The Martial Unity

"Of course, we do not expect you to undertake this operation on your own." Professor Carl clarified. "However, as a Martial Senior, you can make significant contributions. You possess the ability to eliminate the most powerful assassins in this region."

"You want me to eliminate Martial Senior assassins?" Rui raised an eyebrow.

"Of course." Professor Carl nodded. "We wouldn't mind if you eliminated assassins of all Realms."

Rui considered the mission. 

It was not outside his capabilities. Despite his lacking experience, he was a pretty decent assassin thanks to his extraordinary long-range capabilities as a Martial Senior with the Pathfinder technique. 

However, what he was more curious about was why the Beggar's Sect had such an ambition in the first place. 

"It's a matter of the reliability of our operations." Professor Carl replied, noting his curiosity. "Not even war disrupts the smoothness of our operations as much as mass assassinations, each unrelated to the other. That is something that does tend to sabotage our operation a lot, unfortunately."

Rui raised an eyebrow. That made sense. War was more orderly and followed patterns and could be seen coming from a mile away, especially with their intelligence capabilities.

However, a large number of unrelated assassinations was something that was far more inscrutable and unpredictable. That was the reason that they were so disruptive to intelligence operations, it was what made this region so chaotic and volatile in the first place. The fact that it was almost impossible to see all of them coming was something that probably irked the Beggar's Sect to no end. 

"We wish to restore some stability to the region so that intelligence-gathering becomes it is easier for our modus operandi that way." Professor Carl.

Rui nodded. "I believe I can commence these operations at my leisure, correct?"

"As long as you're not using that leeway to try and deceive us, of course." Professor Carl nodded. "I wouldn't recommend that."

Rui had no intentions of doing that. The Beggar's Sect was scarily powerful, he would be foolish to try and renege on his agreement.

"Can I get the intelligence I purchased ahead of time?" Rui asked. 

Professor Carl considered his words, before nodding. "We're willing to extend this favor to you. However, be warned, even with a report on our investigations on the Silent Shadow, your probability of success is extremely low."

That was obvious enough. He heard that the Silent Shadow only sparingly accepted the best of the best. Still, he had enough confidence to consider it at least worth trying.

He already had many considerations as to how to go about trying to be accepted as her pupil. 

For one, he didn't need to actually find her.

He just needed her to choose him as a pupil. That did not necessarily require Rui to find her, that just required Rui to be worth accepting as a pupil, and it required her to be aware of him.

The latter was not a problem. She was a renowned Martial Master assassin, he wouldn't be surprised if she was aware of everything that happened on the island. If that was the case, then finding her was probably not relevant to his desire for her to be accepted as a pupil unless she specifically made it her condition.

The reason most people sought to find her was because they probably thought that finding her was necessary to convince her to accept them.

But Rui wasn't convinced of the merit of such a case. The fact that nobody had found her when she didn't want to be found told Rui that such a thing was probably futile in the first place. She had not been found, but she had accepted pupils. 

That clashed against his initial theory that stated that finding her was the test in and of itself. 

In the first place, assassins were not detectives. Their skill sets did not revolve around investigation, so why would she set such a condition for finding her pupils in the first place? There was absolutely no correlation or overlap.

'Assassins are not hunters.' Rui narrowed his eyes. 'The assassins that came to this island hunting for her have probably already failed the test.'

Assassins had only one job. They eliminated their target. Thus, most likely, the criteria for being accepted as a pupil by the Silent Shadow were probably closer to the core fundamentals of what an assassin was. 

Rui heaved a deep sigh as he considered what that would be, and how that would relate to his objective.

But his first guess was that he had to eliminate one or many targets to find her.

Definitely not anyone, otherwise, everybody would be worthy.

He narrowed his eyes. 'Is there a specific person she wants to be eliminated?'

It wasn't impossible. Perhaps half the test was figuring out who the target was, and then assassinating the target. If that was the case, then maybe he would be accepted as a pupil.

"Who are her pupils?

"From before she retired. There are many, like the Harvester, the Boloxeun Beauty, and the Nighteater. All renowned assassins within their Realms." Professor Carl replied.

Rui frowned at all those monikers.

"Are any of her pupils after she retired known?" Rui rephrased. 

"Ah, no, not at all, unfortunately." The professor replied, throwing a knowing glance at Rui. "Of course, it seems you understand why this is the case."

If people looked into the candidates who succeeded, it wouldn't be too difficult to find patterns that can be used to figure out what one needed to do to be accepted by her. The fact that none of the identities of her accepted pupils were disclosed proved that she most likely took measures to prevent it from happening. 

Which only reinforced his theory. If it was just a matter of figuring her location and identity out, then there would be no reason not to disclose the identity of her disciples.

He had the sense that he was on the right track, there was no point in beating a dead horse.