Night raid (part 3)/ Family reunion.

Collin opened the door to the cultivation chamber and found a ten-year-old boy with a roundish face and curly golden hair staring at him. The boy was confused why a faceless servant was standing in front of him instead of his father. Three green triangle shaped blades the size of a palm stabbed into the boy's heart and lungs, each blade was coated with a pain numbing poison that made sure that the ending his life was as quick and painless as possible.

After letting the body bleed a bit, Collin placed the body in a space bag he had for dead bodies. While most of the time when things are placed in space bags or rings, they stay where they are put. But sometimes things like liquids get sloshed around by micro-shockwaves when things near them and placed in or taken out of the space. Since he had several space bags and didn't want to risk blood getting on anything of value, it was an easy problem to solve.

Collin's next item of business was to store everything of value in this vault that wasn't bolted down into his space ring and bags. The cultivation books were the first to be stored, then the space bags of gold and spirit stones, after a few minutes the vault was empty. The Styron family's several hundred years of accumulated wealth was now Collin's to do as he pleased.

"The two male cultivators, were they your family?" Collin asked.

"Yes... my sons."

"If you had four cultivators in your family, why didn't you proclaim your family a cultivator clan?"

"Only Reginald was a talent, the... other three used other means."

"Did the Demars clan tell you what they had planned for after you became a cultivator clan?"

"No, us and the Tyler's were told... to produce a talent and wait for instructions."

"When were you told this?"

"Thirty-seven years ago."

Thirty-seven was far longer than Collin was expecting to hear, it was almost four times longer than he been alive. The conspiracy was far bigger than he had thought, and part of him wanted to warn his family and clan members about it, but he couldn't. He might be able to warn them after he joined the Alchemist's Guild, but they might not believe him if he told them what he knew.

"You might think it's cruel that I have come here and killed your children and stolen your family's wealth, but I know why the Demars clan wants you to become a cultivator clan. They plan to have your family become the new territorial lords by murdering my family, my clansmen. I might not like them very much at the moment, but they are still of my blood. It's my family or yours, and I choose mine."

A thin green needle pierced his back causing him to lose all feeling in his body. The only thing he felt was a sense of weightlessness as his feet hovered several inches above the ground, his body moved to the right almost touching the wall, before he was violently thrown into the opposite direction, slamming headfirst into the wall.

A wet thump sounded before his body slide down the wall leaving a bloody streak. After collecting the body, Collin left the vault and headed to the small building. He was going to take the bodies of the male cultivators to their rooms and bleed them, while removing the female cultivator's belongings. His intent was to have those that found the blood stains believe that she had killed her father and brothers so she could steal the family's wealth.

If he was lucky by the time he met his cousins around noon, the rumors that the daughter of the Styron family killed her family to steal from them would be spreading around the market. It would not be the first time that murder and theft had happened during the trade fair. Most people in the city would happily believe it, but if any cultivator clans truly looked into it, they would most likely discover the truth. But the only cultivator clan that would want to seriously investigate it was the Demars clan, and if they made a move to investigate, the other clans would notice.

Twenty minutes later, Collin was back at the wall he had jump over to enter the compound, and a moment later he was over the wall and heading home. After returning home Collin released his raptor and ape and allowed them to return to their areas. He noticed the ape seemed annoyed that it was brought along, while the raptor seemed upset that it didn't get to eat anyone. As for the solar boar, Collin could sense it under the garden bed it had dug out this afternoon, asleep and without a care in the world.

For the first time in a while the sound of birds chirping was an unwelcomed interruption to Collin's sleep. After breakfast, Collin skipped alchemy practice and headed to the market to look for more deals, before he met with his cousins. The first thing he noticed walking in the market was the increased number of security guards. There were groups of people gathered around gossiping about why the number of guards increased and about how some of the trade caravans leaving the city had been searched.

This was good news to Collin, it meant that they were looking for someone other than him. Tomorrow these people would gossiping about the tragedy of the Styron family and how the daughter whose room wasn't bloody, was most likely the perpetrator. In a week or so the only ones who would still be concerned with what happened would only be the rest of the Styron family, everyone else would be gossiping about something new.

While Collin was weaving between the crowd to visit the stalls, he visited the bookstores and collected many books on alternative path cultivation methods. Most of the books were different variations of methods he already owned; it would have to spend some time to read through them to know there true worth.

By the time Collin could see the last of the vendor stalls, it was time to start heading to where he said to meet Julie and the twins. He had expected to arrive earlier than his cousins but found them standing in the alley waiting for him.

Julie and Valter were calmly waiting for him to arrive, but Viktor was pacing around anxiously. Collin was not looking forward to his reunion with Viktor, he was a loud hot head that most people found annoying to deal with. And Collin doubted that his being cast out from the clan would fix his personality flaws.

When Collin showed up, Viktor looked like he was going to say something but was glared at by Julie and Valter till he shut his mouth.

Taking off his mask, Collin smiled at his cousins before he waved his hand and three faceless servant costumes appeared on the ground before the trio.

"Good to see you, put these on and follow me, I reserved a room at a restaurant."

The three looked at the costumes for a moment before Julie and Valter bent down to pick one up, Viktor on the other hand looked furious.

"You expect us to be some noble's faceless servants, do you think we have fallen that far?" Viktor yelled.

The smile on Collin's face had disappeared, it had been replaced with a cold angry look. Flaring his cultivation Collin forced Viktor to his hands and knees and made him feel like he was being crushed.

"If you don't want to wear the costume, then don't. You can return to your little shack while I take the others to lunch. You were always a loud, annoying, asshole. But sine your father was a clan elder people let you get away with. But it may have escaped your notice, but your parents and the clan turned their backs on you and cast you out like trash.

If you dared to act that way in front of a noble family, they will kill you, act that way in front of a cultivator, they will kill you. If you die the clan won't care, the only ones that would, are our talented cousins, and they will laugh at your stupidity for not knowing your place.

So, put on the damn costume and keep your mouth shut, or leave, it's your choice. But know this, I will only make this offer once, if you leave, we're done."

Collin retracted his cultivation base and crushing weight that Viktor felt disappeared instantly.

After a gasp for air, Viktor reached for the costume and began to put it on while glancing at his brother, he was wondering why he didn't speak up for him while he was being crushed. Valter had wanted to plead for mercy on his brother's behalf, but the cold eyes of Collin had stopped him. The trio had noticed that their happy and kind cousin of a few months ago, had been replaced by a cultivator that could kill them at will.

When the trio had finished putting on their costumes, Collin put his mask back on and started heading to the restaurant.

"Keep up and don't get lost, even if you don't go for my offer, there will be a large table full of food to eat." Collin said, trying to sound as if he wasn't angry just a few moments ago.