Rivers of the Night - Chapter 698

Capítulo 698: New Insight

“He didn’t take it?”

“No. From what we see, he looked at it and then allowed his attendant to return it.”

“Does he not have it? Or is he simply playing the long game?”

“Does it matter? We just have to kill him either way. I don’t know why you insisted on putting the formula up for exchange. This is extremely dangerous.”

“It doesn’t matter. We already know what is on that piece.”

“Yes, but others don’t know we have it. That piece contains the most critical elements of the formula. Someone clever enough, who also knows the original purpose of the formula, could reverse-engineer it all from just those two.”

“Mm, and what else does it mean that those critical elements are on there?”

“You mean to say that if he or anyone else starts trading for those two items, then we know the truth?”

“Not only that, but don’t we already control over 90% of the supply? What can he do about it even if he knows, other than fall into our palms?”

“I see… I understand.”

“And one more thing. You speak of reverse-engineering the formula as though it’s a simple matter. It is not. Only an alchemist with foresight that reached beyond the Dome of Heaven Realm could ever possibly. And as you know… reaching that realm is impossible with our current cultivation methods. The mistakes we made in progressing to Cloud Mancy are irreversible without this pill formula.

“Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good. For the time being, let us continue to monitor him. He is much harder to deal with than we assumed if he can survive an exchange with Savali. Something tells me that he hasn’t shown all of his cards, and now he’s formed a friendship with the child of the Shonagh.

“The pressure coming toward us from them will be heavy. We cannot afford to overextend ourselves too much. The Merchant King will also certainly be coming to collect a debt very soon.”

Silence fell between the duo as they came to a mutual understanding.

Theron walked through the streets of the bustling city calmly. He didn’t look like someone with a heavy injury on his chest, though he would have to deal with that soon. He had bought a pill with great healing effects, but he preferred to self-heal first through Mana consumption. He might as well save the pill for a more dire situation.

He also didn’t seem like someone who had faced assassination recently. There was a calmness about him as he took everything in.

Maybe it was just his luck. He had only just stepped into this city for barely over a day, and he seemed to have embroiled himself in something quite wild. His Merchant Guild test was still in two days, and he wasn’t even sure if it was smart to go anymore.

‘Let’s not deviate from the original plan. We’ll join the Merchant Guild for now, but…’

Theron wanted to find where the Assassin’s Guild was, but it was proving more difficult than how it had been in Sadie’s world. He only needed to set foot in a city for a few hours to find its Assassin’s Guild back then. But he had already been here for over a day and had still not found anything.

‘Formations.’

It seemed that this was going to be the crux of it all. In that case, there was only one way to fix things.

Theron entered his room in the King Inn after giving the receptionist a pleasant smile. He ignored Chen’s spatial ring for the same reasons as before, then turned his attention to the three most basic books on formations.

‘How did you recognize these at first?’ Theron asked the Nightingale Ancestor Bird. After all, it was it that told him to trade for them in the first place.

‘There’s a very special soul aura connecting the books. I have a natural feeling for it as a spirit being. I don’t have a physical form, so I am more sensitive to such things.’

‘So you don’t have any personal knowledge about the Angel Doctrine? How did you know it was the Angel Doctrine of Formations here specifically?’

‘It is only a guess on my part based on previous knowledge. I can feel that all Mana responds to the Doctrine in equal parts, which is not normal. Usually, Doctrines have a very sharp leaning toward Soul Mancy, and some rare ones might lean toward Spirit Mancy. Those that mimic elements have a very hollow, fake feel to them. The best kinds of mimicking elements have a very wild and untamed feel to them.But everything about this Doctrine was smooth and controlled, as though it was commanding the Heavens themselves. Even if it isn’t the Angel Doctrine, it is something on the same level or superior.’

Theron slowly nodded, his eyes glowing. This was added context he didn’t have before, and it shifted some of the thoughts in his mind. The perspective of someone so wizened was invaluable.

He flipped the books open.

If there was a connection resonating between them all, then it was no wonder he didn’t perfectly understand it yet. He was trying to comprehend them one at a time, when this wasn’t what he was meant to do.

Theron’s gaze sharpened and he suddenly ripped out a page.

The eyes of the Nightingale Ancestor Bird widened, an ache ripping at its chest. But it couldn’t say anything. It was already too late, and Theron was still ripping.

Theron tossed paper into the air, his Dark Mana catching them. He didn’t give them another glance, continuing to rip and throw in a continuous series of motions.

But it was odd. Sometimes he would rip pages in sequence, but sometimes he would randomly flip to the middle or the end of one of the books, seemingly having little rhyme or reason to his actions.

But after three whole hours, he had broken down the books until they had nothing more than their covers left, the air floating with a continuous series of thick sheets of paper.

Then Theron slapped a palm onto the covers.