CHAPTER 412: PARADISE OF CRIMINALS

After entering the city, they looked around. It had the feeling of cities from a thousand years ago, and most of the houses were built out of clay.

The architecture was unlike anything he had ever seen before, with massive, beautiful dome-shaped structures. The entire city was uniform in color, unlike most of the cities they had seen so far, which were usually vibrant and colorful.

Another thing that caught their attention was the vibe of the city. Contrary to what they expected, the place actually felt alive—and the people seemed genuinely happy.

"The paradise of criminals, huh?" Daniel laughed.

The majority of the people had high power levels, between rank B and A, with even a considerable number of rank A’s. As for higher ranks... well, they didn’t see any of them in the city.

After asking around a bit, they decided to head to an inn for now—the most famous inn in the city, at least. Maybe there, they could find some information about their target.

"With fake identities being a thing here, finding Aden might not be that easy," Andreas said, glancing at Daniel.

"Yeah, finding him won’t be simple. But testing is free anyway," Daniel nodded in agreement, and then they started heading toward their destination.

The place they were headed to was called the Central Inn of Bloodmere, and it seemed to be run by the city lord himself and his family.

From what they had learned, it was the best place to rest, eat, and, most importantly, buy all kinds of information on all sorts of people. According to what others had said, if they were looking for someone, that was definitely the place to either find them or get help doing so.

"Isn’t it risky if we just walk in and ask directly? Our goal is assassination after all, shouldn’t we be careful?"

"Yeah, but if we do it that way, it might take too long to track him down. Besides, assassinating him might not be the right choice—especially since killing anyone outside of death duels is forbidden here," Daniel answered, then added,

"Normally we could ignore the rules, but the city lord here is definitely a Heavenly Climber, and if we’re unlucky, maybe even a Heavenly King."

"Makes sense... but how do we force him to accept a death duel?" Andreas asked, confused.

"I don’t know either. First, we find him and figure out what kind of person he is. After that, we’ll decide."

After that, silence settled between them again. But soon enough, they arrived at their destination. Confirming the sign, they opened the door and went inside.

Once inside, they glanced around. On both sides were tables where lots of people were sitting—some drinking, others gambling.

Most of them were burly and had faces that looked like thugs and gangsters.

At the far end was a counter where a bald middle-aged man stood. The two of them walked over to him.

"Welcome, new guests."

"Hello. We’d like a room for three days," Daniel greeted.

"How much money do you have? We’ve got all kinds of rooms—from trash holes, to rooms good enough to sleep in, and even rooms fit for kings," the innkeeper said with a grin.

"A room good enough to sleep in will do," Andreas replied this time.

"You look like you’ve got more money than that."

Andreas frowned, but before he could say anything, Daniel suddenly spoke in a tone Andreas didn’t expect.

"So what? Is there a problem? Do you even dare to have a problem?"

Hearing his harsh, mocking tone, everyone else drinking or gambling turned to look at them, their gazes filled with curiosity, mockery, and scorn.

"Calm down, new friend. This isn’t the kind of place you want to start acting wild. I only said that for your own good," the innkeeper said with a smile.

"Really? Not because you thought you spotted an easy target? Well, it’s not your fault. Lots of people made that mistake. Most of them are buried underground now," Daniel said, his voice firm but still carrying that mocking tone.

The more Andreas listened, the more confused he became. But he didn’t dare interrupt—he was sure Daniel wasn’t doing this for no reason... or at least he hoped so.

"Hahaha!" Before the innkeeper could reply, loud laughter echoed across the room.

Andreas turned to see who it was, and when he realized, he felt a sudden headache.

"Kid, you’ve got guts. Not everyone dares act like a clown in front of me." A massive man, nearly two meters tall, stood up from his seat and walked toward them.

He looked at both of them with ridicule and scorn, like they were nothing more than prey and fools.

"Since when did pigs get the right to speak?" Daniel didn’t get angry. Instead, amusement flickered in his eyes as he replied.

The moment his words rang out, silence swallowed the entire place. Even the sound of people swallowing could be heard, and no one dared even breathe too loudly.

Andreas looked on, even more confused, but when he saw the innkeeper’s expression—like he was watching a fun comedy show—he started to understand Daniel’s plan.

But that wasn’t the case for the massive bald man standing in front of them, whose eyes now burned with rage.

"Did you just call me a pig?" he asked furiously, as if his eyes were filled with blood.

"Yeah. Got a problem with that?" Daniel lazily replied.

"You bastard!" The man raised his hand to strike Daniel with a heavy blow, but before it could land, it stopped just an inch from him.

"You’re slower than I expected," Daniel laughed as he unleashed his aura.

A terrifying aura engulfed the entire room, slamming the man to the ground and crushing him in a single blow.

Everyone around was shocked into silence. None of them had expected the fight to end like this. In fact, it wasn’t even a fight—it ended without Daniel needing to take a single hit.

"Well, where were we?" Daniel turned his gaze back to the innkeeper, who was still smiling at him.