I entered the game in advance and found that I was invincible

There are rumors that assassins from the Kingdom of Thales are in his employ, but this has not been confirmed.While we do have a black market here, we're basically angels compared to those guys.

Adonis avoided anything that might cause him too many future problems.

This is also the reason he only deals in the black market, as long as they don't have hard evidence, this kind of thing is easy to get rid of.

Long Xiangtian nodded after hearing his explanation.

You are indeed different.

Do you have any questions?As long as it is something I know, I will answer it without any scruples.

Is the Cohen Merchant a hybrid monster?
I heard it for the first time.I know they've been feeding some meds before sending them to the nightlife area.

The pill that Adonis is talking about is a completely different product.It was a pill that would make her sterile and increase her libido at the same time, like those pills.

It had nothing to do with what he was investigating.

This must be a top secret plan on their side.

If even the person in charge of Rossio Trading Company, their main competitor, doesn't know, maybe their goal this time is not to turn losses into profits.

What might be their purpose behind wanting to increase the number of monsters?
One possibility is to throw the Rhine kingdom into chaos, thus making them sell more weapons and contraband.That doesn't sound like a reasonable reason, though.

Long Xiangtian decided that he had to dig further.

I want to join a convoy going to the press and gather some information.

That's great, I'm actually worried because the Cohen business group has been doing some shady things lately.

According to Adonis, there has been a noticeable increase in monster attacks on overland trade routes recently.This is also the reason why Rossio's association investigated powerful mercenaries in the first place.

Something similar happened with Erica's caravan faction.

When she competed fiercely with the Calis Group, their goal was her caravan transporting luxury goods.

Taking everything into consideration, it is very likely that the Korn Merchant Group has a way to communicate with the monsters and will give Rossio's caravan an itinerary.

There may be a spy in their ranks.

Business groups often hire mercenaries, so it is quite easy for information to leak.Of course, it's still possible that the traitors really were someone from their upper echelons.

Long Xiangtian's eyes lit up when he saw the veteran mercenary escorting Adonis.

Special mercenary Roy.

He was originally a gladiator in the Holy Apelian Empire.Every week in the Colosseum, he devoted his life to it for the public's enjoyment.

Even if he managed to survive in it and finally became the champion.Still, he didn't get favored by any nobles, so he would still be placed in unfair competitions and treated poorly.

Those days were like a nightmare to him.His only goal was to win his freedom, so he devoted all his time and energy to swordplay, in order to possibly win the favor of the nobles.

Finally one day, an opportunity presented itself.A riot broke out in his ludus and the master was killed.

After Roy escaped with some other gladiators, he began to work as a mercenary in a distant free city.With his own skills, he quickly made a name for himself.

He has benefited a lot from the sword skills he honed meticulously in the Colosseum, and requests for his services are flooding in.His well-honed swordplay in the arena has served him well, and requests for his services are endless.

But most of these requests came from slave owners.As a captive slave, he was forced to play the role of a gladiator, treated like a dog.These are commissions he does not want to accept.

Thus he found himself wandering from one free city to another within the Rhineland.

Eventually, he found a place with the Caravan Guild in Rossio, who signed an exclusive contract with them since they did not engage in any slave trade.

At that time, the Cohen Group tried their best to lure me to their side.

Roy explained while escorting the caravan with other mercenaries.

He's kind of a humble guy, so he thought it was weird bragging about himself there.

Has Bruno ever explained his business to you?
Long Xiangtian walked side by side and asked.

Roy shook his head.

No, he once mentioned that he wants to control the economy of the entire Rhine Kingdom and rule in a monopoly manner.It sounded ridiculous at the time.

Bruno is a rather ambitious businessman.It is basically impossible for a merchant to own every shop in the entire kingdom.Even if he somehow succeeded, the nobles would not support it.

However, if they have the support of the Golden Rose Society, the situation is completely different.

Just the wildfire sold by the Cohen Group before was enough to set a small city ablaze.

Not to mention that this time it was some monster stimulant.The threat they pose is likely to exceed the rebellion of the three earls.

I haven't grasped their plans yet.

They've always been very careful about leaking any information, so we didn't know until much later.

Compared with the Coen Merchant Group, Rossio's side is behind the scenes.This is the price they pay for not being fully immersed in the society of the city.

He wanted to see if he could find any spies, but in his mind, Long Xiangtian had excluded Roy as a suspect.

That guy won't stand with someone who has those values.

Then the rest are the upper class, but they don't show any suspicious behavior.

When Long Xiangtian was busy looking for the rats in their team, their convoy was stopped.They have arrived at their destination, a pharmacy in the business district.

What a big purchase.

Such turbulent times are excellent for those in the pharmaceutical business.

The price of the potion has been rising due to the rebellion of the nobles and the attack of many monsters.If you can mass-produce and sell potions, you can make a lot of money.

Rossio's business group intends to purchase a large number of medicines here, and then resell them to the provinces of Isilon, Erutonia and Ionio.

The Cohen business group is likely also interested.

Even if they are in the city now, it is not uncommon for fighting to break out.It's rather odd that things are so peaceful.

Now, it is normal for the other party's mercenary force to be invited to try to interfere with the transaction.

Long Xiangtian expanded his perception range, trying to detect anything he missed.

is it him?
He sensed someone hiding on the roof of the grocery store, staring in their direction.The most reasonable guess is that it was an assassin from Thales Kingdom.

Without any hesitation, Long Xiangtian walked towards the assassin's position.

".!"

As soon as he saw Angel Longxiang doing his best, the assassin ran away without hesitation.

Although his movements are very agile, Long Xiangtian's own speed is also quite fast.

They run from rooftop to rooftop in a breathless chase.

When he succeeded in gradually closing the distance between them, the assassin realized that he could not escape and drew his scimitar.

Karan!Karan!Karan
The sound of metal colliding sounded.

Who are you under?

"."

The assassin didn't respond, but took out a poisonous dagger and threw it towards Long Xiangtian's thigh.

Wheelick!
An assassination attempt at such close range failed.However, Long Xiangtian was still able to easily dodge the attack.

White!
His fist landed on the assassin's stomach, causing him to collapse before he could even make a sound.

He must be from the Kingdom of Thales.

Long Xiangtian nodded after taking off the assassin's mask.It was a man with dark skin and copper red hair.There is no doubt that he will have some information about the Cohen business group.

After lifting the unconscious assassin onto his shoulders, Long Xiangtian jumped off the roof.

Returning to Adoni's home after a long interrogation, he had managed to learn quite a few things.The first was that no additional wildfire shipments had been received since word of the failed rebellion had reached here.

The second is through the use of smugglers to distribute monster stimulants to all parts of the Rhine Kingdom.

I have to go now.

Before coming to Mediah, he had ordered the elder orc shaman to find out where the monster stimulants were exchanged.

Typically, they occur in the mountains around Mediah.

It has observed several elite monsters coming and going, which means their plans are going well.

After completing the short investigation, Long Xiangtian felt that it was time for him to visit Bruno himself.

He had to figure out the relationship between the Cohen Merchant Group and the Golden Rose Society, as well as their purpose behind increasing the number of monsters.

It wouldn't be too hard to sneak into their estate, since he has the Banshee's Veil, which makes him invisible.

There were two assassins stationed inside, but they were quickly dismissed by Long Xiangtian and disappeared shortly after.

Not long after, he entered a luxuriously decorated study room

call.
The blond man was staring at a document on his desk, smiling to himself.

Is that man Bruno?

His first impression of him is that he looks like a typical villain.

He had a scruffy beard and sly, sticky eyes.

Long Xiangtian approached cautiously, looking at the documents on the table.

Map of the Rhine Kingdom
It marks the habitats of different monsters, the trajectory of the army, and the exchange points for monster stimulants.

Was he trying to build himself an army of monsters?
Slowly taming these elite monsters with drugs, he wants to swallow the entire Rhine Kingdom for himself.

According to the map, the first province to hit is Erutonia, and from there he will slowly expand his influence.His ultimate goal is to capture the capital Heidelberg.The estimated time is stated as 1 year, but planning has been going on for 5 months, so it is not that long before they are fully operational.

After saving the map, Long Xiangtian continued to beat Bruno repeatedly without any remorse.

Bah! Bah!
Ah!
Bruno fell to the ground, screaming in pain.

Only then did Long Xiangtian take off his banshee veil.

Who are you! ?

Bruno's eyes widened, behind them a mixture of surprise and fear.

You have a pretty bad plan.

Oh. How did you find out?
If your tail is too long, you will end up getting caught.You are too arrogant and put too much trust in the Golden Rose Society.

Bruno was just a pawn.The Golden Rose Association is the real mastermind of this conspiracy.

Long Xiangtian stared at him coldly, and Bruno started to sweat.

You know what Jin Qiangwei will do, but no matter how good you think you are, you can't beat them.What happened here in the Rhine Kingdom is just the tip of the iceberg of their influence.

How did you get in touch with them?Or did they contact you from their branch in the Kingdom of Owen?
"...I can't tell. If I tell, they will never forgive me. You have to be careful, they have eyes and ears everywhere. Soon, they will definitely know my failure.

The Golden Rose will never tolerate any traitor.No matter how far you run or how well you hide, they will find you and sentence you to death.

When Bruno kept silent and refused to speak, Long Xiangtian took off his heel and crushed his fingers.

Agger!

You seem to be misunderstanding your situation, let me make it clear to you.From now on, every time you don't answer, I'll start severing the ligaments in your limbs one by one.Maybe you've heard of the torture methods of Thales, where prisoners are tied up and tortured for long periods of time.Certainly not to the point where you would lose your life, because that would be so easy.

Long Xiangtian has been on the battlefield for 40 years, and he is very familiar with different torture methods.

As soon as he pulled out Phorcios, Bruno's misbehavior began to tremble uncontrollably, because he even peed his pants.

I can talk! Please don't torture me!
Unconditional surrender, he no longer has the backbone he showed before.

Long Xiangtian smiled and grabbed his neck.Bruno told him that the Keen Merchant Group is essentially a branch of the Golden Rose Association.The contact between the two of them was purely coincidental, about a year ago.

Although he didn't know the ultimate goal of the Golden Rose Society, he knew what they were searching for on the mainland.

Is it Dragonstone?

The legendary artifact, it is said that a secret power is sealed inside.Even in his previous life, he hadn't found it.This is the case even though the dragons eventually return from their plane to fight the other races.

When leaving Bruno's residence, Long Xiangtian summed up the current situation in his heart.

In the Rhine Kingdom, there is no pawn that Golden Rose can master.

The traitor nobles have all been wiped out, as have those dirty business groups.There's no way Erica and Adonis could have gotten involved with illegal merchandise.

Although it is difficult to predict how the demons will act, but he still has Aris and Ruengrin on his side, so it is not easy for them to simply invade.

I can now go to the Kingdom of Izuna.

Bruno, who was the main culprit of the whole incident, was sent to the underground prison below Blackburn under the escort of Lefina.

It was a place where countless criminals were held, including Earl Gwen.It's basically an impenetrable fortress from which there is no escape.

Not long after arriving at the pier, he saw several boats preparing to take off.

Long Xiangtian walked over and asked about their ticket prices.

It is 38 silver to Puerto del Poa.

On top of his boat, an old man named Campbell said.

From the way he was dressed, he must be the captain.

Sounds a bit expensive for such a short distance.

Sea travel has become increasingly dangerous these days.

The Bay of Narf, standing between the two kingdoms, has seen many tragedies in recent years.It is a common sight to see ghost ships appearing either during the day or at night.

These ghost ships attack any ships they encounter, enveloping them in a black mist.Naturally, this led to a sharp decline in trade and transport between the two kingdoms.

In essence, the increased price is reflected in the higher risk the captain has to take.

Well, I pay.

After listening to the captain's explanation, Long Xiangtian acquiesced.

When he paid his fare and climbed aboard, the crew hoisted the sails and they were off.

It turned out that there was a ghost ship.

There's a fair chance this has something to do with some sort of event quest.This means that there will be a time limit before it disappears forever.

Ghost ships generally occur when sailors die at sea.Most disappear after a while unless they are bound by a strong curse.

But I can't wait that long.

In order not to attract the attention of others, he did not expose his abyss ship.At worst, he could always count on Triton to deal with them.

If somehow, many of them attacked at the same time, he might even lend a helping hand.

When Long Xiangtian was staring at the horizon, someone came towards him.

Hello, aren't you here with your team members?

It was a blond white man.Considering he has an adventurer's watch, he's likely around 30.

Not here.

What family are you from?We are Peeks.

It has been three months since they all came to the continent of Ace, so the tribe needs to choose a name for themselves.

Long Xiangtian looked at this guy's team members and replied.

Ragnarok.

This represents the end of the time of the gods.His family name embodies his will to become a god this time.

Give me a moment, I want to see your ranking.

The man in front of him tapped his finger in the air.There is now a new family tag from Adventurer's Watch.This allows players to view any information about their own clan, as well as the top 35% clan names.

After trying to search, the man started laughing.

Your ranking must be very low, are you a small sect?
Not really.

If your leader is killed, come to us Piv.Of course we are full now, but you can get on the waiting list.

This guy has so much confidence.His family barely made it into the top 35 percent of layoffs, but he seemed to be bragging about it, as if it was some great achievement.

Jacob, don't go around giving people inside tips.What if he was a spy for a family hostile to us?
It's okay, didn't you see that they are also promoting it?

Jacob shrugged, pointing to a dark-haired woman with glasses.

He was reminded of the past when he saw the discussion between the two Pifu members.

Back then, there were also some families who would do anything to raise their ranks.No one really has a goal or direction because they lack any general information.This is why everyone pays so much attention to ranking.

Of course, if they can properly use the sect system, they can get good rewards.But it's not worth getting into pointless competition for this.