Jason was still astonished that none of the assassins had realised the threat of his desert eagle because it was a relatively simple weapon.

The bullets weren't special either, and it was only his flame that made everything a little bit more complex, and lethal for others.

As such, the assassins grew wary of the Degar the moment a black flame manifested on the tip of the barrel.

Nevertheless, Jason was quite happy about the change of expressions on the assassins faces, the more they were apprehensive, the less effort he would have to put in.

Thus, he used Byakur to finish off the remaining, heavily injured assassins that were still burning from the inside out.

Despite them attacking the manor and making the first move, Jason felt that something was off about the assassins.

If he didn't perceive it wrongly, they seemed too reluctant to attack him.

That was not the case with everyone, but some of them had conflicted expressions as if they were doing something against their will.

Owing to this, he was not even sure whether the attack on the manor was as simple as he assumed before.

'The expression of the auction house's higher-ups was...weird, but that didn't necessarily mean that he, or someone from the auction house, was involved in the attack on the manor But, it's still possible!'

Sighing deeply, Jason had almost forgotten that he was dead tired which caused him to almost slump to the ground.

Fortunately, he didn't. Instead, Jason focused on allowing Solaris to absorb the essence from the inside of the dead assassins.

After that, he collected their spatial rings in order to earn a small fortune, while simultaneously trying to find out the origin of the assassins.

With a total of more than 30 spatial rings gathered, Jason had one of his eyes trained on Jennifer, who was almost done with her battle too.

Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't be so calm because other women under the City Lord were unable to use the equipment that allowed them to strike others with lethal attacks, or protect themselves.

As such, many problems were bound to occur in the other rooms of the Manor owing to the rune disrupting device.

Unfortunately, Jason was not strong enough to help because he knew that all the newly advanced Prismar stage assassins were focused on him.

Thus, there was not even a single assassin he could defeat anymore.

With that in mind, Jason focused on finding more about the attack, instead of doing something that would cost him his life.

Furthermore, even if he were to rush to the others' aid, Jason was either bound to reach too late or even distract other women whom he wanted to help.

Jennifer was much better at helping others because she was strong enough to do so!

Jason was not sure how high her combat prowess was, but even the Initial rank Ascendion stage assassins were not strong enough to face her alone!

The strongest assassin which Jennifer had assassinated by shooting through the wall, had even been at the Low rank of the Ascendion stage!

After Solaris' had absorbed its essence, and Jason had collected most of the spatial rings, he glanced in Jennifer's direction before searching through the spatial rings for a moment.

Though the spatial rings weren't filled to the brim, a fact Jason had expected already, what confused him were the things he found inside.

'Each spatial ring has the exact same size, two manuals, the exact same amount of cultivation stones, a photo of their target...that's it?'

The Ascendion stage assassins' spatial rings Jason had collected looked similar, just that the rewards were much higher, along with a picture of Jennifer's disguised form in it.

However, Jason found this extremely confusing.

'Did they hire all of these people? But...that makes no sense in accordance with the emotions which I sensed and even saw through the Emperor Eyes' emotion hues'

It was weird, and Jason couldn't help but feel suspicious about everything.

Unfortunately, before he was able to proceed questioning about the attack, Jennifer rushed past him, while saying,

"I'm done, you take care of the rest!"

With that, she disappeared through the door, rushing towards the closest ally that required her help.

In the end, not many were able to defeat opponents with a higher cultivation base, let alone a higher stage.

Jason and Jennifer were exceptions to this, which was, however, not the case with the others.

Fortunately, they didn't have to fight opponents at a higher cultivation stage, as they had already advanced to the Ascendion stage.

Thus, they were able to fight with a few opponents head-on.

Despite all of that, the biggest disadvantage was the fact that nobody could use equipment with runes.

As such, the enemy's numerical advantage couldn't be balanced out with better equipment.

In the end, even the City Lord didn't expect the perpetrators to possess more than a dozen rune disrupting devices.

They were extremely expensive, difficult to produce and procure, and normally only renowned powerhouses could purchase them.

Jason had also learned some things about unique items when he was in the auxiliary tower's library.

Because of that, he was able to roughly understand that everything was slightly more difficult than he'd initially assumed.

'Did the royalty really initiate a strike against the Tritans and us because we are supporting them? But...does that even make sense given the recent commotion at the borders of the Julandra region

Aren't there enough problems already...why suddenly attack? And what was wrong with these Aeus and Devirs that attacked us? Their expression and attitude were not that of assassins, or at least, they weren't eager to kill me and Jennifer'

Scratching the back of his head, Jason was so lost in thoughts that he didn't even realise that the entire room and hallway had been completely destroyed.

In fact, the entire building was about to collapse, and Jason was still simply staring at the Aeus and Devirs corpses.

They didn't look like assassins, had flawless skin without scars or marks on their body to prove that they were used to fighting, let alone display the mercilessness of a true assassin during their fight.

Jason found that he himself was a much better assassin if they were truly what he thought they had been.

At that moment, he realised something, which caused his eyes to widen, only for him to shake his head.

Yet, a moment later, Jason halted in his tracks as he mumbled,

"Why would the Aeus and Devirs hire members of their own race to attack someone else. If it were the royalty, they could simply order them and pay later It couldn't have been the Manyrs' doing, right?

Or is that also a devious plan of the royalty belonging to both races in order to divert our attention from them to the Manyrs.

But...in that case, it wouldn't make sense to send some half-cooked fighters that were afraid to fight me'

Jason was still confused, and not exactly sure what was going on.

Unfortunately, he was unable to be inside the Manor for long to study the corpses because it was crumbling.

Its main foundation had suddenly been damaged because a tremendous amount of energy had been released.

Averting his gaze to the direction in which the energy originated, Jason couldn't help but bite his lower lip.

He was able to see several things through his Emperor Eyes, and they were not something he was glad to see, not one bit!

Jennifer had released the tremendous energy that shook the entire manor and consequently damaged its foundation. She was under the influence of wrath and agony, the purest bloodlust he had ever seen through his eyes. Meanwhile, two women that belonged to the City Lord, were lying on the ground devoid of even a single energy fluctuation.

They were dead, killed by the assassins because they had been too weak and unable to defend themselves properly, and Jennifer had just found them.

This caused the rational part of her mind to be momentarily switched off as she let go of all the emotions she was currently feeling.

Seeing Jennifer in pain made Jason feel a profound sadness he hadn't sensed in a long time.

It was different compared to his masters' death, and he was not close to the two women who had died, but it was still sad because everyone inside the City Lord's abode had been nice to him.

'Just...what is happening?'

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