"What?" Anguo Chen was livid as his eyes grew wide, the body of the assassin was tossed before him with a thud, standing in the lavish courtyard of the private manor, he received the report of the attempted assassination from the two bruised guards that accompanied Hartley and Qin LI earlier in the evening, the body of the assassin was stripped naked to reveal a thin middle-aged black hair figure with a gaping hole the size of an adult's fist through his chest cavity and out his back, a line of dried blood ran from the left side of his lip to his chin, his face shone with a twisted look of terror that indicated his unwillingness in his brutal ending.

The dead assassin had no distinguishing marks or any possession that would betray his identity, he didn't even have a space ring, his only worldly possessions were his two dark daggers. "Scour the area, see if anyone recognize him, I want to know when he arrived and where he stayed." Anguo Chen barked orders at his men who rushed back in the direction of the town even though it was dark.

Knock, knock, knock...."come in" said Hartley, the dark brown door swung inwards and Anguo Chen's bald head glistened in the yellow lamp light outside as his lanky frame appeared within the frame of the door , with large strides he stepped into the room with an apologetic and perplexed look on his tanned face, Hartley wasn't surprised, Anguo Chen had come to see if Hartley had seen or heard anything that would give him a lead in his impromptu investigation. The only clue Hartley had was that the assassin was using a highly effective stealth scripture, that in and of itself told Hartley that the assassin wouldn't leave any careless evidence behind and chasing the man's origins would turn out to be a wild goose chase but Hartley kept his thoughts to himself.

Anguo Chen was befuddled that someone would have the audacity to attack someone under the protection of Prince Jian, Hartley wasn't, true strength was the only deterrence in the world of cultivators, waving around someone's token was enough to cow civilians, merchants and low level cultivators but the truly strong would not regard such things with the reverence others did, as was evident when Song Zemin was about to attack even after Anguo was waving the golden identity token like Moses parting the red-sea.

"Should we still travel tomorrow or stay here and investigate deeper?" asked Anguo Chen after contemplating for a while, "no need, I doubt anything would change even if we stayed," Hartley waved his right hand dismissing the notion nonchalantly, at this moment Zhi Ruo glided into the room from the adjoining room, wearing a see through form-fitting night gown, her red hair was loose and dancing around her shoulders and her bouncy mid-sized peaks slightly bounced up and down as she strode, Anguo Chen's eyes brightened for a brief flash then he looked away and stared at Hartley with a single bead of sweat running down his bald head, hoping that he hadn't offended the youth..... "Ahem ahem," Hartley cleared his throat sheepisly as he stood up with a wry smile and stated that he had serious business to attend to and hurriedly ushered Anguo out of the room as if putting out a stray cat.

"Lucky Bastard" Anguo Chen murmered under his breath as the door closed behind him and he made his way back to his lonely room.....Hartley then attended to his serious business... more times than once...

Another two weeks fell from the calendar. Hartley was now at the thin line between the 7th and 8th layer of the xanthian realm, Zhi hadn't found the inspiration to step into the 2nd layer and Qin Li was now a fully fledged mid phase xanthian expert. The group had traveled trouble free towards the capital, the anticipated attack hadn't happened, maybe the miserable endings of the prior assassins had something to do with it. The broad streets were filled and raucous, even miles away from the capital people were milling about like busy ants in their colonies. People had erected towns and shanty settlements outside the capital and went back and forth either working in the outer sections or selling goods and food gathered outside the capital.

The sun sat calmly high in the sky of another summer's day. The soft, golden hues sifted down out of the noon sky and wrapped around the blocky watchtowers of the city of Duancehall, armored soldiers stood at attention in deathly stillness on each side of the broad gate. Dense battlements jotted the almost never-ending walls, a few iron spears with decapitated heads on them were stabbed into the wall about halfway up, close enough for people to be able to recognize the features of the individuals perched on the pegs.

The sunshine made the stones of the busy road leading up to the city shiny and golden. A lone carriage, matte black and hauled by four elephant-looking wild beasts, approached the city amidst the foot traffic and countless open wagons hauling merchandise of all description, under the escort of twenty-four silver and red armored soldiers sporting eagle insignia on their breast plates. People stood to the side and wagons pulled over and parked making way as they watched the carriage roll and clatter towards the gate while vehemently discussing with excitement the possible occupants inside the carriage.

The group eventually passed through the gates with a few rudimentary checks from the person in charge. A sprawling vista of beautiful buildings of all sizes and colors and countless people opened up before everyone's eyes, the awe inspiring sight of the capital gave Hartley goosebumps as he looked out of the window of the carriage.

Butterflies were beating their wings inside his stomach, his palms were sweaty and his heart pounded against his chest, the province in front of him was the culmination of all his hard work, he had fought battles and shed blood all the way to reach the capital. This was the first step to achieving his goal to make his mark and plant his flag as a powerhouse in the country of Aidonia and he was finally here.

Zhi Ruo reached out and took Hartley's hand in her own and whispered "welcome to the capital" as she rested her head on his shoulder. Qin Li was twisting in every direction as his emotionless face tried to soak in all the sights. As an orphan from the Lou clan, he couldn't help but feel proud to see the capital with his own eyes.

The group moved west through the broad streets of the outer section of the province until it was dark, they then lodged at a popular inn for the night. The next morning they continued west until they came to the wall that separated the outer section of the province from the inner section. This time they underwent stringent checks, Hartley even had to produce his golden identity token provided by Viscount Sanzu.

After another four hours of travel the group turned off the beaten path and headed towards a Castle on a hill.

...............End of Volume 1..........