The Deceitful One

The black-robed lean figure miserably knelt on the ground as he struggled to breathe. Fear crept into his heart as he thought, 'This guy's spiritual force… it's almost as strong as grandfather's!'

Two more black-robed figures who were standing beside him hurriedly bowed toward the convener. One of them pleaded, "Please forgive him, sir. He's young and immature."

The convener who was wearing a light blue robe and a plain white mask retracted his spiritual force and harrumphed,

"For breaking the rules of the convention, you are disqualified from this bidding. If you break the rules one more time, you will be banned from this secret gathering."

Then he turned to look at Bryan and added, "However, you will still have to pay as per your last bid."

'Fuck me! Can't I pay 700 pounds?' Bryan cursed in his heart. However, on the surface, he nodded his head and bowed slightly, "I understand."

He then walked toward the convener along with the red-robed lady in order to confirm the authenticity of the artifact and complete the transaction.

The lean figure in the black robe who had been barred from participating in the bid, gritted his teeth as he stared at Bryan making the transaction. A cruel light shone in his red eyes that were hidden underneath his mask.

The convention then carried on without any more disruption. And soon, about fifteen minutes later it came to an end.

The people present at the secret gathering orderly left one by one at ten to fifteen minutes intervals. When it was Bryan's turn to leave, many of the people present eyed him with greed.

For a person to spend more than a thousand pounds within an hour, they had to be considered rich. However, none of them dared to make a move on Bryan. Not at least while they were still in the secret gathering.

However, being given a fifteen-minute head start also gave Bryan the opportunity to escape safely. Outside the gathering, he would be on his own. The convener would surely not give him a helping hand.

Being stared at by a bunch of greedy Transcendents and Apprentices, Bryan's heartbeat sped up as beads of sweat started to form on his forehead.

But on the surface, he appeared calm and took steady steps out of the room. He would never give these bastards the impression that he was nervous. That would only fuel them to further take the risk of attacking him outside.

After exiting the four-storied residential building, Bryan immediately began to sprint toward an alley as he tried to get as far as possible from the convention without catching anyone's attention.

He just wanted to get back home and peacefully sleep under his warm blanket. However, it would seem that fate had other things in store for him tonight.

As Bryan was running through the dark alleys, he felt that someone was following him. He didn't halt his steps but instead acted naturally and continued to run, pretending to be oblivious.

'Fuck! They came after me, after all.' He cursed inwardly. He could roughly make out that three people had locked onto him with their spiritual force. The only consolation was that none of them were Transcendents.

However, fighting against three Apprentices was difficult even for a Rank 1 Transcendent, let alone Bryan.

He never underestimated his opponents even if they were regular people, let alone Apprentices.

His fight with Kenny Adams was just him being favored by luck. If Kenny wasn't on the verge of losing control back then, it would have been him to die instead.

Bryan never got complacent or arrogant after killing that Rank 1 Transcendent. Hence, when he realized that three Apprentices were following him, he was more cautious than ever.

He couldn't lead them back to his house or the HQ. One reason was that it was too far to simply run there. And the other was that he didn't want to disclose the locations of either of them.

So he continued to sprint and lured the people following behind him into a large abandoned factory. This place was far away from the residential building where the convention was held.

Moreover, since it was very late into the night, Bryan didn't worry about alerting the nearby people. His only worry was that the upcoming fight would alert the people who had come out of the secret gathering.

Hence, he had to make sure to get it over with as soon as possible. Or escape, should the need arise.

Bryan stood in the middle of the abandoned warehouse, surrounded by wooden crates, rusted pieces of machinery, and iron bars that were strewn across the floor, and took a few moments to catch his breath.

He then took off his black robe and threw it on the ground as he stated, "Come out, you bastards! Let's get this over with quickly."

However, he made sure to keep his white smiley mask on. He was not completely confident that he would be able to kill all the people that had followed after him here.

So if someone were to see through his real identity, that would spell great trouble.

The following moment, three shadowy figures stepped inside the factory and instantly surrounded Bryan from the front.

The three people at some point had already removed their masks and robes and were now glaring at Bryan condescendingly.

The person directly facing Bryan was a lean youth who had a head full of blond hair and red eyes. This was the same black-robed figure who had bid against Bryan for the pistol earlier.

He carefully observed Bryan from head to toe and probed, "You don't seem to have that brown briefcase on you. Did you throw it somewhere on the way?"

However, Bryan did not reply. Only now did he find out that all three people had red eyes!

'Members of the Holy Blood Sect?' He thought in his heart as he increased his vigilance against the trio.

Blood Path Transcendents and Apprentices were very difficult to deal with as their attacks had high potency. Moreover, just like the people from the Strength Path, they were very good at close-quarter combat.

The blond youth's eyebrows furrowed after being ignored by Bryan. He spat through gritted teeth, "I'll just torture you and make you talk then."

He then looked at the two other men with him and yelled, "Everyone, attack!"