In the blink of an eye, Yan Jiu was already sitting beside Li Ban.
The old horse pulling the cart ahead hadn't noticed a thing.
"I have a new mission for you," Yan Jiu said.
Li Ban rubbed his nose.
Having someone so elusive sitting right next to him was always unsettling.
"Lord Du was just attacked by assassins; I might not be able to step out for long," he replied.
"Once you finish this mission, I'll give you a Copper Badge," Yan Jiu tossed out the bait. "Even though Zhao Kangnian is dead, you still won't get his identity as a prison official. Someone has already called in a favor to reserve it."
The eyes beneath her mask were brimming with amusement, as if telling him, 'See? Only in the Assassin Hall can you get promoted based on your actual skills.'
Li Ban feigned disappointment, but his mind was completely focused on the Copper Badge.
The second step wouldn't be revealed to him until he became a Copper Badge assassin.
Now, the condition to earn that Copper Badge had finally appeared!
Li Ban let out a fake sigh and asked with a hint of resignation, "I can't refuse this mission either, can I?"
"It's good that you know." Yan Jiu didn't care about his feelings; in her eyes, this was just proof of his lack of experience.
"What is the mission?" Li Ban asked in a resigned tone.
"Assassinate the former head of Qingshan Academy, Lu Weizhong."
Li Ban froze for a moment. He racked his brain for a few seconds but still shook his head. "Who is that?"
He had either met or heard of all his previous targets from the Assassin Hall.
But he didn't know this man at all.
He didn't even know what Qingshan Academy was or where it was located.
It sounded like a place where scholars studied.
Since the man had become a target of the Assassin Hall, he had to be someone of status.
It seemed that in the Wizard World, not only martial artists but also scholars could possess the power of spirit practitioners.
Yan Jiu shot him a glance. "Even if you just crawled out of the River of Forgetfulness, you should still know a little about the situation around Yu Province, right?"
Li Ban touched his nose in embarrassment.
Before this, he had been entirely focused on completing the Laboratory's tasks so he could escape this man-eating world. Naturally, he hadn't been in the mood to pay attention to the other factions in the Wizard World.
When it came to Yu Province, all he knew about were the Death Prison, the Myriad Ancient Pagoda, and Qingcheng County.
Although Yan Jiu found it a bit funny, it also set her mind more at ease about him.
He truly was someone who had crawled out of the River of Forgetfulness less than two years ago.
He lacked any self-awareness as an assassin.
Yan Jiu went on to explain Lu Weizhong's background. "Qingshan Academy is located on Daqingshan, right between Yu Province and Langzhou. Lu Weizhong used to teach the princes and princesses in Capital City. After returning, he served as the head of the academy for twenty years."
"But during these twenty years, he has secretly been involved in the Black Market. He trafficks humans, hands out high-interest loans, and waits for families to be ruined so he can annex their land. By now, almost all the prime farmland around Daqingshan belongs to him."
"Two years ago, he stepped down and passed the position of head to his personal disciple. Having lost his 5th Tier identity, he is now nothing more than a slightly stronger old man. He did so many things that provoke the wrath of heaven and the resentment of men, yet he still gets to peacefully celebrate his eightieth birthday. It's so unfair, isn't it?" Yan Jiu tilted her head to look at Li Ban. "What do you think, Good Guy?"
"Who is his backer? Does he have many experts around him?" Li Ban asked.
Good Guy was the code name Cat Girl had given him, and it was also the label she had stuck on him.
Li Ban knew that although Lu Weizhong had committed many evil deeds, that was definitely not the Assassin Hall's reason for targeting him; everything they did was driven by profit.
Li Ban didn't ask for the actual reason behind the assassination. Even if he did, Yan Jiu wouldn't tell him.
However, he needed to ask about Lu Weizhong's basic situation so he could figure out how to carry out the hit.
"His backer is the Eldest Prince. Back in Capital City, the Eldest Prince took him as his teacher. Most of the stewards and guards around him are spirit practitioners with identities affiliated with Qingshan Academy, but their tiers aren't high," she replied.
Li Ban blinked.
He had heard the Eldest Prince's name again.
Without a doubt, this assassination was no ordinary grudge.
Could the Laboratory have a hand in this too?
The Laboratory's mandatory one-month awakening period was approaching. Perhaps he would have time to go back and exchange intel before assassinating Lu Weizhong.
"I'll take the mission, but I need to find an excuse to go to Daqingshan," he said.
"No need. I've already arranged everything for you," Yan Jiu said, looking forward again. "His eightieth birthday is in two days, and your Lord Du will definitely pay a visit to offer his congratulations. You usually help handle documents, so just find a way to tag along. However—"
Yan Jiu paused for a moment.
"You are not the primary operative scheduled to strike in this assassination."
"What? Are you setting up a chain assassination this time too?"
"We take people's money to eliminate their problems, so we have to guarantee success as much as possible."
Li Ban couldn't help but look sideways at Yan Jiu. Eliminate whose problems?
Yan Jiu kept her eyes fixed ahead, entirely unbothered by his stare. "If the first assassination fails, you find a way to finish the job."
"Remember, I only look at the result, not the reason. As long as Lu Weizhong dies, I'll give you a Copper Badge. If the mission fails, you can go back to slowly grinding for seniority in the Death Prison."
With that, Yan Jiu's figure abruptly vanished again, though Li Ban could faintly sense that she was still right beside him.
A moment later, that sensation faded, and Li Ban confirmed she had truly left.
'So it really is Invisibility,' he thought to himself as he continued driving the cart.
Passing by Mount Wang, Li Ban recalled the giant fleshy-winged snake and the Black-Winged Qiongqi he had seen the last time he stole corpses.
Those two spirit beasts were so powerful—who knew how many elemental parts they possessed.
If only he could also learn the Myriad Ancient Pagoda's method for breaking down elements.
Filled with envy, Li Ban drove the cart all the way to the Myriad Ancient Pagoda.
Having not been to the Myriad Ancient Pagoda for a long time, he felt that the atmosphere here had changed.
For instance, the Black-Winged Qiongqi that used to constantly rest at the top of the pagoda was gone.
Wang Ying, who used to be in charge of corpse handovers, had been replaced by a completely unfamiliar face.
This newcomer completely lacked Wang Ying's enthusiastic habit of greeting everyone with a smile. He kept a straight face and looked incredibly burly and powerful.
However, when the man heard that Li Ban was from the Death Prison, a forced smile squeezed onto his rugged face.
"So you work under Lord Du. Please, come in."
Even though he was trying to sound polite, his expression remained stiff. It was obvious that he wasn't used to receiving guests.
"And you are?" Li Ban still didn't even know his identity.
"Oh, I am the newly promoted corpse refiner general, Wang Lin."
This man didn't even think to invite Li Ban inside to rest, merely ordering his subordinates to tally the corpses at the entrance.
The bodies delivered from the Death Prison included inmates who had died behind bars, but the majority were spirit practitioners who had been killed for committing crimes elsewhere.
All in all, the quality of the corpses was quite high.
—Even if the Death Prison had already picked them clean first.
Wang Lin just stood beside Li Ban and watched without saying a word. Since Li Ban wanted to ask about what happened to Wang Ying, he had to take the initiative.
"Congratulations on your promotion, Brother Wang Lin. Was the previous overseer, Brother Wang Ying, transferred or promoted?"
If he had been promoted to a 4th Tier floor master, he would be considered part of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda's management.
From what Li Ban knew, advancing from the 3rd Tier to the 4th Tier was incredibly difficult.
He himself might have been stuck for a year or two just trying to advance from the 2nd Tier to the 3rd Tier. Who knew how long going from the 3rd Tier to the 4th Tier would take.
Perhaps a lifetime.
The next bottleneck after that was advancing from the 5th Tier to the 6th Tier.
Cat Girl was stuck at that exact stage.
Without the proper identity, no matter how strong you were, you simply couldn't advance.
This system of combining identity and elements really felt more like a method of administrative control.
"Him?" Wang Lin sneered when he heard Li Ban's question. "He thinks he can be a floor master? The Myriad Ancient Pagoda had some trouble recently, and the pagoda master stepped in to clean house. Many people who were pulling dirty tricks and violating the pagoda's interests were punished. Wang Ying was flogged and is still recovering from his injuries. Even Deputy Pagoda Master Gao hasn't shown his face much lately."
The master of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda was cleaning up internal problems?
Wang Lin hadn't said a word at first, but once he opened his mouth, he dumped a massive amount of intel.
Moreover, it was obvious at a glance that he belonged to the pagoda master's faction.
When Wang Ying tried to fight for the corpses last time, he said he was going to invite the "deputy pagoda master," which was likely the "Deputy Pagoda Master Gao" Wang Lin just mentioned.
The pagoda master and the deputy pagoda master were clearly at odds.
Li Ban immediately put on a look of awe and admiration. "The pagoda master is truly extraordinary. Still, who would actually dare to stir up trouble in the Myriad Ancient Pagoda?"
"Just a petty mole. He's already been beheaded by Floor Master Jiang."
A genuine smile reached Wang Lin's eyes when he mentioned Floor Master Jiang.
'A mole?' Li Ban's heart skipped a beat as he pondered. 'Was this mole someone from the Laboratory? I'll need to confirm this with Chen Dong.'