Rivers of the Night

BOOM!

The young man was staring toward where Theron had been taken away in a daze when he suddenly found his neck gripped by a palm so strong he was certain that it could end his life any moment it so chose.

All the air in his body was forcefully restrained, and even his Mana didn't want to move properly.

When he saw that it was his uncle, Ott Tyre, his eyes widened in shock instead of relaxing.

The fury on Ott's face right now could sever Heaven's Gates. It felt like looking at a beast gone mad with rage—not just any beast, but one that could corral the clouds and crush mountains with a single claw.

The young man had never seen Ott with this sort of expression. The uncle that everyone hated, but no one dared to do anything to or say anything about, had always had the very same smile on his face.

Struggling, the young man's gaze shifted down to the ground beneath them. A crater hundreds of meters wide had appeared, and it even seemed as though the guest house of the palace might collapse into it any moment now.

The power was beyond anything the young man had seen displayed so carelessly, so casually.

"Did I not give you a job?" Ott's voice came out in such bone-chilling cold that the young man shivered, his fear well and truly overwhelming him.

He was an absolute genius himself. Known as Ji Tyre, he had sat at 88th on the Mandate Leaderboard before he became a mid-tier Gold Mancer and was taken off.

But right now, he was nothing more than a strung-up chicken in Ott's hand. He couldn't even speak with his throat being clenched so tight, and something told him that Ott didn't want him to speak either.

What was there even to say at this point?

Ott clenched his jaw hard. "Was he marked?—I asked, was he marked?!"

Ott had hardly given him a chance to nod the first time, but realizing his uncle had little to no patience right now, Ji could only nod as vigorously as Ott's grip would allow.

"DAMMIT!"

BANG!

Ji was sent flying into the crater below, his body becoming little more than a rag doll.

Ott couldn't believe it. There was no way that things could end like this.

One moment he was planning to bring the Tyre Clan to the pinnacle, and in the next, it was all dashed? Just like that?

'No. No. I have to calm down.'

Ott took one breath after another.

He had been planning for this for too long. The Tyre Clan was in the perfect position. But this was a problem—a huge one. Part of him even felt like Theron had done it on purpose.

If Theron was truly the one he thought him to be, then it was absolutely impossible that a Mandate Mark would end his road of cultivation.

When Ott thought of this, he slowly calmed.

Yes. Actually, if not for the risks involved, maybe he would have thought to do this to confirm before.

Right now, he was only guessing that Theron was the key to ending everything. The shift to the moon, his talent, his demeanor… everything matched those legends. But at the end of the day, it was still nothing more than a guess.

He had dedicated his life to becoming a scholar, and he felt he understood more about this than even the Seijin themselves. As for the Guild, they were the center of too many powers and had no true head at the top of them.

However, this would change everything.

He knew that boy too well. If he really was who he thought he was, then Theron would break free of those marks very soon. By that point, this wouldn't just be his own knowledge anymore—it would be everyone's. The entire world would know who Theron was.

When that happened, it would be impossible for Ott and the Tyre Clan to take sole advantage.

However, Ott couldn't just kill a Clothed of the Guild just because he wanted to or could. That white ninja was powerful, but not enough to take more than a single move on his part. Yet, his hands were tied.

He needed a plan.

Ott's eyes flashed continuously, trying to formulate a plan, but it felt like everything came to a dead end.

No. He didn't spend the last several decades preparing to have nothing for an event like this one.

'The Guild. The only other one that can stand up to the Mandate…'

There was only one such Guild in existence.

The Assassin's Guild.

Daggers of the Night.

If others knew what Ott was thinking, they'd think him to be a madman. The Daggers of the Night, as it was once known, was practically torn to pieces for its secrets. This wasn't because they were weak, but instead because they had been too scattered.

Now, there was only one branch left.

However, what Ott needed wasn't the Daggers of the Night in earnest, but instead the mask of them.

If it had been a month ago, he wouldn't have been able to do this. But thanks to Theron, he had conveniently come into exactly what he needed to pull this off.

The question was, what to do after the fact.

Ott's mind was still spinning, but he had already shot off. The embryo of a plan that would shake the entire continent began that day.

…

Theron was mostly oblivious to what was happening. He still didn't quite understand the full implications of everything and was instead doing his best to gather information.

The reason he had allowed himself to be captured was because he felt that forcing Ott to show his hand and causing him trouble would reveal more information to him.

By fighting the Tyre Clan descendants, Theron had learned about Mandate Badges, Plaques, and Laws.

His thought process was simple, then. The more pressure he placed on Ott, the more he seemed to learn.

So why not press a little bit harder?

This time, however… Theron's cleverness was finally coming to bite him.

He didn't know that the moment he shattered this Mandate Mark, he would become the most wanted man on the continent.

And what Ott didn't know was that there was a second person just as certain of Theron's specialness as him. In fact, he was more certain than Ott was because he was Karmically linked to Theron.

So, what would the Seijin Young Master do, knowing his and Theron's little secret was about to be exposed?