Roughly two million kilometers west of the Quake Dungeon, four teams of shadowy figures flew through silver fields at low altitude. Their bodies were barely visible above lines of tall grass that grew as they traveled, maintaining a column formation to minimize their presence.

Scouting ahead was a dark-clothed Cultivator with considerable mastery over the Life Element who raised grass and maneuvered branches to enable the team. His hands glowed a pale green, the Life Mana Particles dimmed from their usual vibrancy by an unknown external source.

Leading the group from the center of the formation was Su Mian, whom was in a surprisingly good mood despite being sent on an annoying side quest by the Riverveil Faction's Family Head.

"Leader Su Mian, Senior." the Cultivator one position ahead gave a double honorific before issuing his routine report.

"Report. Any traces of him?" Su Mian nodded.

The Cultivator was already prepared to answer this question, as it was the fourth time in the last twelve hours. He slowed his flight speed to be parallel with Su Mian before responding.

"Yes Leader," the Cultivator nodded affirmingly, "This William is no simple person. We've underestimated him, but there seems to be a metal rod with traces of his aura attached. It was concealed with Arrays that will take some time to decipher, but there seems to be another rod further to the West."

Su Mian's mood lifted even more, his fighting spirit rising as he said, "Great! What of the Arrays? Tier 7? Tier 8?"

"Tier 6, Leader. They're more complex than usual and they said something about "confusing language", so the Array Masters asked for two days."

Su Mian frowned, "Didn't they use half a day to clear Tier 7 Arrays four months ago on that one project? This is clearly a distraction and a waste of time, tell them to move on."

"Yes, Leader."

"How about the trackers? Are his traces enough to follow?"

"Yes, Leader."

"Perfect. How long?"

"We're fifteen minutes out, at full speed, Leader."

Su Mian raised his eyebrows in surprise. Such a short distance, yet we're only just now able to track?

The assassins following Su Mian were no children, nor were they weaklings. These were experts, the top of their respective classes from decades prior. They weren't the strongest in terms of Cultivation, nor were they the Family Head's personal team of assassins, but they were a close second.

These young men and women had been trained in the art of both Cultivation and assassination for a minimum of twenty years before they were allowed to take on jobs. Afterwards, each of them had excellent battle records and extremely low failure rates, which made them elites in their age group.

Upon receiving the mission to assassinate William, Su Mian thought the Family Head was completely unserious. That maybe he'd been treated as a joke, or the Family Head wanted to punish him for some unknown mistake.

Su Mian's mindset completely changed, however, when these four teams of assassins came to label him as their leader. Not to mention...

Deity Realm! All of them!

Including himself!

As a talent exceeding hundreds of generations, Su Mian had ample self-confidence. In terms of the Slightveil Plane's ongoing competition, he had confidence to rank in the top five, maybe even top three!

But if he were to face this group in actual combat, Su Mian wouldn't last more than a few minutes!

When two geniuses meet in battle, the better genius wins. But when five geniuses fight a single, greater genius? After a certain point, quantity is still better than quality. Nobody has infinite Mana!

Which is why it came as a surprise that an expert tracker was having trouble locating a twenty-something year-old boy who was still attending school.

What caused the Family Head to send so many after a child? When Su Mian thought back to the last time this group came together to deal with one person, a picture of William's strength automatically formed in his head.

No messing around. Either the Family Head has lost his mind, or this kid is the real deal!

Su Mian had never felt so excited before. Could this person have the same potential as he, able to rival the top five geniuses on the Plane's Competition Platform?

After thinking about all this, Su Mian became suspicious and issued a new order.

"Forget what I said about the Arrays. We're splitting up. One team stay with the Array Masters while they decipher the rods, the other three continue the mission and go after William. I don't know how he knows, but we have to assume he's aware of our presence. Go!"

"Yes Leader!" the Cultivator was incredibly serious and flew towards the front of the formation to inform the other team leaders.

The information was transmitted in an instant, one team ahead seamlessly breaking off from the column while their place was filled from those behind. The team circled around the Array Masters in a protective formation, prepared to attack or defend at a moment's notice.

Su Mian and the rest continued forward as planned, increasing their speed to catch up with William before anything else could arise. At their pace, even if a Deity Realm Cultivator escaped at full speed, they would catch up in ten minutes.

About three minutes after boosting their speed, Su Mian's group discovered the second rod in question, but no one stopped to investigate. They continued forward.

Another three minutes passed and they spotted a third rod, while a fourth was in the radius of their senses. As usual, they continued forward. It shouldn't be long before they caught William, which made everyone tenser than usual.

Having heard nothing of William aside from visually seeing rods along their path, the assassins tensed up. By now, the trackers should have had a definite lock on William's position, yet there was nothing.

More concerningly, every time they were asked, William was only fifteen minutes away!

The Cultivator in charge of reporting spoke to Su Mian with a shaky voice, "Leader... we should be there in about—"

"Fifteen minutes?"

"Ye—"

"FUCK! WILLIAM!!!"