Chapter 203: Blood Guild

‘What should I do?! Oh god, what should I do…?’ The old man thought, his entire frame trembling violently as he groveled on the dusty ground.

Seeing his pathetic, sniveling state, Kelly narrowed her eyes into cold, unforgiving slits:

”Hey! Are you completely stupid?! When a blacksmith attempts to forge a weapon or a suit of high-tier combat armor utilizing such structurally compromised spirit stones, the resulting material utterly fails to withstand the extreme internal pressures of high-tier combat or a sudden, violent surge of an Awakened’s energy.” She lectured sharply, her voice ringing clear across the clearing:

”Under the intense thermal stress of clashing blades or a massive, rapid influx of spiritual energy, the micro-fractures and trapped spiritual impurities inside these defective stones trigger an instant, catastrophic energy backfire! The pent-up, chaotic energy shatters the stone from the inside out, causing the forged gear to explode mid-combat! Do you want me to spell out the rest of the lethal consequences for you?!”

”No—no need! I understand completely,” he choked out, forcing himself to check his rising panic. He forced his trembling hand to reach back toward his dropped briefcase.

”My own unbridled greed led me straight into this mess… If you can spare my life and help clear my name of these criminal liabilities, I will gladly hand over the complete deeds to all my remaining mines.” He babbled, pulling out a secondary set of corporate portfolios before slowly pushing himself back up to his wobbly feet.

”Do not mistake our actions for charity—we aren’t helping you out of the goodness of our hearts; we are merely ruthlessly repossessing the immense capital you squandered away,” Kelly stated firmly, pointing the tip of her obsidian pen directly at his chest.

”I understand… Thank you.” The old man whispered. Taking the pen with shaking fingers, he frantically scrawled his legal signature across the final transfer lines. ℯℯ𝑙.

Even though every fiber of his being screamed in protest at losing his empire, he had a family to protect, and he completely lacked the financial or political muscle to survive fraud charges. Shifting the insurmountable problem onto the unshakeable shoulders of the Aetheldawn family was objectively his only surviving lifeline.

Kelly retrieved the legal documents and the pen, her sharp eyes scanning every single micro-clause to ensure absolute watertight legality before adding her own signature and passing the file over to Juliana.

”There you have it. We certainly aren’t the villains here… In a roundabout way, we are actually saving you from a prison sentence,” Kelly noted lightly, clapping her hands together with a crisp sound:

”It was a genuine pleasure conducting business with you, Director Brook.”

”Y-Yes… Likewise.” The old man nodded mechanically, wiping the sweat from his brow.

VOOM!!

”….?!”

Everyone at the gate snapped their heads toward the main highway as a convoy of five aggressive, modified off-road vehicles came barreling down the unpaved access road, screeching to a halt a short distance away from the gates.

”What is the meaning of this? Why are they here?!” The old director’s face instantly drained of all remaining color, turning a ghastly, translucent pale as he watched a dozen dangerous-looking figures step out of the vehicles, all uniform in striking red leather jackets and matching trousers.

”It’s the Blood Guild…” He stammered, his teeth visibly chattering.

Viper slowly lifted her chin, her eyes locking onto the approaching group: ‘Nine S-Rank, and one SS-Rank leader. All of them belong to the Assassin class… Strangely enough, I can’t sense any distinct elemental signatures coming off them. But… why does the name “Blood Guild” sound so vaguely familiar in my mind?’ She thought, narrowing her eyes.

”Mr. Brook! You look like you’ve just stared straight into the face of a ghost!” a tall, slender man with a sneering grin stepped to the forefront of the thugs, casually striding toward them. Wrapped tightly around his thick neck was a vivid, coiled red Cobra tattoo that seemed to pulse under the sunlight.

”Vice Guild Leader Cobra… what brings your people all the way out to the northern perimeter?” The old director stammered quickly, plastering a desperate, flattering smile across his face to mask his sheer terror.

”Pardon me, but exactly who or what is this ‘Blood Guild’?” Juliana asked, tilting her head with a raised eyebrow.

”It’s not surprising you haven’t heard of them before, Madam,” the director whispered frantically, leaning in close.

“The Blood Guild operates exclusively out of the lawless Third District, occasionally creeping into the Second to collect debts. They have never once dared to step foot into the affluent First District… Primarily because they are all vicious, wanted contract killers, and the Awakened Association has had an active bounty squad hunting them down for years.”

”If they’re nothing more than low-level thugs, how on earth did a businessman like you get entangled with people of their caliber?” Kelly asked coolly, crossing her arms.

”I’m just a small-scale manager, and my primary spirit mines only yield low-grade energy yields roughly comparable to D-Rank and C-Rank Evolution Stones… I needed someone ruthless to provide external security and ‘protect’ my business operations from rival businesses.” The director confessed miserably.

”That’s right, old man! We are here today to collect our standard monthly protection fee.” Cobra announced loudly, a vicious smirk plastered across his face as he rudely pointed a finger directly at the director’s nose.

”What?! But I already wired your extortion payment in full earlier this week!”

”Not from you.” Cobra laughed harshly, his dark eyes shifting past the director to lock greedily onto the three stunning women standing behind him. “We are here for the new owner of these lucrative mines. As for you, old timer? You’re officially useless to us now.”

”I truly hate to interrupt your little monologue, but we have zero interest in playing games with street-level trash, so do yourselves a favor and get lost,” Juliana stated coldly, a dense, oppressive wave of killing intent leaking naturally from her frame.

”Hehehe! Oh, how wonderfully fiery… I honestly adore the stubborn ones,” Cobra chuckled, his tongue darting across his lips like a reptile. “Don’t worry—after I break their spirits, they’ll naturally learn how to submit beneath me.”

Behind him, the nine S-Rank assassins echoed his amusement with low, sickening chuckles.

Kelly’s expression darkened into a grimace. Objectively speaking, their current small group wasn’t directly combat-optimized for a raw skirmish against ten high-tier assassins—though with the iron knights present, true danger was non-existent.

”The Blood Guild… I finally remember where I heard that pathetic name before.”

”….?!”

All ten members of the Blood Guild snapped their attention toward the cloaked female figure who stepped forward, placing herself squarely between the thugs and the three madams.

”Last time, I gave your little ‘Snake Boss’ a thorough, unforgettable beating… It looks like I simply didn’t crack enough of your bones the first time around,” Viper said with a chilling, bloodthirsty smirk as her personal spiritual aura exploded outward, violently sweeping across the entire expanse of the mine compound.

”An SSS-RANK?! You actually concealed your true power tier the entire time?!” Cobra yelled, stepping back in sudden, unadulterated shock. But the moment Viper gracefully reached up and pulled back her dark shadow-hood, revealing her sharp, lethal features, both he and his entire vanguard froze in absolute, bone-chilling terror.

”VIPER?!!!”

The entire group screamed out in collective horror, their faces draining of all color.

Viper cracked her knuckles casually, her eyes glowing with dark amusement: “I suppose I’ll just have to drill it back into your empty, hollow skulls once and for all… A true Viper is infinitely more lethal than a blind, slithering cobra.”

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