The assassin was, of course, Noah.

He entered the room and released some black smoke from his hands.

The partial Demonic form consumed everything, in just a few seconds, every trace of his presence was destroyed, even the holes on the walls created by the spikes of the Instabilities were removed.

He then wielded a white saber and wrote the word "Hive" on the wall, that was a message for the representatives of the continent and a warning for all the informants that tried to double-cross the organization in the future.

Then, he left in a hurry.

He went for the second floor of the building and entered a simple-looking room, the sound of hurried steps resounded in the building as he closed the door behind him.

A few hundreds of Credits appeared in his hands and he hastily placed them on the floor, a large diagram lit up as soon as he did that.

Shouts and orders could be heard on the superior floors but Noah didn't care, he entered in the diagram and a strong pressure was applied on his sea of consciousness while the world in front of him transformed.

In just a few seconds, the room disappeared and a purple wall took its place.

"How did it go?"

Roy was standing right beside the teleportation matrix, he spoke as soon as he saw Noah's figure.

"The betrayer and seven guards are dead, I even left the message as requested by the mission."

Roy nodded when he heard Noah's report and smiled proudly before speaking again.

"So, what do you think about our connections with the legal factions?"

Noah lowered his hood as he reviewed the events of the mission.

As it turned out, that safe location wasn't as safe as the representatives of the continent thought.

The Hive had spies everywhere, years of undisturbed rule allowed it to plant moles in every facility of the archipelago.

A teleportation matrix had been inscribed during the construction of that building, the Hive knew that the representatives wanted to use it as a safe location so it had instructed some of its members to create the diagram.

Also, it was even aware of the codes needed to pass the security measures of the guards!

Noah had only to use the matrix placed in the headquarters of the Chasing demon sect, kill the two patrolling guards on the lower floors, and assassinate the cultivators in the protected room, it was virtually impossible to make any mistake thanks to the deep preparation of the Hive.

'The Hive really is the leading underground organization. It seems that its roots are spread all around the archipelago, I wonder what kind of influence they have on the legal factions.'

"You have corrupted soldiers everywhere, matrixes placed right in their homes, what can even stop you from conquering the archipelago?"

Noah asked as he stored the large robe in his space-ring, only a tight suit remained on his body.

Roy shook his head at Noah's question and patted his shoulder as he gestured to follow him.

"Even if it's a bit annoying at times, we are freer if we make the continent think that we are being suppressed. If we really where to take over the archipelago, we would have to face the full power of the continent and we can't hope to win in the long-run. It's better to accumulate for the time being until we are strong enough to defend ourselves."

'They are using the representatives of the continent to protect themselves from the continent. It's no wonder that they prefer this situation, they can control the whole archipelago under the faade of the suppressed organization.'

Noah understood the meaning behind Roy's explanation but he had spent too much of his life hiding, he couldn't say that he liked the Hive's approach.

"How strong is the Chasing demon sect inside the Hive? Are we in the top five positions at least?"

Once he had assessed the power of the Hive, Noah wanted to understand how influent his sect was in that organization.

"Top three I'd say, just our Demon alone is enough to shake the very foundations of the archipelago after all."

Roy gave his usual honest answer, there was pride in his eyes when he mentioned the Chasing Demon.

Noah was silenced by that statement, he was glad that he didn't join one of the weak branches of the Hive, he wanted to have access to as many resources as possible.

The two of them reached the building where the missions were affixed and they directly went for the first floor.

"Use your horned face to activate the formation and use your thoughts to browse through the various items, you should find what you are looking for."

Noah followed Roy's instructions and placed his palm at the center of the formation on the surface of the desk, the tattoo appeared on his hand and reacted to the formation, sending information to Noah's mind.

A list of techniques, resources, and spells useful for rank 2 cultivators appeared in his mind, Noah had only to will it and the many items would be sorted according to his needs.

Under the envious gazes of the other disciples in the room, Noah quickly found what he was looking for.

'Rank 3 cultivation techniques of the darkness element! Finally! I have used the one given to me by Eccentric Thunder for all this time, damned Utra country and its restrictions.'

Noah cursed in his mind as he read the descriptions of the techniques.

'Five of them. Two of them are generic cultivation techniques with no restrictions to the aptitude of the cultivator, I can just discard them, they would only slow my training speed.'

Two names disappeared from the list in his mind, leaving only three techniques.

'One is the improved version of my Dark vortex technique, it is an orthodox technique and I should become used to it quite quickly. The other two are the unorthodox ones.'

As an unorthodox sect, the Chasing demon sect obviously had unorthodox cultivation methods that could provide a quicker training speed.

Of course, those methods were accompanied by heavy requirements and by dangerous practices, that's why they were labeled as unorthodox.

'This one seems the fastest one, Bone marrow draining technique, it needs the bones of magical beasts and cultivators of the darkness element to be used but its effects should be amazing with such harsh requirements. However, where would I even find those bones while I'm here?'

Noah discarded that technique too, his attention went on the last name on the list.

'Dantian's opening.'