Strongest Among the Heavens-Chapter 531: Planning For The Future

Xavier’s question took a while to be asked. "What do you plan to do about the drunk at the abandoned shop?"

Dasha had his eyes closed. It was time to rest. He lay on the bed, ankles crossed. "Bennet? What of him?"

"As you ordered, we have a Whisper coming in every other night to give drinks. However, he no longer seems to have any information of value to give. He does not write anymore, he only drinks. Unless you speak to him—"

Dasha replied swiftly, "Continue to give him drinks. He won’t drop out of the Numbered yet."

Bennet, former Number 4 under Spectre 4 of the Sapphire Order.

"He is Number 44 now," Xavier said cautiously. "You gifted him an item but without the System, Dasha Pang, it is often not physical ability but the mental state of a warrior that can push them toward greatness or failure."

"There is a certain someone I will have to kill someday," Dasha said. "It will be best if Bennet is around for that."

Planning to kill. Planning to get stronger. All of them were possibilities he had to consider. He, the Great Sin, who to someone like Xavier lived to only kill and grow stronger.

"If you say so."

"Hm." Dasha ran a hand through his hair. The middle-part was a mess. He fiddled with the pristine strands of hair. "Time passes fast. My hair has gotten longer."

"I’ve heard rumours that Cultivators age faster than ordinary men."

"Is that right? Regardless, I’ll need someone to cut my hair."

"I will ask the Handyman to visit as soon as you set up those portals."

"He’s a barber?"

"He does anything and everything in the area of trades. Don’t underestimate him."

"I won’t."

Dasha adjusted himself and fell asleep. Six hours of rest, he calculated, after having avoided his around-the-clock thirty minute power naps. After that, he planned to leave the mansion and go back to the walled portion of the Underground. It would be quite a journey.

***

Dasha made it.

He was back at the Sea Scribe, this time with the intention of creating a portal in the backroom to link together the Great Castle to here. As always, it was a long arduous journey where he levelled up twice more. Since he didn’t have to carry the minds of two of his best, he purposely picked out fights and tested his limits.

After drinking potions and filtering any other wound with Internal Healing, he entered the Sea Scribe at a fifty percent state. Low on Qi, bleeding in some spots, and dressed in black to blend in. Sigurd’s white invisibility cloak was stored in his inventory. Often in the underground, he wore black over everything to cover his expensive, high-quality equipment.

However, today, he pushed himself too far and like against the Scylla, it caused the fabric to malfunction. It needed to be repaired again.

Upon pushing the entrance to the Sea Scribe on the seventh floor, his Qi Sense narrowed. The Sea Scribe was for buying fish and eating. Customers were normal and detecting them meant nothing. Even customers with weapons, that was nothing special in the Underground. Carrying weapons was very common.

It was the intention that was different. They noticed Dasha Pang before he entered.

’Seven of them, all tracking me.’

He took the first step inside. Savario waved over, oblivious.

The seven customers attacked.

His feet buzzed black. His Golden Pellet revved up. His Seven-league Boots responded. Time slowed. He grabbed the heads of the first two rushing in, having calculated their trajectory well in advance, and slammed their skulls together. He didn’t kill them even though he very easily could have with Thunderclap Palm.

He hurled the bodies over to the one male customer charging at his north. Their path disturbed, Dasha was able to slip past him. Three of the customers decided to stay back to throw their knives. Long-range insurance. Dasha disrupted their poorly made plan and knocked them with jabs to the stomach.

They didn’t crash into tables. They simply dropped.

Dasha did not need to peer over his shoulder to see the last two customers were converging at him. Their knives were lathered in mucky, unstable anti-magic. Dasha could feel it with his Qi Sense. He threw the first customer over his shoulder and grabbed the second by the wrist and slammed him onto the front counter.

"W-woah!"

Savario took a step back. The ordinary restaurant owner only saw blurs and the outcome.

"Professor—!" Savario called out.

"I have this handled. Run to the back," Dasha instructed and Savario did just that. "As for you..."

The last remaining customer growled and Dasha knocked his head down. Pinned by the wrist and skull on the front counter, there was nothing the attacker could do.

"Those eyes. You want revenge."

"You killed my brother—"

Dasha released him. Going from his skull gripped and feeling like mush, the customer stumbled to recover. He turned and swung a fist. His eyes went wide when Dasha caught him by the throat. "Excellent instincts."

One hand lifted him up. One hand became lit in red and started carving into his neck. The attacker screamed. The attacker cursed him.

"I know who you are," Dasha said. "You’re the older brother of Niccolo, the Italian knife seller. I saved his life and sponsored his stall."

"Y-youuuu! Chshhhkkk!"

Red ink continued to crawl up the customer’s neck.

"Coerced him? That’s true."

The Runs were complete and burned to his throat.

"Now then, tell me how you found me. These Runes will force you to tell the truth."

Something new he picked up after a lesson with Grace. Temporary, highly specified Runes to touch but not change a man’s soul. Grace gave half a dozen lessons and he absorbed every single one of them.

Except, unfortunately, he gargled and died.

"Hm. An overload of mana, perhaps? My Qi’s quality is too thick." He dropped the customer. "An adjustment for the next one."

Hands behind him, he candidly walked up to the groaning man he threw over his shoulder, sharply kicked him up in the air, and caught him by the throat. He tried again, burning his throat with Rune symbols.

"Ah, there. Now, tell me how you found me."

"W-we...ngggh! We were hired by him!"

"Oh. The one I killed?"

"Yes! The rest of us are apart of a thief guild! W-we—gah! The best in our guild tracked you down somewhere and a-after that, it was a matter of detective work! Asking around! O-only one guy mentioned a man in a white mask s-so we stayed here and waited!"

A witness. Hm, but who? Dasha looked over his shoulder at the cowering Savario. He wouldn’t rat him out, he believed Dasha was a good man. Dasha could read his lips and mutters as he hid in the back area. He thought he was being attacked and that the Professor was saving him from getting robbed. A logical assumption for someone in the Underground.

’This was what I was afraid of. I still do not have the skills to match up to the centuries of history and talent here.’

His eyes met the fearing thief.

"You mentioned a thief guild. Tell me about it."

"W-we...gnngh! We operate on the other side of the Sukhothai! W-we don’t come here often because of Old Rocco! Our leaders have an agreement!"

"Ohh, I see, I see. But you made an exception for this why?"

"Because Old Rocco has grown weak!"

"And the tides are changing. You people were one on the track, you were merely too slow." Dasha nodded. "What is the name of your guild?"

"T-the Auctioneers!"

The Auctioneers...

"I’ve heard of you. This is most excellent. I can enslave you all and use your skills for my bidding."

The thief went wide-eyed and suddenly, he realized the mistake the guild made for overstepping their boundaries.