CHAPTER 767: I DON’T THINK I’M PATIENT ENOUGH...

Aldrian kept looking at Luvier with his calm expression for a moment before he spoke.

"To be honest, I’d like to kill you and all of your minions on this continent right now, to serve as a warning to your group’s master and the Barevisk family, but I have a plan that makes you useful alive for now." Aldrian smiled, his gaze still fixed on Luvier.

"You will face the consequences for targeting me, my family, and my empire. You will return to where you came from, and you and your minions will create havoc in your own base."

Luvier’s eyes trembled, he had a bad feeling. He then saw Aldrian touch his forehead again while keeping eye contact.

"After this, you will forget about me. You will forget the current mission and you will only obey me," he said, which made Luvier’s heart turn cold. He knew that whatever Aldrian wanted to do might spell the end for him.

"Wait, wait!" he shouted, trying to move his head to break free from Aldrian’s hand, but Aldrian had already used his spatial lock to keep him frozen in place. He could not move, forced to keep staring into Aldrian’s eyes. While Luvier’s gaze remained locked with Aldrian’s, his surroundings suddenly grew wobbly, and before he realized it, he was already in a different environment.

In that moment, he found himself in the middle of darkness, his body bound to a pole that kept him from moving. From within the void, countless eyes appeared, all of them staring at him. They circled him, every single one belonging to Aldrian.

"Obey my will, obey my will, obey my will."

A chorus of Aldrian’s voices echoed, repeating the same words again and again.

At first, Luvier thought nothing had changed, but soon he felt his being and soul start to sync with Aldrian’s command. His consciousness was slowly consumed by the words, forcing him to submit.

The chant went on for what felt like hours, endlessly repeating. Luvier kept hearing the words, even finding himself echoing them. In reality, his expression had already turned blank, his mind emptied. His gaze was lifeless, unmoving, as if he were already dead inside.

Luvier had actually fallen under Aldrian’s illusion. Although he felt as if he had been trapped in that strange environment for hours, in reality only two seconds had passed. This was the time difference between the illusion and the real world of his technique. The illusion was designed to embed orders or doctrines deep inside the subconscious, in simple words, hypnotic.

However, it was a terrifying form of hypnosis, because once Aldrian finished embedding his doctrine or command, the victim would never realize they had been hypnotized. They would still retain their own consciousness and be able to think freely, yet they would believe that whatever they did under the command was natural and perfectly right.

After Aldrian finished ’brainwashing’ Luvier through his hypnotic illusion, he leaned closer and whispered something into his ear for a few moments before closing his eyes. Then, turning his focus once more, he delved into Luvier’s memory. With precision, he erased every trace of the mission, anything connected to it, leaving only the memories from before Luvier had received his orders.

Aldrian used death laws to erase those memories, but because of how fragile the mind and soul were in the presence of death laws, he was extremely careful as he worked. After a few moments, Aldrian finally finished and withdrew his hand from Luvier.

Luvier still looked like a dead man with that hollow gaze, and Aldrian knew it would remain that way until he released the illusion on him.

This was the first time Aldrian had used such a technique, hypnosis combined with memory erasure.

Why did he need to erase Luvier’s memories of the mission?

It was both to strengthen the hypnotic influence in Luvier’s subconscious and as a precaution, in case Luvier somehow realized he was not supposed to carry out what he was about to do, remembered something, and broke free from the technique.

Aldrian knew that his hypnotic technique was not yet strong enough to completely overpower someone at Luvier’s cultivation stage. If the target were at the same cultivation realm as himself, then he would not need to erase memories at all. His hypnosis would be strong enough to engulf both subconsciousness and memory entirely, leaving no way for the victim to escape.

But Luvier was someone at the middle pseudo-immortal stage, and individuals at that level could not be underestimated under this heaven. They possessed strong minds and souls, along with sharp instincts and thinking. If Luvier were ever triggered to remember something tied to the mission, he would sense that something was wrong within him, and the hypnosis could collapse.

For example, if someone reminded Luvier about the mission, especially someone like the master of Silent Reaper, the hypnotic would likely break. Now that there was nothing that could make him remember the mission, the hypnotic would be difficult to shatter.

After he finished with Luvier, he looked at Hurz and did the same. For Hurz he only needed to cast his hypnotic technique. When he was done with him, he spread his domain sense across the continent and searched for each assassin under Luvier’s command.

From his memories, the real number of assassins who came to this continent was actually one thousand one hundred. It showed how large Silent Reaper was as an assassin group, and those numbers did not even reflect their full strength.

What he needed to do was cast his hypnotic technique on each of them so his counterattack would succeed. This was the plan he had just devised, and although it would take time to cast the technique on more than a thousand people with varied cultivation, it was worth it for the effect. The Barevisk family and the Silent Reaper’s master would not realize what was coming until it was too late.

"Well, it will take some time but it’s worth it. I hope the Silent Reaper’s master and the Barevisk patriarch will be happy with my present," he thought.

On the next morning, Aldrian finally emerged from the dungeon and appeared at the edge of the small forest near his palace. He stretched his body to loosen it and let out a deep breath.

"Ooff, that was quite bothersome, but finally I’m done." He looked at the sun rising over the horizon. "To think it would take me this much time."

Although he had just finished what he set out to do, he still could not rest, there were other things he needed to do. He then walked toward his palace to carry out what he had in mind.

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In another location, Luvier had already returned to the teahouse he had visited the night before being kidnapped by Aldrian. He even sat in the same seat as before, but this time his face showed a confused expression.

"Why am I here? Did I get drunk or something? I don’t remember coming to this teahouse. I only remember being in the middle of a mission to target someone, but the target is still unknown," he thought. At this moment he felt disoriented and unsure. He seemed to be in the middle of a mission, yet the mission did not specify the target, which left him unsettled.

However, he still believed that this mission was something he had to carry out, even with the confusion lingering inside him. Nothing felt out of place, and everything he was doing seemed like part of the mission.

"I don’t have time to relax. I need to find out who our target is and complete the mission," he thought one last time before disappearing.

At that moment, all of the Silent Reaper assassins on the continent shared the same kind of thoughts as Luvier. Even if they contacted each other, their conversations would revolve only around the unknown mission they were undertaking. None of them would realize anything was amiss, and they would continue acting as if it were just a normal mission.

A few hours later, Aldrian visited Ilona at her inn. After a brief greeting, he spoke directly.

"Sometime after next week, bring me to your father."

Ilona’s eyes widened in shock when she heard this. Why was it so sudden?

"I think it will be better to bring down Munez Barevisk from his patriarch seat as soon as possible. It will not be good for your family if he keeps that seat for much longer," he added, making her sigh.

"Wait, wait, Your Majesty—what is this sudden decision? Why next week? Did something happen while I was unaware, for you to suddenly decide to make a move?"

From her reaction and the feelings he sensed, Aldrian was certain that Ilona knew nothing about Munez’s attempt to use assassins against him, even though she had been sent as an envoy.

Munez was truly playing in both light and darkness, sending Ilona openly in front, while secretly dispatching assassins from the shadows.

Aldrian then told Ilona about the assassins and who had hired them, which made Ilona’s eyes widen in shock.

Munez had done all of that without her knowing!

"That’s why, after a certain event next week, bring me to the Akares Star so I can meet your father. If not, I don’t think I’m patient enough to refrain from barging into the Barevisk estate, causing a bloodbath, dragging Munez’s body outside, and hanging it where anyone could see," Aldrian said calmly.

The words made Ilona’s heart shudder.