by saying we are a hidden influence on this continent. Knowing that they never know such an influence, it's easy to think we are inside a Special Realm, and one of us might also have a Space Element. After all, we 'have' been nurturing ourselves for a few thousand years." Anna narrowed her eyes. 

"Yeah. That's why I'm going to leave as quickly as possible. Seeing how powerful the Cultivation Place is, they would certainly want to stay as long as possible. That way, no one would be able to stop us unless they station disciples around the gate." Alex nodded. 

"And I doubt their leader would be there," Anna added with a smile. 

"Yeah. Normal disciples wouldn't dare to stop us easily, especially when they are forced to guard for the past few days against us. As long as we escape quickly and naturally, the elders outside the array won't realize we are from the hidden influence. The most they could think is to ask their junior about this and at that time, they are already too late." Alex smiled evilly.

"I see. The first option and the second option… seeing how we have been discussing the first option, let's go with the first option." Anna chose the decision since Alex couldn't decide.

"Alright. We will go with the first option." Alex nodded.