Chapter 2205: Mission Complete

Zhao Hai calmly watched as a carriage ran by him. When nobody was paying attention, he swapped a pot of flowers inside the carriage.

Since he wanted to show that his flowers were fresh, the cultivator delivering flowers to the hotel didn’t use spatial items to transport the flowers. Instead, he used a large carriage driven by two red goblins. He just sat at the back to rest.

The cultivator wasn’t very strong. He was at the same level as Zhao Hai at the Soul Fusion stage. However, unlike the cultivator, Zhao Hai’s Soul Fusion Stage cultivation was much stronger than most cultivators at the same level. Because of this, Zhao Hai was able to fool the cultivator inside the carriage.

Because Liu Ze’s status was special, the flowers inside his room were specially ordered. The flowers and plants needed to be of the highest grade. Fortunately, Liu Ze wasn’t particular about the flowers or plants in his room. The hotel wasn’t stressed about decorating his room. Having two new pots each day was enough.

The flower that Zhao Hai swapped has been provided by the Space. Although the flower looked exactly like the original, the secretions of the flower were different. The flower was smoothly delivered to Liu Ze’s room. Although there were people standing guard outside Liu Ze’s room, they didn’t find anything special. 

Zhao Hai’s plan was successful thanks to the hotel’s cleaning staff. Since they had been cleaning Liu Ze’s room regularly without mistake, the Whispering Ghost Sect was no longer suspicious of them.

Before long, Liu Ze’s room was cleaned and the flower was installed. Liu Ze didn’t see anything different in his room. In fact, his room was arranged the same way when he left. It was normal for him to be ignorant to the change.

The night quietly passed. The next day, when Liu Ze got out of bed, he discovered that his spirit was more refreshed than before. It seemed like he slept comfortably. This made Liu Ze happy, he couldn’t help but spare a few good words towards the hotel.

The next day, Zhao Hai once again swapped the set of flowers that would be sent to Liu Ze’s place. Like the one before, the flowers were smoothly installed in Liu Ze’s room. And like before, Liu Ze didn’t notice anything different. After cultivating and eating his meal, Liu Ze went to bed early. He didn’t know why, but he felt more sleepy  that day.

The night passed once more and the next morning, the people from the Whispering Ghost Sect discovered that Liu Ze hadn’t woken up. They knocked on his door to wake him up, but nobody answered. The cultivators of the Whispering Ghost Sect immediately panicked. They charged through the room’s door and discovered that the room was completely intact. There were no traces of battle. 

Everyone searched the room and finally found Liu Ze in his bedroom. However, Liu Ze was no longer breathing. He died with a smile on his face.

The people from the Whispering Ghost Sect immediately panicked. They investigated Liu Ze’s death but found nothing. Liu Ze showed no signs of poisoning nor was there any traces of struggle. It was as if Liu Ze died in his sleep.

The Whispering Ghost Sect naturally wouldn’t accept such a result. They haven’t heard of a cultivator dying in their sleep. They continued to investigate Liu Ze’s death but were still unable to come up with anything. They weren’t even able to pin the blame on the hotel. Liu Ze didn’t get in contact with any people from the hotel. Therefore, the hotel staff should have nothing to do with Liu Ze’s death. From all angles they looked at, Liu Ze didn’t die of poisoning. This caused the Whispering Ghost Sect to suffer a headache.

On the other hand, the cultivators from the other sects didn’t have good days. They were all captured by the people of the Whispering Ghost Sect. Naturally, Zhao Hai wasn’t among them. Nobody even knew about Zhao Hai’s identity.

The assassination was naturally Zhao Hai’s handiwork. Although he already killed Liu Ze, he didn’t leave. He continued to go to the trading square to buy items he liked. Nobody knew nor suspected his identity. He stayed in the city until the trading conference ended. Only then did Zhao Hai leave the city. Upon leaving, Zhao Hai immediately headed to Wei Tiande’s cave.

Standing in front of Wei Tiande’s residence, Zhao Hai patted his robe and then said, “Disciple Zhao Ling is here.”

Wei Tiande’s voice immediately replied, “Little Ling, you’re back. Come in.” Zhao Hai complied and then walked inside the room. Inside was Wei Tiande sitting in the living room. Seeing Zhao Hai enter, Wei Tiande waved his hand and said, “Sit down. I heard that Liu Ze has died. The Whispering Ghost Sect is clamoring to find the murderer. Is this your doing?”

Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “It’s me. They couldn’t discover my method, so they wouldn’t suspect me. I’m afraid they don’t even know how Liu Ze died.”

Wei Tiande nodded, “So it’s like that. Until now, nobody still knows how Liu Ze died. He shows no signs of being poisoned and there’s no signs of struggle. He died silently. How did you do it?”

Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “It’s actually not that complex. What I used is poison, but it’s a poison mixture.”

Wei Tiande raised his brow and said, “Poison mixture? What did you mix?” Poison mixtures are quite famous in the underground world. It involves mixing two or more poisons together to create a new poison. It was harder than it sounds.

Zhao Hai smiled and said, “I didn’t mix two poisons together. Instead, I mixed two non-poisonous substances together to form a poison.”

Wei Tiande asked, “Which substances did you mix?”

Zhao Hai replied, “The flowers in Liu Ze’s hotel room are changed every day, so I replaced the flowers that were sent. The first flower is the Sleeping Immortal Orchid and the other is the Dream God Chrysanthemum. Sleeping Immortal Orchid is a plant that could cure insomnia and also improve one’s mental strength.”

Speaking here, Zhao Hai paused before he continued, “Because of its effects, hotels often used Sleeping Immortal Orchid so that their guests can sleep more comfortably. The Dream God Chrysanthemum has the same effect as the Sleeping Immortal Orchid. It could also make one sleep more soundly. But if the two flowers were mixed, their scent could create a poison that would make someone sleepy. And then, they would be unable to wake up. They would die in their sleep.”

Hearing this, Wei Tiande couldn’t help but be shocked. He heard of Sleeping Immortal Orchid and Dream God Chrysanthemum before. However, he didn’t know that mixing the two was very dangerous.

Seeing Wei Tiande’s reaction, Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “Although the mixture of Sleeping Immortal Orchid and Dream God Chrysanthemum is poisonous, it’s a special type of poison. If you resist the urge to sleep, you won’t be knocked out. Only when you sleep would the poison be fatal. And it would leave no traces of poison. This is what happened with Liu Ze.”

Zhao Hai then paused for a moment and then continued, “The first day, I changed the flower in Liu Ze’s room to a Sleeping Immortal Orchid. The flower’s fragrance isn’t very strong and lasts for around three days. The hotel that Liu Ze stayed in changes flowers each day, so on the next day, I sent in the Dream God Chrysanthemum. This flower’s fragrance is quite strong. So on the second day, when Liu Ze returned to the room, he immediately got hit by the mixed poison and fell asleep.”

Hearing Zhao Hai’s explanation, Wei Tiande couldn’t help but sigh, “I didn’t expect it to be so complicated. I didn’t know that the two flowers would create a strange poison. Right, how did you find out that Sleeping Immortal Orchid and Dream God Chrysanthemum would create that effect?”

Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “I happened to discover it by chance. I always liked to collect plants and other materials and experiment on them. It almost killed me when I was experimenting. It would take at least five hours for the poison’s lethal effect to take action. As long as you wake up before five hours, you will be saved. While I was experimenting, if I hadn’t placed a timer for myself before sleeping, I would have died.”

Wei Tiande nodded, “Alright. No matter what, you completed the mission. The Sect will certainly reward you.”

Zhao Hai nodded, “Thanks Master. Right, Master, I discovered something strange during the mission. The other sects also sent people to kill Liu Ze and they were discovered by the people from the Whispering Ghost Sect. What’s strange is that the Whispering Ghost Sect didn’t make a move. Only the guards around Liu Ze made a move once they attacked. Which looks strange.”

Wei Tiande looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Why do you think that is?”

Hearing this, Zhao Hai stared for a moment. Then he immediately understood. Wei Tiande seemed to understand what was happening. There seems to be something hidden about this matter. However, Zhao Hai still replied, “I reckon there’s something wrong with Liu Ze’s trial. It doesn’t look like he’s on trial. It seems like he came out so that people could target him.”

We Tiande nodded, “You’re right. Liu Ze came out on purpose to kill people. The Whispering Ghost Sect had always known that people would send people to kill Liu Ze. In fact, this trial was basically a bet.”

Zhao Hai replied, “Bet?” Zhao Hai seemed to understand what’s going on. At the same time, he had a new understanding of the Ghost Cultivators’ cruelty.

Sure enough, Wei Tiande nodded and said, “Yes, it’s a bet between the Whispering Ghost Sect and the other sects. We bet that we could assassinate Liu Ze under the Whispering Ghost Sect’s protection. While the Whispering Ghost Sect bet that they could protect Liu Ze. The stakes are quite heavy. Each sect will send their strongest Soul Fusion disciple to carry out the assassination, which would also be treated as a mission.”

Zhao Hai nodded, “I understand.” To be honest, he was quite disappointed with the Battle Corpse Sect. In the True Spirit Realm, nobody would gamble with the lives of their disciples. But in the Underground World, this kind of thing was common. They would bet using the disciples of their sect. Even the best disciples of the sect wouldn’t be exempted.

Looking at Zhao Hai’s reaction, Wei Tiande said, “You don’t have to be disappointed. Cultivation is always going against heaven’s will. It’s common to undergo dangerous missions. Moreover, cultivation requires a lot of resources. Bets like these bring huge benefits to the sect, so the sect takes these bets seriously. It was precisely because of this that I let you go. You are the strongest Soul Fusion stage disciple of the sect.”

Before Zhao Hai could respond, Wei Tiande waved his hand and said, “You don’t have to deny it. You’re the strongest Soul Fusion Stage disciple of the sect. Alright, you can go back. Someone will send your reward to your room.” Zhao Hai complied and then bowed to Wei Tiande before leaving the room.

Looking at Zhao Hai’s back, Wei Tiande muttered, “I hope you can understand that I did this for your sake.” Then he no longer made any noise.

After returning to his room, Zhao Hai sat on his bed and said, “Ghost Cultivators are really ghost cultivators. Even such bets could be made.” After saying that, Zhao Hai closed his mouth and used his spiritual force to enter the Space. He wanted to take a look at the Allspark.

As soon as his spiritual force entered the Space, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but stare. He felt that he had entered the world of the Transformers. Cars with nobody driving were running around the Space. There were also unmanned planes in the sky. From time to time, cars would turn into robots and walk like people.

Zhao Hai didn’t expect the processing machine to make so many machines. There were machines that he was familiar with and there were also machines that were new to him.

After some time, Zhao Hai recovered and immediately stopped the processing machine. If the processing machine continued to create machines, he could create many legions of machine soldiers. Since he doesn’t know the strength of the machines, Zhao Hai didn’t want to waste too much time on them.