"I'm looking for your director, Kasseru. I have a big deal to discuss with him."
The servant, seeing Li Xi in his expensive clothes, dared not delay. He immediately bowed and invited Li Xi inside, then went to notify Kasseru.
Two minutes later, a slightly heavy footsteps sounded from outside. Li Xi looked up to see a tall figure almost blocking the entire doorway as he entered. However, this tall figure obviously paused when he saw Li Xi sitting inside, then nonchalantly sat down in the main seat.
This subtle movement would be excusable if others couldn't see it, but with Li Xi's current eyesight, which came with built-in slow-motion, binoculars, magnification, and duplication abilities, he could tell if Kasseru had paused for even a centimeter less.
If he had come with only a tentative hope before, he now had an eighty percent certainty that Kasseru was involved with the Assassin's Alliance, otherwise, he wouldn't have recognized such a low-level mercenary.
"Hello, what's your name? What kind of business do you want to discuss with me this time?"
Kasseru sat on a stool, as if placing an egg on top of a quail egg. The clearly specially made stool creaked under Kasseru's weight.
Li Xi didn't reply. Instead, he carefully examined Kasseru's appearance. He was about two meters forty tall and weighed six hundred pounds. Compared to a normal person, he was a giant. His eyes had dark red blood-like patterns, and such obvious characteristics reminded Li Xi of a rare race on the continent.
"Are you a Barbarian?"
Kasseru clenched his fists, his knuckles making popping sounds like roasted beans. Li Xi looked at these fists, which were as large as pots, and quickly recalled information about Barbarians.
They were a race that lived year-round on high-altitude snow-capped mountains. Their powerful physiques made them feel like a gentle breeze against wind and snow. Adult Barbarians could hunt magical beasts, and if they acquired cultivation techniques, they were born powerful professionals. However, their minds were not as intelligent as humans', and coupled with their low birth rate, they had always lived in the snow plains, isolated from worldly affairs. Only a few adventurous merchants visited once a year.
"I am a Barbarian. Unfamiliar mercenary, you still haven't told me your purpose."
Kasseru's normal speaking voice sounded like a regular person shouting, echoing in the small room and shaking dust from the roof beams.
Li Xi pointed to his face and showed his white teeth. "Do I look unfamiliar? Do you want to take a closer look?"
Kasseru's pupils slightly contracted, and he shook his head firmly, "I really don't know you."
"You Barbarians are known as the children of ice and snow, your character noble and pure like the snow-capped mountains. How is it that I only see baseness in you?"
"Boom!"
Kasseru slammed his palm onto the nearby table, shattering it. He roared like thunder on a clear day, "Enough! What do you mean? The greatness of Barbarians cannot be defiled by you."
Barbarians had simple minds, or rather, they lacked cunning and deceit. Li Xi's words had tested him and revealed his nature. "I have no other intentions today. I just want to compete with you. If you lose, you tell me one person from the Assassin's Alliance. If I lose, I'll submit to your disposal, how about that?"
"Impossible! We Barbarians never betray our friends."
Li Xi looked at Kasseru, who had exposed himself with just two sentences, like looking at a complete idiot. After living in the human world for so long, he was lucky not to have lost everything.
"You want to have your cake and eat it too. I am ashamed that you are a Barbarian. You are a disgrace to all Barbarians."
"You deserve to die."
The honor of their race could not be insulted by outsiders, especially for a powerful race like the Barbarians, who valued honor more than their lives. They could lose their lives, but not their honor. Li Xi's repeated insults were already showing restraint by Kasseru not attacking immediately.
A iron fist that shattered the air smashed towards Li Xi's body. If this punch hit, even a person made of steel would be cracked.
Unfortunately, the Barbarian's proud physique was still no match for Li Xi. His body moved suddenly, and with faster speed and a more powerful fist, he struck Kasseru's abdomen before Kasseru's own attack landed. Kasseru immediately bent over like a shrimp, his entire body sent flying through the air, smashing through the thick wall and crashing heavily into another room.
"With such strength, you call yourself a Barbarian? Have all the children of ice and snow been castrated and become eunuchs? Is that why your fists are so weak, no better than the whores in the tavern?"
Li Xi used the most venomous words to utter the most malicious remarks. Such words would be unbearable even to the weakest dwarf, who would pick up a cleaver and fight Li Xi to the death. How could a Barbarian endure it?
Kasseru, enduring the agonizing pain in his abdomen, took a deep breath. His height, originally two meters forty, visibly increased to two meters sixty, his head touching the ceiling. Tiny white dou qi appeared and disappeared all over his body, as if lightning was coursing through him.
This secret technique, which used dou qi to force out his physical potential, had been used by Delabont before. And Delabont was also a member of the Assassin's Alliance. Looking at it this way, his connection with the Assassin's Alliance was even closer.
"You will pay a terrible price for what you have said."
Kasseru's powerful muscles were like carved marble. His taut clothing seemed as if it would tear apart at any moment. The intense aura generated airflow in the small room, making the door rattle.
Li Xi was unfazed. The killing intent emanating from his eyes made Kasseru's heart chill inexplicably. "Heh, I can say such harsh words too. You will pay with your lives for what you have done."
Li Xi's words caused Kasseru's aura to falter slightly, and the killing intent in his eyes diminished somewhat. But he quickly thought of something and forcefully intensified it again.
"You're really not suited for the human world like this, because you're not shameless enough." Because of his own words, Kasseru's heart wavered. Such a straightforward person wasn't suited to be a villain, because they couldn't overcome their own moral barriers.
It wasn't that Kasseru's resolve was weak, but rather that he himself didn't approve of what he was currently doing, yet he had to do it, which was why he was like this.
Li Xi felt pity and a bit of disappointment. Pity that a good Barbarian had learned conspiracy and deceit from assassins, which was destined to have no good outcome. Disappointment that with such performance, he wouldn't know much. If Li Xi were the leader of the organization, he wouldn't let such a subordinate know too many secrets, or perhaps no secrets at all. Such a person would be best suited as cannon fodder.
"Just right. I have recently acquired a new secret technique. I'll test it on you."
Inside his body, unseen by outsiders, Li Xi's chakra flowed to his left brain. The blood vessels and meridians around his eyes bulged, and his skin turned slightly red.
With a muffled shout, "Gate, open."
"Boom!"
As if a high-explosive bomb had detonated, an aura tens of times stronger than Kasseru's instantly blasted everything in the room, scattering it against the surrounding walls. The doors and windows that had been rattling from Kasseru's breath were now blown dozens of meters away. The roof directly above Li Xi was blasted open with a large hole.
The first gate of the Eight Inner Gates, the Gate of Opening, could liberate the brain's control over the body, allowing the body to exert one hundred percent of its strength. How much strength Li Xi possessed, Li Xi himself didn't know. He had just cut off half of an Infernal Demon yesterday, and today fighting this Kasseru, who was like a slug, was a piece of cake.
If he hadn't used up his two lottery chances from the mercenary guild earlier, and drawn two particularly good ninjutsu, Li Xi wouldn't have gone to such lengths.
Kasseru's strong body, capable of tearing apart giant bears, looked at Li Xi, who was even more inhuman than himself, and couldn't help but secretly retreat half a step. Before he could feel ashamed of his retreat, Li Xi had already disappeared from his sight.
A drop of sweat trickled down Kasseru's face. Just as his eyes were about to search for Li Xi's figure, a power that brought Kasseru despair traveled from his chin to his brain.
Along with the sound of his jaw shattering, Kasseru's body broke through the roof, flying up to a height of over thirty meters before falling. However, Kasseru had already fainted before reaching the highest point.
Like a deflating balloon, Kasseru's body returned to two meters forty. Li Xi closed the Gate of Opening of the Eight Inner Gates and caught Kasseru. Such strength couldn't even withstand half of the Gentle Fist Lotus. He wondered if he was too strong, or if his opponent was too weak.
Li Xi speculated that he was too strong; his foundation was too solid. The side effects of the Gate of Opening's weakness were also absent.
Kasseru's disciples and servants, hearing the commotion, rushed over. They found their once proud and invincible director lying on the ground like a dead dog.
They naturally dared not fight. Looking at Li Xi's not-so-tall figure, they saw a god of death who had emerged from the abyss.
"Run!"
It was unclear how many of them reported to the city lord's mansion, and how many genuinely fled for their lives.
Li Xi took out his Executioner's Blade, lifted Kasseru, and hung him on the back of the blade. He then returned to the mercenary hall, walking through the most crowded street.
The Assassin's Alliance was hidden so deeply that finding them one by one was somewhat unrealistic. The best method was to stir up trouble and lure them out. Kasseru was the 'grass' presented to them.
Although Cado City had been in chaos yesterday and the people were in a state of panic, Li Xi openly carrying a giant-like body on his greatsword still caused a stir.
Soon, Kasseru's identity was recognized.
"Isn't that Kasseru?"
"It really is him. He's almost a level five existence, with iron fists that have few rivals. How could he be beaten like a dead dog, with his face deformed?"
"Do any of you recognize this person who defeated Kasseru?"
"No, but he's wearing a D-rank mercenary badge on his chest. He's so young, why haven't I heard of him before?"
Wherever Li Xi went, a crowd of onlookers followed. It was no wonder, as a high-level professional who was usually beyond their reach was being paraded through the streets.
Ordinary people, when they witness those they normally can't reach being tormented, experience a morbid sense of enjoyment. To desecrate a noble flower is the pursuit of all hornets.
In order to capture as many members of the Assassin's Alliance as possible, Li Xi no longer cared about being low-key. His high-profile appearance today was to let the members of the Assassin's Alliance see that he, Li Xi, was declaring war on all of them. There was no room for reconciliation; it was a battle to the death.
Li Xi even deliberately took a roundabout route, taking twice as long to return to the mercenary hall. Under everyone's gaze, he threw Kasseru's body to the ground.
Li Xi was extremely ostentatious, "I'm here to turn in a quest. This is a member of the Assassin's Alliance, Kasseru, a living heretic."
"Whoosh!"
Li Xi's words caused an uproar in the mercenary hall. If the residents of Cado City were ranked by hatred, the first would undoubtedly be the Abyss, and the second would be no one who could compete with the members of the Assassin's Alliance.