Time passed quite fast but for the spies in the vicinity of the cloude manor, it was excruciatingly slow. They could feel the pressure of a superior vitality even when they were around three hundred meters away from the manor, this pressure makes their blood circulation slower which results in regular shifting of personnel among the spies.
Their prayers would end up getting answered in the form of Orion, for whatever reason known to only him retracted his vitality, sparing them from his amusement. Another situation that spared some of the spies was another assignment.
In the past month or so, a new black horse had appeared in the young star ranking, which prompted the powers in the system to reallocate some spies since the Roc does not seem to plan anything soon.
The Unseen. That's what he's called. An assassin, he killed No. 112, 97 and 96 on the ranking, no one knows what he looks like. He also destroyed a baron clan, to no one's notice.
He is said to be at the peak of core formation and the only thing known about him is he 'should' be very young. All his victims apart from the baron's family died to one poke of a spear and the vitality remaining on the wounds seemed to be that of a male child.
The young stars towards the end of the list were a little bit agitated, the ranking has been there just for bragging rights, and rarely does any prize come as a result of the rankings which is why death among the rankers is very infrequent. Even when it happens, it is usually a ranker without backing that dies or the death as a result of a personal vendetta.
There's never been a madman (or mad lad) who starts a hunt for the rankers. This precedence had scared the children who thought nothing of their ranking sport. Most of them have gone to their backings and even the few confident ones have secretly taken precautions to prevent an assassination.
Someone who can kill the Rave twins (#97 & #96) with just one stab each, faster than the twins could detect is someone that is not to be trifled with.
Discussions raged about who this unseen could be, rumours spreading about both wild and reasonable ones.
Despite having only two continents and various islands, planet Thanen has many divisions among the powers. While the Thanen Kingdom rule supreme on the planet, many other powers occupy the planet resulting in a delicate balance.
Thanen kingdom occupies the center and most of the western part of the main continent, east and south of it is the myriad beasts' alliance consisting of the myriad beast forest at the south and the Hybrids alliance down east. The hybrids like the avian-folks of Thanen have beast-like features and humanlike customs while the myriad beast forest is led by beasts, some of whom had gained a human form while most prefer not to.
The northern part of the Thanen continent consists of a bunch of human kingdoms which extend further west too with the Thanen kingdom.
Other parts of the kingdom include the Deep ice continent to the North of Thanen and the various island owned by the sea king palace.
The only human kingdom east of the Thanen continent is the White Tiger kingdom, whose royal family claim to be descendants of the divine beast. On the border of both the White Tiger kingdom and the Thanen kingdom is the Azure Mountain city serving as a neutral ground to both kingdoms and one which is populated by Merchants as the city serves as a trading hub between the kingdoms.
All the inns in the city were populated by people from all walks of life and even the roads too were filled with traffic of people and vehicles moving about. Nobles would zoom about with cycles almost hitting a few people in traffic without care laughing boisterously.
One of the inns was even more down-to-earth and most of the people eating here were mercenaries filling the whole place with the odour of sweat, beer and blood as they were gossiping about the latest news without care.
"I heard there is a lunatic hunting all the young geniuses now." One of the mercenaries instigated the discussion.
This was normal in an establishment like this. Inns are the places for rumours.
"Ya... All those arrogant bastards are more reined in. Now they know how it feels to be part of the lower rungs like us yeah?" Another chipped in.
"We get hunted every day!!! By human and beasts alike, I tell you most of those arrogant bastards are soft." Another exclaimed causing a bunch to agree with him differently.
"I heard that the lunatic could be passing by this city from the bosses."
"He fleeing from the birds I hear." This one whispered with a tone of confidence, but all in this inn heard it.
While this was ongoing, a blind boy could be seen leaving the inn, making his way out with his stick which seems very rough.
"Hmph! I heard he's already in the city. Experts are already teaming up to encircle him. They already know his next target, I hear Nascent Souls would be there." Another bragged confidently.
Gasp! Gasp!! gasp!!!
Multiple gasps were heard in the inn. Most in the inn are in their spiritual awakening and some are foundation establishments. That is the defacto limit for loose cultivators on the planet, very few gathering of loose cultivators have core formation or nascent souls. To spirit awakening and foundation establishment cultivators, nascent souls were like kings to them, only known but never seen.
"TELL ME ABOUT THAT!!" Before they could react to the nascent souls, a large man barged in pushing the blind boy onto the table by the side without staying to apologize.
Grabbing a chair and moving to the table near the gossipers, The bulky man paid no heed to the blind boy and he most likely didn't as his entrance had drawn all attention to him.
"T-Tiger head tattoo, Hungry spirit gauntlet, grid locking belt..." One of the more knowledgeable ones stammered with astonishment.
Another informed mercenary finished the guess, "#57 Hungry Tiger Radagast!!"
A ruckus was created immediately, the mercenaries started whispering among themselves fervently.
"Hahahaha... T's as the rumours say master Radagast does not look down on the earth." One of the more astute ones flattered Radagast
"I didn't expect it to be true..."
"For someone so strong..."
Sounds of people flattering them continued as the blind boy left the inn without anyone taking note of him. Moving past a few buildings, another chaos suddenly erupted behind him and before he could do anything, multiple people at his front parted ways as a whip struck him from behind opening up a scar on his back.
Before he could even make a grunt, multiple streaks of the whip fell onto his back and multiple harsh shouts were heard.
"HELL OUT OF THE WAY."
"HOW DARE you block us with your cursed body?" As three cycles passed by the blind boy cursed at him.
BANG!!! ARRGHH!! THUD!!!
The last cycle hit the blind boy sending him rolling down the side of the street, before going unconscious, a sharp scream was let out of the blind boy's little throat.
Nonetheless, the four riders cursed at him as they zoomed past the street.
"The four debauchers of the azure mountain struck again."
"Is he dead?"
"Don't touch him, he is blind, might be a curse."
The spectators gathered over the blind boy as they started whispering, unable to decide for a while what to do with him. No one wants to be cursed.
"But we can't leave him here."
"Just drag him to the alley and leave him there."
"Yeah... that's a good idea."
That was what they did, a few courageous ones carried the blind boy and threw him into an alley before the crowd dispersed.
After ascertaining there was no one around, the blind boy starts to move.
"That was a bit dangerous. I might have died." murmuring as he stands up popping his body back into the right place.
"The four debauchers? hmm... They'll make a good distraction."
"I should visit them. The Unseen One, I like that name."
With that, he left the alley and none of the spectators ever remembered or try to question why he didn't bleed from what should have been a severe injury.