Chapter 313 - Confrontation
In the dead of night, the group of blood cultivators approached the sentries stationed by the eastern bridge leading to Capital's Lower East District.
The sentries immediately noticed them, but they were not alerted due to the city guard's armor adorned by the blood cultivators. Despite that, they were still puzzled why these city guards were returning to the city at this hour.
"Good evening, brothers. What brings you here at this ungodly hour?" A sentry guard called out, but as the torchlight slowly revealed their upcoming appearances, the sentry guard froze at the unfamiliar faces. "Who are…"
The sentry guard did not get to finished asking before one of the blood cultivators closed the distance in an instance and drilled his hand through the sentry guard's leather armor and crushed his heart like a piledriver.
"Y-Y-You…"
In a state of shock and disbelief, the sentry guard stuttered with wide eyes while pointing with a trembling hand.
At the same time, the other sentry guard reacted quickly to the situation and turned around to alarm the others.
"Sound the—"
Unfortunately, his words stopped short after another blood cultivator dashed forward and swiped at the two sentry guard's neck with his hand.
Shortly after, their heads slowly rolled to the ground, deader than dead.
"Go for the head. Don't give them a chance to speak, understand?" The person spoke as he wiped his hand clean with a cloth.
"Yes, Sect Master."
The blood cultivator retracted his hand after draining all the blood from the sentry guard and tossed the headless dried corpse to one side like throwing away trash.
At the same time, the rest of the blood cultivators rushed in with subtle steps and began taking out the rest of the nearby sentries, including the one on the sentry towers with large bells.
"Hm?"
The Sect Master hummed after noticing a slight movement in the shadows of the city on the other side of the eastern bridge and spoke, "A rat got away."
"Allow me to finish him off."
"Do it cleanly."
The Sect Master nodded after one of the core disciples quickly volunteered and dashed off in pursuit. Shortly after, the core disciple returned with a dried head.
"This must be one of those shadow guards mentioned by Zagan."
At the mention of Zagan, the Sect Master eyed the said person and snorted with displeasure, before asking, "How's the transplant?"
"Pretty good, but not as good as the real one. Thanks for asking, Uncle Balthazar."
"Hmph! That is what you get for acting on your own! If you were not part of my Denholm family, I would have had you killed for your insolent actions." The Sect Master of the Bloodfiend Sect, Balthazar Denholm, flicked his wrist and proceeded to order a core disciple, "Go call the others over."
"Yes, Sect Master."
After the Bloodfiend Sect gathered, their group of 30 entered the Capital sneakily and climbed onto the rooftops.
"Ignore the others. We head straight for the palace and kill the king first. Others can live, the royal family must die!" Balthazar Denholm spoke.
As they quietly darted across the rooftops and scaled over the upper wall, quickly entering the Upper District and continued straight for the palace, several more shadows shifted in the night.
"There are more rats here. Quickly take them out."
Four core disciples immediately dashed out in the four directions of the escaping shadow guards, pursuing them like chasing shadows.
The rest of the members continued advancing along with their Sect Master until they suddenly discovered something.
"Wait." Balthazar Denholm halted everyone with one hand. After crouching towards the edge of the rooftop and gazing at the buildings ahead, he hummed in thought. "Hmm."
"There seems to be something important about this place for it to be walled off and guarded by palace guards." A core disciple whispered softly with narrowed eyes.
While the Bloodfiend Sect quietly inspected the area, the other four core disciples caught up and rejoined their group.
Suddenly, one of the palace guards below shouted, "Who goes there?!"
The shout caught the Bloodfiend Sect by surprise. They all grabbed the hilt of their swords, ready for battle.
"How did they discover us?" A core disciple said gloomily, but another person quickly said, "It's not us. Look."
…
Shortly after the palace guard shouted, the other palace guards rushed over from their post as they surround the approaching figure with all their weapons drawn.
The figure had an indifferent expression as he walked out of the darkness and into the illuminated area surrounding Lost Isle Alley.
"It's me." The person spoke.
The palace guards all showed surprises after getting a good look at the person before they sheathed their weapons, and respectfully greeted, "Your Highness!"
…
Your Highness?!
In that instance, the members of the Bloodfiend Sect lurking on the rooftops all expressed their surprises. They did not expect the royal prince to deliver himself right to them before they even reached the palace.
At the same time, Zagan gazed at the prince in the distance and felt a stabbing pain in his chest area with unreconciled hatred, causing intense killing intent to surge inside. He failed to suppress it and allowed a trace of killing intent to escape.
There was a slight pause in Leon's steps before he resumed his movements like nothing had happened. After whispering some words to the palace guards, he sent all away on an errand.
"Hahaha, Lady Luck is smiling upon us. This stupid boy actually sent all the palace guards away. Sect Master, we should take this golden chance to kill him while we are still in the dark!" A core disciple whispered excitedly.
Another core disciple did not share the same excitement. With a calm look, he asks, "What are your orders, Sect Master? Shall we kill the prince right here and now, or do we continue to aim for the king first?"
"We need to kill that little bastard. We have already been exposed."
Balthazar had a look of indifference as he already viewed the royal prince as a dead man. The royal prince would not be able to escape his clutches from this distance.
"What? We are already exposed? How?"
Contrary to Balthazar's indifference, the core disciples were surprised by the news. They immediately understood after the Sect Master flashed Zagan Denholm a glance. But then they wrinkled their brows with confusion afterward.
"If we are already exposed, why would that little bastard send away all his palace guards?"
"Maybe his head had been kicked by a donkey?"
"Or maybe he was dropped when he was born?"
Hearing these comments, Balthazar's lips rose into a smile and chuckled coldly, "Hahaha, perhaps! Overconfidence is also a form of stupidity. That little bastard is already at 9-star Ranked Awakener realm. None of you are his match, but he is still an ant to me!"
"What?! That kid is?"
"Isn't this kiddy prince only 17 years old?"
The core disciples were greatly shocked by their sect master's words, while Zagan had disbelief written all over his face.
"Impossible! That little bastard was only at the 9th step two months ago!"
Little bastard? More like a little monster! Weren't his talents a bit too terrifying? These were the thoughts of the core disciples.
…
Leon erected a stone throne from the ground before seating himself. He casually glanced in the general direction of the killing intent he sensed earlier and quickly locked onto the rooftop lurkers with his divine sense.
"Come out! There's no use hiding."
Leon spoke with a commanding tone. At the same time, he was intrigued by his own luck, running into the enemy just after returning from the World Tree.
If he did not sense the faint trace of killing intent, he would not have realized the enemy had snuck into the Capital.
None of these remaining blood cultivators looked like pushovers. The weakest of them was at 5 stars of the Ranked Awakener realm, while the palace guards were between 3-4 stars of the Ranked Awakener realm. They would have died in vain if they stayed.
"Hahaha! Little bastard, you are very arrogant!" Balthazar spoke while jumping down from the rooftop.
"You must be the Sect Master of the Bloodfiend Sect. You are even more arrogant than I am by coming here."
"Hahaha! If I can't even handle a little runt like you, I would have cultivated it in vain! Do you think you can buy enough time for the Transcendent to come save you?" Balthazar spoke with extreme confidence as he instantly saw through Leon's 'plan.'
While it was true that palace guards were sent to alert Grandpa Don and the others, Leon did not place his hopes on their help. He gazed at the Sect Master with a burning battle spirit.
A Preliminary Accession-level Transcendent was different to a Rank 1 Transcendent beast. Human flesh was innately weak. As long as there was an opening, he still had a chance at killing a Transcendent.
"There's no need for Grandpa Don's help. I, alone, am enough to handle all of you!" Leon said domineeringly as he pulled the black spear out from the Worldspace.
"…"
Balthazar narrowed his eyes as he looked at the 'L' shaped spear in Leon's hand with anger, feeling humiliated.
"Ahem, my bad. I grabbed the wrong weapon just now." Leon coughed. He forgot to fix the black spear.
"Is this some sort of joke? You want to deal with me using that broken toy of yours? It seems a little bastard like you do not take me seriously! I ought to teach you that Transcendents are not to be trifled with!"
Balthazar exuded dense killing intent and pressure exerted by Transcendents. He had thoughts of capturing the prince to lure out the king.. But after being angered, he just wants to kill the cheeky runt.