The masked lady and Hal sat opposite each other in her room, the situation that had transpired there earlier seemed to not affect her poise at all as she sat seemingly at ease but Hal could taste the subtle tension in the air.

"I really should charge you, you enjoyed the services of all of my girls" she said with a smile

"If anything I should be the one charging, I provided most of the pleasure after all" Hal said while taking a sip of the wine she had served him

"True, but I don't think you did this for the money or for the sake of your Collaboration pitch" She peered at him over the top of her goblet

"Hark who's talking, your whole establishment is all for the cultivation of your girls. Those men are literally paying you to suck out their essence. It has to be the biggest scam I've seen till date"

"It's not harmful to them and besides the money pays my girls for having to settle for their disgusting essence" she shrugged and Hal nodded in agreement

"That's true, you can't compare trash to perfection"

"Perfection?" She raised her eyebrows

"Me of course" Hal said with a straight face as he took a sip of his wine.

The masked Lady's jaw dropped slightly 'What a narcissistic fellow' she thought but when she remembered the purity and quality not to mention quantity of the essence he had dropped in her girls, it started to seem like a fact.

She composed herself and smirked "Are you advertising? Do you want to tempt me to have a taste?"

"You're different from your girls. I don't want to waste my time trying to actively seduce you"

"And why is that?"

"I don't have the confidence of success, so it's better to give up before suffering disappointment" Hal sighed

The masked lady frowned slightly "I never pegged you for a quitter"

Hal sighed even more heavily "What else can I possibly do? I think it's best I know when to cut my losses and just move on....unless of course, you think I have a chance"

'The level of bullshit you spout just seems to increase along with your shamelessness. I don't think I can take this anymore' Grimiore said in a faint tired voice

'Keep quiet, I think I'm finally starting to sink my claws into her'

She shook her head silently and shrugged "who knows? I let my guard down once, i might let it down again, But we digress, I have decide to partner with you for the bid, but even though we have a much better shot now, we still can't discount the Great families"

Hal sighed "I guess not"

"Are you going to leave it all to chance and hope?" She asked feeling slightly disappointed at another possible quitting attempt

But Hal smiled "of course not, we'll just need some insurance"

"And what would that be" she asked

"It can be quite a number of things, but the most likely of them at the moment is robbery"

...

Payne Estate

"And you are certain it's him?" Asked Marlon Edgar

"I am certain. He has people with him too, and although I am not sure how he did it I know it's him" Gregory said through gritted teeth.

Rad's death, while it had given his wife some much needed clarity and she was constantly cultivating, the opposite was true for him.

He seemed to have lost his purpose. Cultivation seemed dangerous now and so he remained stranded at the peak of the cosmic Armament realm and could not try to advance further for fear of cultivation deviation.

"He has immunity from me so your father is most certainly keeping an eye on me, something I can not escape in this city, but he isn't really doing the same to you" Gregory said now at the edge of his seat

"And what if he's innocent" Marlon remained cautious

"He is not"

"Let's Say he is"

"well I know he's not"

Marlon sighed "How exactly do we do this?"

"It's simple really, all we need to do is make sure he is not with his support team. As long as we get him alone and keep him trapped and unable to get help, he can't possibly have a chance against you"

Gregory was full of confidence. Finally there was hope, and as he watched Marlon's cautiousness make way for confidence, he knew he had succeeded.

As for whether Hal had a hand in the Holger's death or not, he was sure he did and did not believe the whole devil crap.

As long as there was admittance, there would be combat, a combat Hal was bound to lose without his back-up of cohorts.

"All you have to do" he told Marlon "Is give him an illusion of having the upper hand and when he finally admits it due to overconfidence, show him what you're made of"

"And how can you get him alone?" Marlon asked and Gregory retrieved a large scroll from inside his spatial pouch

"This is an array. According to the information I got, He has been inside Pleasure Inn for a few hours now, if you leave now you can use this array to isolate him from the outside world and get him on your own"

"You're not coming?" Marlon asked

"No I can't, getting close to him would only garner unwanted attention. The array is rank 3, and there is no way he can escape it"

"All right then, let's do it" Marlon said with clenched fists. If Hal Payne really did have something to do with Adler's death, then Gregory's instigation would prove unnecessary.

Gregory's heart ached slightly at the loss of that array but he found solace in the use it would be put to and maybe he would finally be able to put this part of his past behind him.

...

Melinda sat cross legged as she finally began to form her Cosmic Armament which would have seemed too soon to an observer but, no matter how she assessed her body, she knew she was ready.

Forming one's armament was a delicate process that would finally allow them to advance to the Cosmic Armament realm. It was a requirement. And as such it would usually take months to form one.

Of course Melinda had always been talented, getting banished from her family to this city had however cut off her supply of cultivation resources but luckily, Hal had substituted that perfectly with his essence.

Now the closer she got to the Cosmic Armament realm, the more confident she was in finally freeing the Dane Bloodline she had inside her.

The Dane family had a unique bloodline and her's had been Suppressed as one of her punishment for castrating her cousin, the genius.

She had declined to tell Hal because she did not see the use, or point in telling him, as she could not make use of the bloodline at the moment and she never actually had any hope of lifting the suppression which had been placed there by the patriarch..

However as she focused on forming her cosmic Armament, she could feel the suppression lessening, guaranteeing that at some point in her cultivation, she would be able to lift the suppression on her own.

"Just get ready to be fucked up, you bastards" She mumbled with a smile.

....

Meanwhile Hal seemed to have stepped into hot soup. The moment he was out of Pleasure inn and was feeling pretty good about himself and the idea of finally fulfilling one of his many dreams (Robbing the great families) an array of swimming runes surrounded him.

He could sense that even though the array was a low grade rank 3, breaking through it would still be difficult. So he calmed himself in hopes that the trapper would show up and sure enough there were footsteps behind him that caused Hal to turn.

"Hal Payne, we need to talk"

"Who are you?" Hal asked because of course when someone traps you in an array, you ask for introductions.

"Marlon Edgar" Marlon saw no need in hiding his identity, on the contrary he believed his identity would give Hal the final push.

"Okay then. What do you want?" Hal asked and Marlon frowned slightly at how at ease Hal seemed to be

"Did you have something to do with Adler Holger's death?" He decided to not waste time on chitchat

"Did Hector task you with this investigation?" Hal asked slowly

Taking the slow speech as a sign of respect to authority...

"Yes, that's right"

...Marlon agreed and Hal smirked secretly.

"So did you or did you not have something to do with it?" Marlon asked again.

While he looked calm on the surface, Hal could feel his subtle rage and the faint pressure coming off his body revealed his cultivation.

A quick scan of the area with Astral perception –kept confined inside the array– revealed they were alone inside said array.

"Why are you only asking about Adler?, she wasn't the only Holger that died" Hal said as he began to pace

"Did you or did you not?" Marlon asked again

"*sigh* No I did not" Hal said and Marlon sighed and turned away

"Wait" Hal called at him "You believe me? Just like that"

Marlon paused and turned around "You said you had nothing to do with it" he shrugged

"What if I was lying? What makes you so sure I was telling the truth?" Hal asked and Marlon frowned

"Hahaha hahahaha" Hal laughed loudly

"You have to be the dumbest person in all of Salmon city, taking everyone's word as truth"

"Everyone? I only chose to believe you" Marlon retorted, his anger finally slowly raging

"Who do you think you are talking to? A two year old? This was not your idea was it? Someone told you to come here and interrogate me" Hal told Marlon as he began to stretch his stiff muscles from the earlier orgy.

"No, I came here on my own. It was my decision" Marlon said with clenched fist

Hal shook his head "No, you can't think for yourself, so let me save your tiny little brain from more useless investigation"

Hal's smile turned wide and wolfish...

"I killed her"

...and Marlon snapped.