I Ascend to the Divine Throne through Arcane Means

Langai Street, in front of Old Jack's shop.

Seeing Marion vanish on the rooftop, Old Jack could no longer stand and slumped to the ground.

"Uncle Jack!"

Ashley, seeing that the person who fought with Old Jack had left, hurriedly opened the door and ran to his side.

Looking at Old Jack, severely wounded as if fished out of blood, Ashley tried to hold back her tears and took out her handkerchief, wanting to bandage his wounds.

This was the first time Ashley had witnessed the cruelty of the Extraordinary World since accepting Old Jack's guidance and mastering extraordinary power.

The weak have no chance of resistance in front of the strong!

Old Jack let out a heavy breath and gestured to stop Ashley's efforts.

He knew how grave his injuries were; a small handkerchief could hardly solve the problem.

But Old Jack couldn't care for his wounds first, as many dangers were waiting for him.

It wasn't that he was worried about Marion turning back; Old Jack knew the best way to stay away from that madman was to make him lose interest in you.

The vampire just now must have sought his revenge to his heart's content, so Jack needn't worry about threats from Marion for the time being.

But now, what was more important was that Old Jack had almost lost all his ability to protect himself!

His trump cards were all but exhausted in the fight with Marion; otherwise, as a Basic-level Assassin of the Gold Level, how could he have held out against Marion for so long.

Aside from the attacks from Marion, many of Old Jack's injuries were the side effects of using Forbidden Techniques.

Living in the gray area, Old Jack knew that once those hyenas lurking in the dark knew he was this weakened, they would surely pounce on him and devour him.

As for those so-called friends, they were only linked by interests, outwardly respectful out of fear of Jack's Gold Level strength, but he was quite clear about their true faces in private.

After all, Old Jack had once been the same.

So, even though Old Jack had arranged secret bases and escape routes for himself, they were not absolutely foolproof.

Once these people discovered that Old Jack was seriously injured, they would definitely bite down hard, and Old Jack couldn't ensure that he wouldn't be discovered during his time of recovery.

If Old Jack were alone, it wouldn't matter; he could just perish together with those people, but not now.

He had already taken Ashley as a disciple; there was no way he could just abandon her.

That's how people are; once you have someone you care about, you become a lot weaker!

That was the case for Old Jack, who, after a moment of thought, realized that perhaps there was only one person who could help him out of this predicament now.

"Help me up, Ashley."

Having made up his mind, Old Jack didn't hesitate anymore.

Upon hearing his words, Ashley struggled to grasp Old Jack's arm, helping him up from the ground and supporting him.

Fortunately, Ashley had already advanced to a Basic Professional; otherwise, with her petite frame, she might not have been able to support Old Jack.

Old Jack had Ashley support him into the shop, and he stored some valuable items and cabinets filled with Gold Coins and intelligence into the storage ring.

As for everything else, Old Jack could no longer bother to pack them up.

Gripping Ashley's small hand tightly, Old Jack used the last of his strength.

High-level Skill of Assassins "Shadow Jump"!

The bodies of Old Jack and Ashley were enveloped in a dense grey shadow, disappearing from their original spot.

...

After a moment, a figure appeared inside Old Jack's shop, the paladin Oriel, who had hurried straight there from the rooftop.

Frowning at the mess in the small shop and the gaping hole in the roof, there definitely was a residual blood energy of a Vampire present at the scene.

Oriel carefully searched the area but, other than confirming the scene probably belonged to a black market operation, found nothing useful.

The Vampire hadn't remained at the scene, and the person who had fought with it must have left earlier, and it was very likely that person was the owner of the store.

This owner must have been seriously injured, but judging from the traces of blood left at the scene, it must have been Human rather than Vampire.

Wasn't he hunting Vampires? Why start attacking Humans now?

Oriel's expression grew heavy. He could overlook Vampires fighting amongst themselves, but he absolutely couldn't ignore attacks on Humans!

While Oriel continued his investigation, Guard Captain Todd "finally" arrived at the scene as well.

"Sir Oriel, I rushed over as soon as I got the message. Did the Vampire escape?"

-----------------

On Langai Street, in the Upper District of Bright City.

The shadow in the corner writhed, and the figures of Old Jack and Ashley appeared beneath the wall.

"Cough, cough..."

Upon leaving the Shadow Plane, Old Jack immediately put his left hand to his mouth, unable to stop coughing, with fresh blood staining his sleeve.

Severely injured, Old Jack had no choice but to forcefully use "Shadow Jump" to leave quickly, and he had even taken the little one, Ashley, with him, aggravating his injuries so much that his face went pale as if he was about to faint at any moment.

"Uncle Jack, are you alright?"

Ashley braced Old Jack's body with her strength and asked with concern in a low voice.

She had never been to this area before. Although they were in a deserted alley, the clean streets and tall walls were worlds apart from Langai Street.

"Cough cough... This way, to number 36 Langai Street."

Experience tales at empire

Old Jack was familiar with this place, having been here many times before.

"Understood."

Even though the environment was unfamiliar, Ashley didn't panic. She knew that Old Jack could only rely on her now.

With caution, Ashley supported Old Jack, weaving through the alleys, deliberately avoiding the passersby.

Just as the young girl's strength was about to give out, number 36 Langai Street finally came into view.

-----------------

At number 36 Langai Street, the Kane Mansion.

Lis didn't go to the First Magic Workshop today. Teacher Fran had just returned from a trip with Risa and seemed exhausted. He went straight to rest without seeing anyone.

After coming out of the Library, Lis thought about it and decided to call Welf to practice some Martial Arts in the yard.

Actually, Lis also wanted to try to trigger a limited challenge mission from Welf to earn a reward, but it seemed that because the gap in their strengths was still significant, there was no sign of any response from the system after a long time.

Lis felt somewhat helpless. It seemed that these limited challenge missions could only be triggered by chance.

After practicing with every weapon alongside Welf, Lis had worked up a light sweat.

Just as Lis was about to take a bath and rest for a while, Coachman Bender hurried over, exclaiming hastily:

"Young Master!"

"What's wrong?"

Lis asked curiously, wondering what was so urgent. Was there some issue?

"Young Master, there are two people at the door looking for you, covered in blood and looking like they're barely hanging on!"