Hitman with a Badass System

"That shit doesn't work for us. Your sales pitch would have worked on those freaks who call themselves cultivators" Vance snickered,

"Sigh" Corey sighed,

"It seems like you need a demonstration" Vance saw Corey close her eyes. Subconsciously he took a step back from the table,

Corey felt the crystal pendant on her neck warming up. The warmth slowly spread through every being in her body.

"Crystal Dagger" she opened her eyes abruptly, raising her hand at Vance. Melina and the bald man immediately jumped in front of Vance to defend though they were too late. They only felt a gush of wind blow past their faces.

"Fuck!" Vance stumbled back as a blue dagger floated in the air just an inch away from right between his eyes. He shuddered and without his control, he started to sweat under his shirt.

Melina and the bald man's faces lost all color and became pale. Melina's hands on her rapier were shaking. This had heard about cultivators casting spells and using magic but this was the first time they had witnessed it in real life.

They couldn't stop themselves from shivering. The dagger was still hovering in the air radiating a chilling aura.

"Argh fuck" Vance growled when he tried to grab the dagger. The dagger's cold surface burned his palm,

"This is just a taste of power Lord Lucifer blessed me with Vance. In Front of him, we are powerless and insignificant as ants. Imagine the possibilities of having such powers Vance, we can be much more than Pirate Lords" 

Corey put her hand down as the dagger vanished into thin air. Only now Vance could let out a heavy breath. He just stared death in its eyes and survived to tell the tale. His mind was slowly digesting the fact of how insignificant and powerless he was just as she said. If Corey wanted, she could have simply killed him and the two pirate captains in a blink of an eye without making any fuss. They could have walked out of the island simply as by the time the drunken pirates notice their bodies, they would have been long gone. 

Still, every fiber in his body screamed against him at the thought of serving someone else other than himself. He felt as if he was being forced to bend his knees. He preferred to die on his feet than to live on his knees like a true pirate.

"You have two weeks to give us your answer Vance" Corey stood up to leave,

"What if I didn't?" Vance's question stopped her on her way to the door,

"Nothing" Corey didn't even turn back,

"If you can't grab an opportunity when it slaps you on the face, you're not the pirate I thought you are" 

Tiberius followed Corey and Gibson behind leaving the pirates stunned. He couldn't help chuckling, noticing the fear in their eyes. 

"Pirate Lord Corey, is it okay to leave them? You know, they might blabber" Gibson asked as they were climbing down the stair,

"They should" Corey smiled,

"Everything went according to Lord Lucifer's plan" 

Gibson wasn't surprised by her words and neither was Tiberius. They both knew that Lucifer was as cunning as he was powerful. 

"Those pirates should be grateful they didn't come here," Tiberius calmly said. The 'they' he meant were Lucifer and Dark Queen.

"I've yet to see someone live after saying no to him"

The trio left Aden after staying for a day. Shorty handed over all the information he gathered in Aden to Gibson which was then transferred to Maxine. Old Bertha started her voyage searching for Blackmane, the last Pirate Lord.

**********************************

The Broad River sect of Kingdom Kethen was a beautiful castle surrounded by majestic gardens and fountains magically created out of the crystal blue lake surrounding the sect. The sect looked very impressive despite having stood for over five hundred years. Many buildings were being built and the existing buildings were getting repaired. The major construction work was on the main castle. It was believed that the magnificent fountain in the middle of the sect's park had healing and beautifying properties.

The sect had an average reputation under the previous Sect Leader Mathias. However, the new Sect Leader Ella raised the reputation of the sect to one of the best in Kethen after merging the Broad River sect with the famous Sun Rise sect of River town. Many nobles in Kethen and the fellow sects tried to destroy the Broad River sect by fanning the flames between Ella and Mathias during the inner conflict. 

However, the civil war soon came to an end when the majority of the students and elders sided with Ella to merge with the Sun Rise sect and Mathias was burnt to death by the bandits. The sect was still investigating Mathias's death to apprehend the bandits who killed him except many believed it was Ella who killed Mathias with the help of Ghost, the rising star of River town who now held the title of 'King' on top of many.

The name 'Sun Rise Sect' was hanging on the gateway instead of their previous name 'Broad River Sect'. They engraved the golden words on black metal. At the moment, Ella was going through a stack of documents located on a long oak table in a spacious room with many windows and many portraits of the previous sect leaders. The portrait of Ella's family, a bearded man and a black-haired lady in a red dress hung behind Ella.

There were some delicate silver instruments puffing smoke and whirring on a table next to the big oak table. One could also see several book racks filled with ancient books and parchments. All of them were illuminated by the majestic chandelier right above the crimson red rug. Any visitors could rest on the comfy black couches given to her by Claire as a gift.

In addition to the couches, there was a wooden throne-like chair located just before the oak table for having official talks.

Unlike before, Ella did not wear a dark cloak covering herself. Thanks to Ghost's potions and cream, her burnt skin recovered its natural glow. Her skin now glowed like jade so she wore colorful clothes that expressed her joy rather than gloomy dark robes. Despite her forty-plus age, she looked as though she was still in her late teens. She had already started to receive many proposals only to get rejected by her one after another. She was rejecting not because she had no plans to get married but rather because she was waiting for the right man.

Knock!

Knock!

Knock!

While she was reading all the income and expenses reports of the sect, someone knocked on the door,

"Headmistress" 

"Come in," Ella said and put down the report to take a break,

A young female disciple dressed in a long black coat with red linings walked into the room carrying a cup and saucer.

"Headmistress, here's your tea" the young girl brightly smiled at Ella and placed the tray on the table.

"And Headmistress, Sect Leader Olivier has arrived and is on his way to meet you" 

Ella took a sip of tea and felt a surge of sweet aromatic energy exploding in every fiber in her body. The exhaustion of reading through the report evaporated along with the smoke coming out of the tea. She took a deep breath as the tasting buds in her tongue had a small party.

"Headmistress…" the young girl chuckled silently looking at Ella's expression,

"Oh yeah, Olivier, good. It's time I had a little chat with him. You can go now Peggy"

The young girl bowed and when the girl reached the door, Ella stopped her

"Peggy, Hades is reopening today. Tell Master Ricky to book a table for two"

Just by thinking of Hades, Ella's mouth started drooling. To be honest, she could not wait to finish the meeting with Olivier and stuff her belly with as much food as she could. It had been too long since she tasted Raylene's cooking. She was glad to be in the close circle of Ghost. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to get a table in Hades whenever she wanted. Even the princess of Royal land and her friends had to book a table two weeks earlier.

"As you wish, Headmistress" 

After the girl left the room, Ella continued to enjoy every sip of tea. She felt the thousand she spent on getting a flask of Raylene's tea was totally worth it. Each and every sip was sweet mind-boggling goodness that soothed her from within. Only she hated the feeling of the bottom of the cup.

"Headmistress is waiting for you my lord" Ella heard the guards outside speaking to someone and shortly after, she saw Olivier, a bald old man with a bushy white beard strolling into the room. The old man looked to be in his late seventies and wore plain white robes. He looked to be in his late seventies while his real age ranged between hundred to hundred and fifty. Ella noticed the dark circles under his eyes. 

Everyone in the sect leaders circle knew the man was struggling to break through to the Core Strengthening stage. He was stuck on the Core Formation level 10 for more than ten and even Ghost's revitalizing pills or cultivation enhancers could not break his bottleneck. That didn't mean Ghost was unable to help Olivier with his bottleneck. In fact, he left a crate of special potions just for people who were suffering from cultivation bottlenecks.

A potion from that crate was Ella's major bargaining chip with the negotiation she is about to have with Olivier.

"Thank you for coming to meet me, Sect Leader Olivier. Please take a seat" Ella gestured at Olivier to take a seat. Regardless, the current Broad River sect was much more prominent than Olivier's White Cloud Sect and in fact, the two sects shouldn't be compared as the current Broad River Sect had become a mammoth in Kethen. That was why Olivier came all the way from his sect to meet Ella when she summoned him.

Offending Ella would be like offending the Sun Rise sect. Nowadays, they had the same influence and power to be equal to the three big sects themselves.

"How would you like to join our Sun Rise sect, Sect Leader Olivier?"