Black Mist Forest

The sun sank lower in the sky as the light of day was drained away, giving way to the velvety dark of night.

Somewhere In the western part of the Black Mist forest, twenty black-clothed figures arrived soundlessly like spirits from hell at the base of a huge mountain, and the pair of eyes that were revealed on their faces that were covered by black cloths were icy cold, to the point they didn't contain a trace of feelings.

Not too far from them, there were around fifty people lying on the ground. they were all dead and had a look of horror on their faces as though they had seen a ghost before they died.

The black-clothed figure in the lead that seemed to be the leader slowly pointed at one the corpse on the ground, and one of the black-clothed figure charged forward to search the corpse for a moment and said. " He was just killed, and his time of death ought to be half-hour ago. It looks like the plan has failed master and the target has probably noticed us and fled. But he has probably not gone far."

The black-clothed leader said indifferently, " You got it wrong, the plan was a success. From the get-go, I didn't expect those weaklings to kill him, I just wanted to draw him out in this forest and take care of him myself. Now that I know he is here, there's no way he can escape from my grasp now."

The other black-clothed man who continued to examine the corpses on the ground suddenly said, " This wound is really peculiar!" as he found a bandit that had died with his throat slit.

" What's strange about it." Asked the leader.

" This bandit was the strongest of the bunch and died inside the crowd. look at his expression and posture when he died, it was as though he had no way to react."

" What's going on." The black-clothed man found many traces on the bandit corpses. looking at the state of the corpses on the ground as well as the look on their faces, the black-clothed man who was checking the corpses couldn't help looking left and right. It was as though the forest's darkness seemed to conceal a ghost and a monster.

" It's achievable as long as your movement technique is powerful enough. However, the 4th imperial prince is a lightning mage, not a warrior, so how could he do all that by himself. Unless he had a helper and a powerful one at that." Said the black-clothed leader.

" Master, we made sure that the bandits attacked four villages simultaneously which forced the 4th imperial prince to divide his men into four groups. Each group was lead by one of the four imperial knights which left the 4th imperial prince by himself and that mysterious young lady to defend to the fifth village. "

" According to the spy that we left in the village before the 4th imperial prince arrived, he was indeed by himself with that woman. He was able to annihilate the two hundred men by himself by using the lightning energy without casting any magic spell."

" If what you said it's true, then it must have been that young lady who killed these men." Concluded the black-clothed leader.

" Let's go up." The leader said as the other men in black quickly followed him as they followed the trails left on the ground.

As the group of men in a black was charging straight ahead of the huge mountain peak, a pungent smell of blood assaulted their noses as they continued to encounter more corpses laid there on the mountain, as obvious road signs.

Some of them had died with a slit throat while others had their heads smashed into meat paste.

" That young lady is really ruthless." Whispered the leader as he continued to move forward.

The deeper they went, the stronger the smell of blood became as the corpses of the bandits were multiplying.

Not long after, the leader suddenly stopped his steps and looked at a disfigured corpse at the foot of a great tree. Even the black-clothed leader who was a vicious and ruthless man couldn't help but let out an extremely astonished expression.

" Isn't that Rock the 3rd leader of the bandit alliance." Asked the other black-clothed man.

" Rock was a 5th rank warrior, yet he was reduced into that state." He continued.

" You are missing the point here." said the black-clothed leader with a weird expression on his face.

" He was the 3rd leader of the alliance and also one of the four people who knew where their base was located. From the looks of it, it seemed like the 4th imperial prince had tortured him for that information."

"If my guess is right, Rock had already spilled all the beans before he died and the 4th imperial prince was on his way to the main base of the alliance now. I can't believe he was able to find the location of the base after only two weeks." He said with a weird smile on his face.

" But master, won't he be killed as soon as he made it to their base. The 5th commander of the Red Storm Legion Marcus, a peak 6th rank void mage, was currently the one acting as the leader of the bandits' alliance." Answered the man in black. Even though Marcus wasn't as strong as his leader but his void magic wasn't something to be trifled with. Even a 7th rank warrior wouldn't dare to face him head-on unless they knew how to counter his weird ability.

Listening to his subordinates, the leader couldn't help but smile mysteriously at him.

" Do you now how the 4th imperial prince was able to kill a third of the bandits' alliance without being detected or leaving a trace behind."

" Because he was able to transform himself into someone else. I still don't know how he was able to accomplish that or what kind of magic spell he used, but the 4th imperial prince has more than one face."

" If I am not wrong, he killed and tortured Rock, and even disfigured him was because he planned on wearing Rock's face to enter the base of the bandit's alliance and using his identity."

Listening to the leader, the other man in black had a shock expression on his face.

" Let's go inform Marcus before it's too late. Even though I hate those weaklings, but we still owe the 3rd imperial prince of the Nicholas Empire a favor for allowing us to freely do business in his city." The leader said as he rushed to the other direction.