Chapter 92: The Ghost’s Miscalculation

He was a Ghost.

That was what Noctis preferred to call himself. He was an elite Mana cultivator who had mastered the rare Soul element, boasting an extraordinary SSS+ grade property known as Mirroring.

Not only had he successfully managed to completely mask his true presence and aura from Salma Al Mansari, who was widely acknowledged as the most talented heir of the world-famous Al Mansari family, but he had also skillfully deceived her into believing that he was nothing more than a loyal, obedient subordinate within her ranks.

With this singular achievement alone, his ranking among the notorious Ten Thousand Ghosts would undoubtedly rise by a few tens of positions.

Now, just imagine the massive rewards and prestige that would follow if he actually succeeded in dragging the Al Mansari bloodline straight back to the Middle World, even if the strict elders of the family outwardly rejected her existence.

Noctis could hardly contain the dark, greedy excitement bubbling up inside his chest.

The Ten Thousand Ghosts were an infamous, dark-dwelling gang that exclusively took on impossible missions.

They cared very little about the moral nature or the bloody aftermath of the assignment; the sole requirement was that the task had to be deemed completely impossible for the masses.

When Lord Dorian learned that the person who had slain his daughter was the daughter of the Al Mansari heiress, he had immediately halted every single action planned against her.

The powerful Seven Palaces simply did not dare to openly mess with anyone carrying the bloodline of the Al Mansari family, even if the individual in question was technically an outcast of the household.

Yet, that political reality did not mean Lord Dorian was willing to quietly swallow his burning anger and forget about absolute revenge. Instead, he had secretly posted the bounty on the hidden Ghost forum, hoping against hope that someone from the elite Ten Thousand Ghosts gang would notice the lucrative offer.

And he had been remarkably lucky to attract Noctis, who was a newly joined member of the gang and still ranked at the lower tier of the Elite realm.

The primary reason Noctis had willingly selected this mission was because it deceptively sounded much simpler and more straightforward than any of the other suicidal tasks available on the board.

The objective was simply to kidnap a young girl and submit her directly to the client. The only real difficulty or impossibility tied to the assignment was her mother’s terrifying background, but the cutthroats of the Ten Thousand Ghosts gang had never cared about anyone’s background.

For the most part, the mission had been completely ignored by every veteran member of the organization because it offered no special challenge, and nearly everyone else in the gang was far beyond the Elite realm to bother descending down into the dirty mortal worlds. But Noctis was a fresh recruit eager to prove his worth.

Completing such a high-profile task would greatly accelerate his promotion and status within the internal hierarchy of the gang. That was why he had chosen it. However, he had never in his wildest dreams expected that the actual value and experience he would gain from this operation would turn out to be so monumental.

The little girl was not just some ordinary reject of the Al Mansari lineage. If her monstrous cultivation talent and unique shadow properties were ever leaked to the public, even the grand Royal Families scattered across the stars would wage a bloody war just to claim her.

Because of that staggering realization, Noctis had completely abandoned his original intention of handing her over to Lord Dorian. Instead, he wanted the girl entirely for himself.

Noctis rubbed his pale palms together, a wicked, anticipatory smile stretching across his face as he led Summer forward through the dark, swirling expanse of the ancient spatial gateway.

The journey through the inter-dimensional corridor was turbulent, filled with howling spiritual winds and shimmering spatial fractures, but Noctis easily shielded them both with his advanced soul energy. Within a short span of time, the oppressive pressure of the lower frontier began to fade away, replaced by the dense, suffocatingly rich spiritual concentration of the Middle World.

The dark tunnel dissolved, and they stepped out onto a cold, metallic platform overlooking a vast, sprawling landscape of floating islands, towering jade spires, and swirling nebula clouds in the sky above.

Summer stepped out of the gateway, her small boots landing softly on the obsidian floor. Her crimson eyes scanned the unfamiliar, terrifyingly majestic horizon with cold detachment. The air here was heavy with a kind of oppressive spiritual pressure that would have crushed an ordinary mortal to dust within seconds, but her constitution easily shrugged it off.

She turned her head slightly, looking around the empty platform as a deep sense of unease finally began to prick at her dead heart.

Where was her mother?

Andro had promised to bring her straight to the Middle World to find Salma, claiming her mother was hunting Lord cores in these very sectors. But the platform was completely silent, surrounded only by floating debris and distant, rumbling thunder.

"Where is my mom?" Summer asked, her voice cutting sharply through the biting wind as she turned her piercing ruby gaze toward her guide.

Hearing her question, Noctis slowly stopped rubbing his palms. The polite, subservient posture he had maintained during their travel suddenly began to warp and shift. His shoulders shook slightly before a strange, distorted sound broke from his throat.

His expression morphed into something profoundly weird and twisted, the corners of his mouth pulling back into a wide, mocking grin that reached his eyes. And then, Noctis threw his head back and burst into loud, unrestrained laughter.

"Hahaha..."

Together with his maniacal laugh, a pressure so vast and suffocating suddenly appeared from all directions around the platform. The intense, crushing weight of an Elite cultivator’s soul energy flooded the surrounding air, seeking to pin her down instantly.

Summer stepped back a bit, her crimson eyes narrowing in extreme irritation as tiny droplets of his spit sprayed into the air while he laughed so hysterically.

"Aww, disgusting..." Summer wiped her face fiercely with the back of her golden gauntlet, staring at Noctis in pure anger and revulsion. "You ugly fart."

"Ugly what?" Noctis choked mid-laugh, his hysterical giggles stumbling as he stared down at the tiny girl in absolute disbelief.

"FART," Summer repeated, her small voice ringing out clearly across the cold obsidian platform. "You need to close your mouth right now. It is smelling like a dirty fart."

"You..." Noctis gritted his teeth, his pale face darkening in immediate humiliation as the majestic, terrifying aura he had built up completely dissolved under her casual insults.

"And you are a big liar," Summer continued sharply, pointing her gloved finger right at his face without a single shred of fear. "You are a cheater. Take me to my mother right now."

"Haha! Do you still not understand the situation, you stupid little brat?" Noctis sneered, recovering his wicked grin as he spread his arms wide. "I am kidnapping you!"

"Bah," Summer snorted, crossing her arms tightly over her chest as she glared up at him. "I reject your kidnapping."

"What?" Noctis blinked, his eyes twitching in complete bewilderment at her insane response. "You cannot reject a kidnapping! That is not how an abduction works!"

"No one can tell me what to do," Summer stated proudly, her chin tilting up in stubborn defiance. "So I reject you!"

Summer shouted the words with such absolute certainty that Noctis was left entirely speechless for several long seconds, staring at her as if she had lost her mind.