<h4>Chapter 356: Hunting Far and Wide</h4>


    The eldest young master of the Musi n, Musi Ke, was so incensed that he smashed the cup of wine he held against the ground.


    "Musi Te, that useless fool—he wasn''t even able to take care of the two children of the Hong n! And isn''t Musi F aware of how important [Eclipse] is to the Musi n?!"


    Nothing on Tarkus could get past the Musi n''s eyes, and they found out about the oue of the altercation almost immediately after it had urred.


    Just then, someone rushed in, shouting, "Young master, something''s wrong, something''s very wrong!"


    Musi Ke frowned. "What''s the problem? Just catch the two children."


    The neer was the old housekeeper of the Musi n, who had diligently served the family for over fifty years. He had watched Musi Ke grow up himself. Panting, he wheezed, "Zhang Lie of the Zenith Dojo has set a bounty on the Musi n, and it''s spreading all over the web! Look!"


    "A bounty?" Musi Ke brought up an optical interface and quickly identified the bounty in question. When he saw it, instead of getting angry, he began tough. "Ha! I hope this Zhang Lie fellow doesn''t think that this ridiculous bounty will turn anyone against the Musi n. Thoughtless fool!"


    The old housekeeper hesitated, then urged, "Young master, I think it best to consider this bounty more seriously. Zhang Lie might not be as strong as you, but the theory of limit fragments that he developed, along with the corresponding potions, really seem to be impactful. In the face of sufficient temptation—"


    "Enough!" Musi Ke broke off the old housekeeper. "I''m well aware. It''s been a long time since I went out fighting, so this should be a good warm-up activity."


    "Young master, you—"


    "Have my men meet up in front of the entrance to the Zenith Dojo on Earth!" Musi Kemanded.


    Before he could set off, however, another man burst into the room, his robes stained with blood, a prominent injury over his face. He shouted, "Run, young master! Something''s wrong—a flock of ck-cloaked men have rushed into the manor and are killing everyone in sight!"


    "What?!" Before Musi Ke could respond, the man who had rushed in found a de piercing through his chest. In a single blow, his head was decapitated from his body.


    The next moment, a ck-cloaked man stepped into the room. "You''re Musi Ke, aren''t you? There''s someone who wants your head."


    Musi Ke''s eyes bulged. "Y-You''re part of the Night Shadows!"


    Night Shadows—the top assassin troupe in the world federation! Musi Ke quailed. "Who set a bounty on me? I''ll pay you double it, no, triple— no, ten times the amount!"


    The assassin chuckled. "The price was two limit-breaking potions. Is that something you can afford?"


    Two limit-breaking potions?! "I''ll give you money, all the money you want!"


    .


    "Money won''t do me any good, now, will it?" The assassin smiled coldly as he raised a dagger, but just then, a beam of light shot toward Musi Ke from the side.


    In anger, the original assassin deflected that beam of light, then turned to the assassin in the shadows behind him. "Fei Du, what''re you trying to do?"


    The new assassin stepped out of the shadows. "There are only so many hunters in the main family, after all. Should I wait my turn just because you found him first?"


    While the two assassins argued with each other, smoke suddenly billowed throughout the room. The old housekeeper slowly approached Musi Ke and whispered, "Young master, this way!"


    Musi Ke''s eyes brightened. The Musi n wasrge enough to have quite a number of enemies, and the main estate of the Musi n had been built with safety contingencies in mind. In every room of the manor was a hidden tunnel, the end of which was a teleportation array that promised them a safe abode.


    Right before the teleportation array, Musi Ke heaved a sigh of relief. "I really have to thank you for being here for me. Otherwise, I truly might have perished! Just you wait, Night Shadows. Once I escape from this ce, I''ll make you pay the price of daring to attack the Musi n—"


    Before Musi Ke could finish, he felt an icy shock by his chest, and he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.


    He turned to the old housekeeper in disbelief: it was he who had thrust a knife into his heart.


    "Why? C-Could you want this limit-breaking potion for yourself, too?!"


    The old housekeeper had been almost like his father. He had followed him around since he was little, and they had ovee many a challenge in the Musi n together, in pain and suffering, exasperation and annoyance, happiness and joy.


    No matter what happened, the old housekeeper remained steadfastly by his side, and he was the person Musi Ke trusted above all.


    "You''re not a hunter—what would you do with such a potion?!"


    The old housekeeper''s face was lined with sorrow. "I apologize, young master, but they''ve captured my granddaughter. They want your head in exchange, and I had no choice but to sumb to their threats! She''s the only family I have left. On ount of how hard I''ve worked for the n for thest fifty years, please die peacefully—don''t worry, once my granddaughter reaches adulthood, I''ll immediately join you down here."


    He twisted the silver de in his hand, crushing Musi Ke''s heart.


    To hisst breath, Musi Ke didn''t understand why the world had gone so crazy over a few vials of potions.


    In economics, it was often said that only goods in cirction would possess value. By announcing a bounty on the Musi n with these potions as a reward, Zhang Lie had instantly raised the value of these potions by an order of magnitude.


    In the past, conversations had been about just how much a vial of such a potion would cost, but now, they were about how many heads would be needed to exchange for one such potion, as well as how difficult it would be to amass these heads.


    The impact of the Zenith Dojo''s bounty rippled across the entire gxy. If you had the strength, and if you didn''t mind breaking thew, you could hunt down the Musi n on Mars. If you didn''t have the strength and did mind breaking thew, then you could at least be an informant and earn a hefty sum of money just by reporting the whereabouts of such members.


    "Have you seen the subsidiary bounties that came out? If you''re able to provide urate information about a member of the Musi n, you can get a million government points!"


    "We''ll be rich, rich! Send everyone out into the streets. We might not be capable of hunting down the Musi n ourselves, but we can at least get this bounty just by numerical superiority!"


    Zhang Lie was the one who had posted the main bounty, but the subsidiary bounties were subsequently issued by the major corporations and a number of top ns and organizations in order to umte more information about their targets: their identities, for example, in case there were any bastard children that might not otherwise be recognized as members of the Musi n, or any secret hideouts that the Musi n might have.


    Any useful information would be rewarded with amensurate amount of money.


    Some ck markets had even begun using the heads of the Musi n as some sort of currency.


    The cloaked Musi Ou rushed through a small alley, already having killed or defeated three waves of assassins.


    In the three days since Zhang Lie had posted his bounty, he had experienced over a dozen attempts on his life. If not for the fact that he was a powerful third-realm hunter in his own right, he would already be dead.


    He had cursed Zhang Lie a thousand times over in thest three days; by now, he was almost inured to the sight of assassins. After a long slog, he finally escaped yet another assassination attempt as he darted into a secret pub.


    In thest three days, Musi Ou learned to avoid being forced into a fight—if he were forced to remain stationary, wave after wave of assassins would quickly swarm toward him. If he had to fight, he would have to end it quickly.


    The pub was frequented by all sorts of criminals and wanted hunters. The reason Musi Ou had stopped there was because he wanted to rest for a little, and also to take on a new identity with which he would be able to flee farther away.


    His pride as a member of the Musi n had been beaten out of him over thest three days; he wished he could divest himself of that identitypletely.


    "Look, they raised the reward for the subsidiary bounties again! If you''re able to provide urate information about any member of the Musi n, you can get up to two million points!"


    "Two million— the Musi n''s done for!"


    "They''ll never be able to rise up again after this. Why on earth would they provoke someone like Zhang Lie? Don''t they know what happened to the winged race?"


    "If only I could encounter a member of the Musi n! Don''t you know how much a vial of Potion #1 is worth?"


    The discussion in the pub caused Musi Ou''s expression to turn even paler.


    He ordered steak and wine, then secretly handed over a point card. "I need a new identity, as well as transportation to the Oden."


    Oden was a newly discovered on the outer edges of the gxy. No teleportation arrays had yet been set up there, and he could only get there by long-distance travel.


    The hubbub in the pub died down instantly upon hearing his words.