“It is bored here, I think I will go with the girls,” one cloaked figure spoke to the other.

“But cousin, who is going to help me train the other five? They don’t really take me seriously, and its only because of you, that they are even willing to tolerate my training schedule!” the other cloaked figure argued.

They were Instructor Wei and Brum, who were planning what to do with the other five, while Charlotte and Libby were away for the ‘Sole Plate World Cup’.

Since it was official Academy business, there is a valid reason for them not to accept any challenges for the team’s title. Even if they were given a few days break, both of them did not want the students to rest for too long.

Hence Brum had drawn up a rigorous training schedule, even in the absence of Charlotte and Libby. It only gave the other five team members 3 days to rest before it started.

“I don’t see a problem, they should be okay with the schedule. I see them as being just as motivated regardless if they do or do not have a break,” Instructor Wei replied.

“Besides, if they can’t even maintain the discipline to follow this schedule, then they are not fit to hold on to their title,” she added.

Brum just frowned and nodded, as he grudgingly agreed to what Instructor Wei said. While he was initially reluctant to let the two girls take part in the World Cup, he could not in good conscience deprive the Academy of two of their best flyers.

While Charlotte and Libby have trained hard with the team to defend their title, they are also naturally gifted in the use of the sole plate. Since the departure of Xiaoxia, they have made huge progress in the flying club, and are respectively the captain and vice-captain.

It was an honor bestowed on them during their 3rd year at the academy, and it was very rare. Captaincy is usually given to seniors or 7th year students, and it was and still is an unprecedented case.

(AN: Senior – 8th and final year)

“So train your disciples properly while I am away,” Instructor Wei said.

She then turned and left, preparing to look for Instructor Sem. He is the person-in-charge of the Academy’s team to the World Cup, and she needed to get his consent to join the entourage.

“I wonder how much winnings I can get there this year,” she thought, as soon she entered the trans-campus spatial transportation dais.

**********

Menon groaned miserably when he received word from the Archipelago Nation of Pairidaeza, his guide will be someone he literally wanted to wipe off the face of the world.

To make matters worse, he received news on the possibility that Xiaoxia’s location may have been made known publicly.

Somehow, someone have taken the universal spatial bank device from him, and illegally hacked it to withdraw every single penny.

This in turn activated the anti-fraud device, which coincidently was created by the R&D alliance situated in MeisterSchloss.

Menon felt that the stupidest thing was that not only this bank, but all others transmitted these warning via open channels. While they were not entirely at fault, as the R&D alliance was the ones who invented the system, they could at least exercised some precaution and added a third party encrypted spatial communication.

“It just a few thousand imperial diamonds to get that system, why the hell are they so miserly when it comes to this?!” he complained out loud to no one in particular.

The fact of the matter, is all the major banks with aeons of legacy, have paid hundreds of thousands of imperial diamonds ages ago, to have the universal spatial bank system. A few thousand just to including this additional security was a drop in the bucket for them, but apparently there was a conspiracy to stinge on what Menon considered a vital part of the system.

“Captain Dongbae,” Menon spoke over the local communication system.

“Yes your Excellency,” Dongbae replied.

“Please get me that item, I may have to use where we are going,” Menon instructed him.

“Sir, are you sure? It may be considered an act of war if you ever use it on foreign soil,” Dongbae asked doubtfully.

“Don’t worry, if I ever use it, the reasons will be enough to avoid all out confrontation,” Menon assured him.

“Yes Sir, I will arrange it at once,” Dongbae acknowledge.

“Oh and one more thing, see to it personally, do not get anyone involve,” Menon added.

“I understand,” Dongbae answered, and disconnected.

Turning around, Menon sorted through a huge stack of gizmos piled up on a table in front of him.

He carefully selected a myriad of weird looking devices, some which look like the stuff nightmares are made of.

“Time to get these old bones tuned for battle,” Menon thought sullenly.

*********

Xue received news from the guild that his next target will be at the Sole Plate World Cup. The client have offered an unusually large amount, which is equal to the price of 100 average jobs.

20 members will be involved this time, and the only orders for this job was not to kill.

Every member is to operate independent of the others, and the first person to successfully procure the target will be given the purse money.

While it is not rare, since there were many past instances of such bounties, it usually meant infighting and death.

The assassins’ guild could care less if they killed each other, as long as the job gets done. It also promoted a sense of competitiveness, something that the majority of its members love.

On the other hand, this was a method to weed out the incompetent ones, and paved way for the rising stars of future generations.

Realizing this was not just any bounty, Xue decided to exercise some caution. Not including himself, there will be another 19 just like him.

He planned to bribe one of the guild bounty administrator, to gather information on the others. It is vital to know about the them, since he is certain with the information and his skills, he could take them all out and claim the bounty for himself.

This will set him back by a huge margin in his plans to find the whereabouts of Huiling, but he decided it was a calculated risk worth taking.

If he was successful, and even after buying the information, it would meant he would have way more money than he could ever use.

This would prove useful to re-established his village, and retire into obscurity, once Huiling has been disposed of.

“Another welcome turn of events, just when I needed it,” he smiled inwardly.

Activating his HG PSD, he blinked out of sight and started his journey to the guild headquarters.

(AN: HG PSD – high grade personal transportation device)

**********

Wanmei was rudely awaken by a crash in the other room, it sounded like someone had broken into the house via the window.

Hurriedly rushing to the scene, she found no glass in the room, and it was empty.

Alarmed, she looked out the window, to find the flower garden right in front filled with broken pieces of the window panes and shards of glass.

There was a trail of blood leading away into the streets, and she could roughly make out a slim figure limping away into the darkness.

Rushing back into the house, she immediately contacted Daquan.

“Daquan! The princess have woken up and ran away, we need to find her as soon as possible!” she almost scream into the communications device.

“Huh? What! She finally woke up? Did you see where she went? I will gather the men right now to look for her!” Daquan responded hectically.

He was up very early, and tended to town matters. The days were getting much busier and he needed the extra hours during the early mornings, just to be able to keep up with all the work load.

It was now a usual occurrence, since the tremendous and constant influx of people to the town, due to the policies set in place by Maling.

Wanmei in the meantime, have switched from town administrative duties and changed to full time housekeeping. This also enable at least one of them to keep an eye out for the wellbeing of Huiling.

Hence Wanmei and the majority of the town were still asleep when the princess ran away.

“Immediately contact the Arch Duchess, she needs to know this right now,” Daquan instructed her.

“I will, just find her please, I cannot imagine what she is going through right now,” Wanmei answered.

Disconnecting the communication device, she immediately contacted Amelia.

**********

It was less than half a day, since Amelia and Maling rushed to the Archipelago Nation of Pairidaeza. They were welcomed with the bright sunny weather, and strong salty sea breeze.

“This is unacceptable, we need to know who did it and we need to know now!” Amelia was demanding an answer from the branch director.

The duo are currently in the main branch of the One World Bank in Paiza.

“I am sorry your Royal Grace, it is an ongoing investigation, and according to our laws, we are not allowed to disclose any information till the perpetrators have been proven guilty,” a man with a receding hairline apologized profusely.

Amelia is a high profile client of their bank, and they knew about her very close relations with the Emperor of the Hu Yuan Empire. While not the biggest empire in the world, they still held considerable influence in the world’s political arena to warrant utmost respect.

“What manner of excuse is this? Do you want me to blacklist your bank from my empire? Or would you rather me closing my account and encouraging all my contacts to do so as well?” Amelia threatened.

The gold card she gave to Xiaoxia was considered pocket change to her, while in reality she was close to becoming an Imperial Diamond card holder.

That with the total referrals she influenced into opening accounts with One World Bank, consisted of a substantial proportion of the banks readily liquefiable assets.

“I really am sorry, even if the board of owners allows this, or everyone in the bank for the matter, local legal protocols simply will not permit us to,” the branch director apologized yet again.

He had been doing this countless times for the past 20 minutes.

“So you are just worried about your collective asses, and will not pay heed to what I need? A life is at stack here!” Amelia raised her voice another octave.

“Your Royal Grace, I think this is a matter best settled with the interior force,” the branch director suggested.

“Why would I go to them, when you hav….” Amelia was about to retort when Maling interrupted her.

“You have an incoming call,” he said, while pointing at her personal communication device.

“It can wait, I do not need to be distracted now,” Amelia glared at him, annoyed at being stopped halfway through her retort.

She did not even look at the device attached to her belt harness.

“No it can’t, its royal blue,” Maling insisted.

When Amelia heard the term ‘royal blue’, she quickly dismissed the branch director with a wave of her hand.

Bowing quickly before leaving the private meeting room, the branch director almost looked happy.

Disengaging the personal communications device from her belt, she looked once at the flashing blue lights on the screen, before connecting.

“Yes Wanmei, how can I help you?” Amelia asked, with a tinge of irritation in her voice.

Royal blue was the color chosen, as well as the term used, in the event something important with regards to Huiling is at hand.

At this moment, Amelia thought it could be an update from the couple on Huiling’s current situation. These updates were frequent, and usually there was no flashing royal blue lights when they contacted her.

However there were times, when either Daquan or Wanmei have accidentally activated the wrong signal while contacting Amelia. This is the reason why Amelia thought it was another false alarm.

“Your Royal Grace, purple rose have bloomed and the wind have swept it away!” Wanmei’s erratic and louder than usual voice burst out of the communication device.

“What?!!” both Maling and Amelia responded at once.

“Confirm last message!” Amelia instructed.

“Purple rose have bloomed and the wind have swept it away!” Wanmei’s voice repeated the last message again, this time her voice sounded more urgent.

“Understood, the gardener will be sent over right now,” Amelia acknowledged.

Disconnecting the line, her expression became even darker.

“Shit! Of all times this have to happen!” Amelia cursed.

“I agree, so what is the plan now? Both are equally important, but there are two of us,” Maling asked and ended suggestively.

“There is no choice, you need to head back and settle the situation there. I will settle the other situation here on my side, and please contact Shi Lang for me. I need to know if he have done what I asked him to, when we were at the Imperial city,” Amelia told him.

“Sure, just pay no heed to the situation back home, and concentrate here. I am after all very good with plants,” Maling winked boyishly at her.

Amelia only rolled her eyes in disbelief, wondering how Maling could still joke in the current situation.

“Just go already, purple rose needs the gardener soon,” she chided.

Nodding his head, Maling left the room in a rush.

“Now whose bright idea was it to name me the gardener? They must not know me very well,” Maling thought as he hurried to a nearby spatial dais just outside the room.

It is his codename for all matters regarding Huiling.

Purple rose, is Huiling’s code name. The term bloomed, meant she have awaken, while the term ‘the wind have swept it away’, meant that she disappeared and her whereabouts are unknown.

Plenty of thought and planning went into the effort of keeping Huiling whereabouts a secret, and it became apparent that this was the right choice only after a couple of years.

Shi Lang’s spy network, which is spread throughout the world, received various information on a few individuals who were interested to find her. Who they were, no one knew. It was one of the many things Amelia asked Shi Lang to look more into earlier that day.

“Damn all these to hell, why is it bad things always comes at the wrong time?” Amelia shouted out exasperatedly in the now empty room.

She did not know, that it was just the beginning.