Chapter 784 Perpetrator's identity
Han Lei couldn't believe it when he read it and had even thought it was a trap set by the manor master who had already seen through his disguise. But as much as he found it difficult to believe it, the evidence was undeniable. His clan had been eviscerated because of a sky-grade artifact.
One of his clan members when exploring a ruin, ended up finding the sky grade artifact there. It was a defensive artifact that could protect a cultivator's body against the attacks of an early-stage core formation expert and could even handle a few attacks from a middle-stage core formation expert but with a limit, past that, and the artifact would be destroyed.
In terms of abilities, it wasn't a standout. Han Lei in denial had even thought that maybe it hid more secrets within it like maybe was one of the keys to the legacy abode of some powerful cultivator, but it wasn't. About the only special thing about it was its design. The sky artifact was in the form of a hairpin that was made from the carapace of an emerald frost scorpion which gave the hairpin a beautiful ethereal lustre whenever the rays of the sun hit it.
When the Han Clan member got it, a lady saw it in his hands as he was appraising it. She made an offer for it in spirit stones which the Han Clan member was about to agree to but hesitated and asked if he could swap the spirit stones for something else. However, that hesitation landed him his death as the young lady had one of the servants she had with her, execute the clan member.
The hesitation shown by that clan member had angered her, and that anger continued to boil within her even after she had killed him. From that anger, she decided to contract the Night Viper Court.
Before taking any contract, the Night Viper Court always did its due diligence on its clients with the same care as it did on its targets to avoid falling into a trap. They had a pretty thorough detail on the young lady.
The young lady's father was a merchant and a prominent one at that. He was originally a farmer born with a wood-based physique, the sentinel birchwood physique which gave him an edge on the crops he grew which became the foundation for the merchant organization he started later on, the Sentinel birchwood pavilion.
With his talents, it didn't take long for his pavilion to hit off the ground and he was wise enough in the market he set his sights on. When a cultivator reaches the core formation realm, they can survive without eating, subsisting on the spiritual qi that they absorb and is converted by the cores.
However, that wasn't the same for those in the foundation realm and below. The cultivators of this rank still needed food, though not frequently as a mortal, they still needed it and the meals they required, to avoid their bodies from accumulating impurities and for it to meet their demands, it had to be of a certain quality, one of which is rich in spiritual qi.
This was the group that the young lady's father targeted. His client base was low enough that he would not step on any toes and the number was high enough that he didn't have to worry about getting clients.
Sects, clans, kingdoms, restaurants that catered to cultivators, and other large-scale organizations would have body refinement to foundation establishment-level cultivators within their ranks in great numbers at that. As long as those organizations were well off, they would prefer to buy the spirit-
rich ingredients from merchants because the costs were not high rather than grow it themselves where they would have to split land that they could use for something more valuable, and manpower that could be better served someplace else than grow food for eating.
Food was never high on the priority list for cultivators and some even disdained it as it meant they were no different than mortals if they still required food to survive.
With countless organizations choosing to buy these ingredients rather than grow them themselves, the Sentinel Birchwood Pavilion grew with orders flooding in because of their quality that outdid most in the market.
The young lady's father was a vane person who tried to use his newfound wealth to find the prettiest lady to wed. His background as a farmer didn't open a lot of doors for him but with the growing reputation and wealth of his pavilion coupled with his growing strength, he eventually found one, the young lady's mother, whom he treated as a god up until her death when she died to some curse placed on her likely by a competitor or adversary of the pavilion.
After her death, the young lady's father poured all his attention and love on the daughter she left behind who looked dead similar to her mother. He spoiled her rotten, doing almost anything for her as long as she required it.
Growing up pampered by one of the most powerful rank 3 merchant organizations in the continent, that young lady, Yi Ai, showed zero hesitation to have the entire Han family destroyed over a hesitation to hand over a sky-grade artifact.
Because of her background, she had the funds to hire the services of the Night Viper Court, and the records even showed it wasn't the first time she engaged their services and neither was she the only one, as her father, Yi Wen, he had quite the number of dealings which was how Yi Ai knew about them in the first place.
With the reason for his clan's demise already uncovered, he bided his time. If he was to strike at both, it had to be successful on the first try. He could not afford to be negligent with the court or the Sentinel Birchwood Pavilion and he did so in a manner befitting of a seasoned assassin.
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