The Beginning of the Mission

The leader of the Yellow City bandits was in his office accompanied by three other men when the door was opened all of a sudden and a subordinate came rushing while reporting that they had found the whereabouts of the strange fox and her cub.

"So, where are they?" One of the men in the room asked eagerly. The other two also expressed a lot of interest as they began to pay close attention to the man who had reported this news.

"They are in a cave about 500 kilometers from here, she is weak right now and is unlikely to be able to leave that place anytime soon," the subordinate, who had reported the news, replied with a wide grin.

"Hahaha, good! We are going to prepare an expedition to capture both the mother and the cub!" exclaimed Chief Gul said with a wide smile reaching from one ear to the other.

"By the way, what level of cultivation has this beast attained?" One of the three men asked curiously.

"The leader of the hunting group estimated that she should be at the 5th stage," the subordinate promptly responded.

"Hmm, in normal situations, it would be impossible for us to capture such a beast without fighting with the intention of killing it, however, since she just gave birth to her cub, it won't be that hard," Gul remarked aloud.

He then turned to one of the three men and commanded, "Lydo, go and make the preparations for our hunt. I believe ten people above level 44 will be enough to capture the beast with ease. Call all of our commanders."

Of the three men, the one named Lydo, was at level 45, he nodded and left the office quickly to resolve this matter after hearing the order from the chief.

As for the other two in the room, they were also at a similar level as Lydo and were just below Gul in the hierarchy within the Yellow City bandit group.

In fact, that was not all, each of these three had two commanders as their subordinates, these commanders further controlled the rest of the group and were at level 44 respectively.

This was the power structure that Gul had implemented to manage this city.

Chief Gul then looked at the other two, who were still in the room, and said, "Make the other preparations. When we leave the city, the strongest one here will only be at level 43."

"Understood, boss. We'll get everything ready as soon as possible," the two responded before leaving the room.

"Kekeke, it looks like I'm finally going to have some good luck. It won't be long before those who chased me back then will all be killed. Hahaha," Gul chuckled aloud and then laughed maniacally.

...

A few hours later, Minos' group established a temporary camp about 30 kilometers from Yellow City, where their group planned to wait before taking any action.

The reason for them to choose this location was that it was close to the city and contained some plants and rock formations that could leave them unnoticed by the unwelcoming eyes.

"Sergeant Humbert, make a group of ten Corporals and visit Yellow City to collect information about the active criminal groups in this region," Minos ordered while looking in the direction of one of the soldiers.

"But remember that you all wear clothes that are common and different from each other and after entering the city, divide this team into five smaller groups so as to not attract any unwanted attention. Gather all the needed information quickly and return as soon as possible. You will be leading this task."

"Okay, young master, I will do this as soon as possible," Sergeant Humbert responded promptly as he turned to quickly gather the ten men before heading for the Yellow City.

At that moment, young Elen approached Minos and said with a smile on her face, "You seem very careful and also experienced in situations like this, have you done such kinds of things before as well?"

Upon hearing this question, Ruth, who was sitting in a chair that the soldiers had set up, glanced at Minos while perking her ears, expecting to know the answer to the same question.

Upon hearing this and seeing the reactions of the two women, Minos laughed and said, "It is true more or less..."

...

After a few minutes, the group consisting of Sergeant Humbert and ten other soldiers arrived in Yellow City.

As soon as they arrived by the entrance, the group noticed three carriages consisting of about ten men leaving the city and were heading towards the east.

Noticing this, Sergeant Humbert who was the only Spiritual General in the group, frowned and thought to himself, 'Ten people, and all are at least at level 44. The strongest is at level 47!'

'Could it be that some wealthy merchant is passing through here? Hmm, never mind, let's get to know this place soon while they are away. This will also make the mission less troublesome,' with that, he stopped paying attention to the group and entered the city.

...

Meanwhile, in one of the carriages, Gul smiled and thought, 'It's just a group of Spiritual Warriors and a person at level 40. They cannot do anything in Yellow City. Haha, just another group of fool traders who don't know what's going on here...'

...

Upon entering the city, Humbert's group split up according to different directions. But as they entered the city, they noticed that despite being a much larger city than Dry City, this place was far more disorganized and impoverished.

Of course, that change was only out because of what Minos had done during those months when he was running Dry City and before then, it would be without a doubt that Yellow City would win in all aspects concerning the old city of these soldiers.

Humbert also noticed that the spiritual energy of this place was slightly better than that of Dry City before the installation of spiritual arrays, in fact, even with the current spiritual concentration of his city, it was barely able to beat Yellow City.

As the group dispersed, Humbert walked around the city calmly, as if he were an ordinary passerby from this city, but he was constantly observing all people and places and tried to probe whenever he noticed something that caught his attention.

"Interestingly, this place has at least 80 cultivators who have already reached level 40!" he murmured to himself.

And indeed, Yellow City was much better than Dry City before the changes carried out by Minos. Here the people could even afford to buy some high-level grade-1 spiritual pills for people with Blue talent to break through their bottleneck.

Anyway, when he arrived in a large square in the central part of the city, Humbert stopped at a fruit stall and said to the merchant, "Buddy, take two apples for me."

"Here it is, that will be 20 low-grade crystals," the merchant said while he handed Humert the two apples in a paper bag.

Later, Humbert continued to talk to the merchant for a while and then resumed his tour around the city. He wanted to familiarize himself with the terrain and the forces of the bandits. However, whereas he knew that the other members of the group would prioritize information gathering.

This was what they had planned while on their way, as it would be best to not only know about the bandits but also the city itself so that they would be able to use its terrains if needed later on.

He then cleaned one of the apples and took a big bite, 'Hmm, low spiritual concentration similar to the fruits that were sold in Dry City back then.'

...

Simultaneously, in various parts of Yellow City, the five groups, each consisting of two soldiers, quickly infiltrated conversations and discussions upon their arrival.

All of them had received a good amount of low-level spiritual crystals from Minos to bribe people who indicated any willingness to talk about what was going on in the city.

"Friend, did I hear that your son is sick and you are doing extra work?" one of Minos' soldiers disguised as a civilian asked in a specific restaurant in one of the city's poorest regions.

The man he had spoken to turned and answered with an eager look, "That's right, do you have any services for me?"

The man looked very anxious when he heard someone ask him. Life was tough for people with low talent in Yellow City, especially when paired with the high criminal activity that had been happening recently. Resulting in many like him working hard to survive in this place.

The soldier smiled and said, while indicating a more isolated place in the restaurant, "Come with me to a place where we can have some privacy."

After they sat down, the soldier then said, "Well, here's the thing..."

And then took a handful of spiritual crystals, showing them to the man.

...

Meanwhile, several other soldiers were doing the same in different parts of Yellow City.

It was not difficult to find someone who was complaining about how bad things had gotten recently or those individuals whose family obligations compelled them to accept almost any kind of work so that they could get some spiritual crystals.

And because of this, the group was quick to grasp the events that were happening in the past few months, learning a little about the group in power in the city.

...

A day thus quickly passed, and the group of 11 soldiers returned from their mission of intelligence gathering. During their mission in Yellow City, the group had not encountered any problems since they were disguised as ordinary people.

And since they had no product with them, the bandit groups also showed no interest in them.

It didn't take long for everyone present at Minos' camp to gather and discuss the information that Humbert's group had gathered during their assignment.

Minos asked calmly while taking the initiative, "So, what did your group manage to discover?"