Chapter 606: Ghost is the Dark Lord I

(Couple of hours earlier)

Mutrad, who Tanulia met at Peyton's funeral, descended onto a front lawn of a lavish manor in Kingdom Maeryn's border. The manor was a single property built on ten acres of grass field and vineyard. No one in the area as far as one could see. Despite Mutrad's status in House Halrid, he arrived at the manor alone with no guards whatsoever. The guardians offered Mutrad the manor as a base of operation where Halrid would take on the task of finding the Dark Lord.

From the outside, the manor looked lavish. It had been built with gray stones and had mahogany wooden decorations. Tall, rounded windows let in plenty of light and added to the house in a very asymmetric way. The building itself was square-shaped with half surrounded by cloth sunscreens. The second floor was the same size as the first, but part of it hung over the edge of the floor below, creating an overhang on one side and a balcony on the other. This floor had roughly the same style as the floor below.

The roof was high, rounded, and covered with wood shingles. Two small chimneys sit at the side of the house. A few large windows let in just enough light to the rooms below the roof. Mutrad finally landed on the modest front lawn, covered mostly in grass, a few flower patches, and a small pond. He looked at the clouds-filled sky and the snowflakes showering down upon him.

He dusted off the snowflakes off of his dark brown robes and his sky blue hair before making his way to the front door. No one was there to welcome Mutrad when he opened the door except a lone pathway to the hall. Mutrad closed the door behind him and walked to the hall where Mutrad saw three white-robed youngsters waiting for him. The chandelier above let out bright white light to illuminate the empty halls as well as the whiteboard. The youngsters stood up from the sofas to greet Mutrad.

"Lord Mutrad,"

"Lord Mutrad,"

"Lord Mutrad,"

The three of them greeted Mutrad, but Mutrad just nodded without showing any signs of friendliness.

"Remove your hoods and introduce yourselves," Mutrad said. He then turned around and waved his hand as a whiteboard familiar to the trio materialized before their eyes. They took a moment to see the contents on the whiteboard but soon, they removed their hoods to reveal their faces. Among the three, one was a golden-haired young woman and the other two were young men.

"I was told there are four people in Operation New Dawn," The youngsters were surprised that Mutrad knew about a secret operation led by Peyton. But again, they were told Mutrad would take over the task to find the Dark Lord from the Guardians after their spectacular failure, which cost the Guardians one of their powerful warships and headquarters in Elon.

Moreover, the Guardians were still trying to navigate away from the storm created by the Dark Lord by exposing the guardians' connection with the vampires. Many noble families, as well as royal families, expressed their discontent. The commoners blamed the guardians for not letting the world know about the vampires. Not that anyone could stop the vampires, but they all hated to be the blindside.

Due to these reasons, the higher-ups in the Guardian Guild chose to hand over handling the Dark Lord to House Halrid, not that the Guardians had any choice in the matter. Unless they wanted a full-on war with the Sea Folks, they had to give up the case to Mutrad.

"Go on," Mutrad said while looking at the paper clippings and the pictures on the whiteboard. He didn't bother to turn around because, as far as Mutrad was concerned, the Guardians were lazy, corrupted morons who couldn't do their job correctly.

"Tell me your names, cultivation level, and the target assigned to you by Peyton," Mutrad stood there with his hands folded.

"I am Cassandra Perito. I recently reached Core Formation level 6, and my targets were Marco and Filippo. Both are rogue cultivators," said the blonde.

Following the blonde, the red-haired young man began to introduce himself to Mutrad,

"I am Tomas Bell, Core Formation level 9. I got Hudson, Lucas, and Calypso as my targets. Hudson is a disciple of Golden Valley, Lucas and Calypso are rogue cultivators,"

"Hmm," Mutrad rubbed his chin as the last one stepped forward,

"Name is Lado Sichinava. Core Formation level 8. Rogue cultivators Vladimir and Petro were my targets,"

After the three introduced themselves, Mutrad turned around. For a moment, Mutrad stared curiously at the three of them.

"Do any of you know where Connors is?" asked Mutrad, although he knew the answer to his question.

"No answer?" Mutrad asked, looking at the three staring at each other, expecting the other to say something.

"Do you know who his target was?" Mutrad asked, tilting his head. Considering the three of them were told to give their full cooperation to Mutrad whether they liked it or not, the girl didn't hide what she knew. She and Connors used to date at the time when Peyton put together a team for the operation new dawn. Although she and Connors broke up due to some differences, he revealed his targets to her.

"Ghost,"

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To their surprise, Mutrad grinned upon hearing Cassandra. He slowly walked towards the trio and looked them in their eyes,

"Connors is dead," said Mutrad nonchalantly. Cassandra looked at the smiling Mutrad. When she locked eyes with him, she averted her gaze. She was afraid her relationship with Connors might be a hurdle to her rise in the Guardian Guild. Connor's death didn't affect her as much as the thought of being stuck at the bottom without any promotions.

The eyes of the three were on Mutrad to see what he was about to tell next. Instead, Mutrad turned around,

"Ghost," Mutrad placed Michael's picture beside Gaya's. Afterward, Mutrad snapped his finger, taking a quill from his space ring. He started to put a cross on every one of their targets except Michael and Gaya. The trio had questions about why Mutrad crossed off the others but chose not to until he turned around again. When he did, Cassandra was the first one to raise a question,

"Lord Mutrad, why did you cross them off the board?" asked Cassandra.

"They are dead," Mutrad simply said like it was a simple thing. Some of the targets were Soul Refiners. Still, Mutrad said they are dead. The trio wondered what could have killed them. However, soon they received a shocking answer from Mutrad.

"Someone put a bounty on their heads. As a result, they were hunted down. Except these two," Mutrad pointed at Gaya and Ghost,

"I have another suspect who could be the Dark Lord or related to him," Mutrad stunned everyone by sticking Noah's picture on the board.

"Noah Winston!?" The trio was stunned. Noah was the rising star of the Guardian Guild. Not only that, but he was also the youngest to sit on the Guardian Captain's chair.

Saying Noah was an assailant to the Dark Lord or worse, saying he was the Dark Lord, was nothing short of blasphemy. Mutrad had no right to accuse Noah of such a heinous crime.

"What do you know about Ghost before he comes to the river town? Nothing. He just appeared one day right?" Mutrad asked as his gaze swept across them.

"The Dark Lord appears exactly five months after he arrived," Mutrad said.

"A month later, Jane Totonk had a quarrel with him, and two weeks later, she was killed and hanged from her own home. At the same time, there were also several victims, but they all died within Elon. Especially, within a day of flying distance from Rivertown. According to my sources, he went from a Body Refining stage cultivator to a Fusion Stage cultivator in just nineteen months. Not even humankind's best of the bests have such monstrous cultivation speed. That's just the fact one," Mutrad began to walk left and right with his hands behind his back.

"Second fact. Connors went missing when he was tasked to deal with a senator in the southern continent. At the same time, a pirate captain dressed in black who could wield magic inside the void line appeared. Connor was last seen when he visited Senator Vibius. Coincidently, Senator Vibius left the kingdom at the same time Connors went missing,"

The three of them heard rumors about someone who could use arch energy within the void line. At first, they thought it was just a ruse but after hearing from Mutrad, they didn't think it was. Nonetheless, the piece of news startled them.

Mutrad had all the resources of House of Halrid at his disposal, along with the guardians' records. Using both, it wasn't tough to find everything about Connor. Although Peyton was on the right track to find the Dark Lord, she didn't have the resources or authority like Mutrad to filter the suspect list effectively. After all, it cost Mutrad eighty million to put a bounty on all the suspects, including Michael. So, just to be safe, Mutrad requested the Grim Reapers to send Fusion stage reapers after the targets.

To Mutrad's surprise, only one survived, Ghost.

"Connor's soul suffered in agony in the last moments of his life. He was tortured brutally. Assume the magic wielder is the Dark Lord, and he was the one who kidnapped Connors. Why did he torture Connors? The Dark Lord took his time with Connors. Why?" Mutrad directed his gaze to the three of them.

Instead of asking Mutrad how did he know for sure that not only Connors is dead, but also he was tortured, the trio picked their brains to answer Mutrad. Deep down, they wanted to impress Mutrad so they could get a shot at a promotion. After all, they were hand-picked by Peyton because they were power-hungry and eager to impress their higher-ups.

"He must have done something to piss off the Dark Lord," said Tomas,

"Can it be because Connors killed someone the Dark Lord cherished?" asked Mutrad with an amused smile.

"It can be," answered Cassandra.

"Jack Neeriun. A disciple of the Sunrise sect who murdered by a mysterious bandit group near their sect. This is funny because there was no bandit camp near their sect at that time. Connors killed Jack, and as a result, he was tortured to death by the Dark Lord. All things being equal, the simplest is often the right one. The Dark Lord arrived after Ghost. Jane Totonk had a quarrel with Ghost and died. Connors, who killed Jack, disappeared and was tortured to death. The common thing between all these is Ghost…"

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