"It's because she's the missing Heavens Chosen, Dorthy Quella, the Chosen Hero of the Water Goddess."
Petra's eyes widened, her greed flaring up.
"Heh?"
A shiver ran down her spine, right before something flashed in the back of her mind. No wait, did she hear that right, this miserable girl was the missing heavens chosen? How was that possible!
Petra had thought of many things, many possibilities, but she never could have imagined that this was where Dorthy had gone.
Why did this seem more like an accident than a kidnapping?
Why was it so boring?
Petra's nose wrinkled.
She hated these inexplicable encounters because she knew better. She wouldn't believe even for a moment that this wasn't orchestrated by someone or something. It was impossible for this to be natural!
What she didn't know, and wouldn't know for some time, was that the existence of the King's Hand in her body made 'fateful encounters' impossible. They simply didn't work on her. Petra's 'direction' could not be controlled, and her actions could not be manipulated, at least, not under normal circumstances.
She was the embodiment of walking chaos.
As for this encounter…
This encounter was indeed a pre-planned event, but it was not intended for her.
In a few days, the inquisitorial team from the eastern region was meant to find this place and take Dorthy away. Even with Dorothy's uniqueness, her weakened state made it impossible for her to resist the brainwashing. She would be turned into a puppet and lose her free will forever.
Even if Dorothy hadn't run away when she did, this was still her fate, just a few months later.
Petra had Levy open the cage.
She entered.
She wanted to see just how bad Dorthy's condition was.
When she entered the cage, she could feel the unnatural power that was shrouding the cage wrap around her like a snake. Petra frowned, feeling the weight of the curse digging into her body. Because of her bloodline, Petra was very sensitive to these kinds of things, so she found it particularly annoying.
With a flick of her mind, something seemed to 'open' around her body.
Petra had cloaked her body in a thin layer of mental energy. This mental energy connected directly to her sea of consciousness, allowing it to project the aura of the King's Hand.
The curse paused, quickly retracting its claws. It moved in a way that seemed to be alive. It craned its 'neck', its invisible tendrils twitching unnaturally as it assessed the aura.
A moment later, it reeled back in sudden fear. It could smell the scent of something dangerous, something very dangerous, something that would devour it until nothing was left.
Even Levy narrowed her eyes.
It seemed that her little Miss had been up to a little bit more than just making poisons after she had left Earth. Whatever that thing was, it was rooted deep within her body, and it seemed to have been there a long time, so long that it had almost become a part of her.
For a moment, Levy even considered whether she could beat that thing, a thought that quickly shocked her. One had to know that she was very powerful, so powerful that there wasn't much that could hurt her, not to mention beat her.
If it wasn't for Petra's silly personality, then perhaps Levy would have taken this more seriously.
Unfortunately, she threw away this thought.
Petra approached Dorthy, poking her with a long stick.
Dorothy didn't react, so Petra used her mental energy to shroud the dying girl. She easily forced her way into Dorothy's sea of consciousness and casually took a stroll around. Her big black eyes were completely unrestrained as she examined all of Dorthy's most private places.
Unlike Petra's sea of consciousness, this place was very different. It was smaller, claustrophobic, and there was a certain mysterious aura hidden within the mental void.
Petra could feel that there was something hidden here, something very special, but she had no idea what it was, or how to find it. Such a thing annoyed her, but she wasn't going to tear apart Dorthy's mind just to find it.
Pulling back her mind, Petra decided that she needed to treat Dorothy's physical injuries first.
She retrieved some medicine from her pouch and fed it to the girl. After the medicine came food, and after the food came some water. Then, there was a clear improvement in Dorthy's condition almost instantly.
Aside from needing a bath and a proper change of clothes, Petra felt that she would be fine for now.
Next, Petra needed to think about how to take her out of here.
She turned to Levy and asked if there would be a problem when she was taken out of the cage. Levy explained that it would cause a problem, but not right away. For those who should have known about her and were too weak to resist the mental cleanse, it would be like a flood of memories slowly forced into your head. You couldn't not think about it, even if you wanted to.
As for the question of whether this Heaven's Chosen Child was willing to follow Petra as a slave, er, maid… Well, Petra didn't care at all. What she had bought was naturally hers. In Petra's mind, she now owned Dorthy Quella, the Heavens Chosen. This was the natural mindset of a dragon.
After carrying her out of the cage, it then became a question about how to take away the cage.
Levy just smiled and snapped her fingers, and the cage disappeared in an instant. Its low existence caused the guards to not even bother to look at the sudden and inexplicable gap.
Petras' mind turned.
This kind of existence-erasing art didn't seem to disappear all at once. It would be very powerful if she could learn how to use it, then integrate it into the Emerald Ghost Trees barrier.
-
Petra left the slave street with the other girls.
With the 18 new girls, combined with the 12 from the prison under the city lord's mansion, Petra had now picked up 30 new background characters, and one Dorthy.
Petra had Nebula and Levy take care of the girls and bring them out before leaving on her own.
Before they left, Petra had one thing left to do.
It was time to play a prank on those annoying assassin guys. She had already found their hideout, so now it was time to clean them up. Petra wrapped herself with an illusory cloak and blinked away, leaving the girls to return to the Tower Spider by themselves.
* * *
Petra squatted on the roof of an unassuming building.
Her body hid in the shadows as she observed the group of people ahead.
The stronghold of the Grey Snakes Sevensen branch was built into the side of the cave. It was a three-story building that looked a little bit like the face of an ancient temple, protruding only a few meters, then extending back an unknown distance into the cold stone wall.
Petra slipped in with ease.
She moved with a level of stealth that far exceeded what these low-level assassins could use.
This was not the headquarters of the Grey Snake, which was in the western region. This was the main branch in Sevensen, and it was here where one could find almost all of the active assassins, as well as their administrative facilities and information archives. This was Petra's target.
This place was well guarded.
From the outside, it appeared as a hollow shell, but Petra could feel the ripples in the shadows. Her affinity with the darkness element was so sensitive that Petra could use the shadows like the surface of a pond to see, hear, and feel any changes in the dark.
Her body moved like a ghost, elusive even to these professional assassins.
None of the girls knew just how stealthy Petra could be, but if they did, they would probably feel worried about the future, and especially for those who would eventually offend this green haired devil. One should remember that the reason that the greed of dragons could be tolerated was because they were usually these massive hulking beasts that one would find hard to miss.
Combining Petra's naughty personality with her draconic bloodline and shadow affinity, this was a disaster just waiting to happen.
She found the assassination records in a small chamber near the back of the building and copied them, then she moved on to their storage and Information archives. After she had silently gutted everything that she possibly could without alerting the guards, Petra moved onto the next step.
She ran around searching for any openings to the stronghold, like windows, doors, secret passages, etcetera, being careful to not reveal her presence.
Petra had even avoided using the ants for fear of the assassin's heightened sensitivity.
After she had scouted out everything, she began the final step.
She used a colorless and odorless poison to quietly seal all the exits, then slowly filled the building with a billowing green gas that flowed from her feet like a tide. This gas was thinner than the unseen poison that 'plugged' the entrances and exits, so it slowly filled the hollow halls like rising water, incapable of leaking out.
After a long period of silence, Petra finally allowed herself to relax. She skipped through the halls, humming loudly as she moved, a trail of spiraling green gas following her every step.
The collapse of the stronghold was like a simple game of dominoes. One scream led to another, then another, until a wave of uncontrollable panic swept through the assassins. They were naturally not stupid, so they quickly began to run. Those who left the building were turned into sludge, making the assassins believe that they were under some kind of curse. This kind of poison was considered very high-level, even for the most skilled poison masters. Petra was in a class of her own, so its unseen nature was closer to magic than any known poison in Pillomal.
At least, any known poison that she had seen so far.
The green sea continued to fill the building, encroaching like the silent hand of death. As it would turn out, even the eternal silence of these assassins could be broken by the fear of the unknown.
Petra could feel the occasional ripple in space. A few of the assassins teleported away using unknown means, but those who escaped were of no concern to her. Perhaps it was even better to allow a few of them to leave.
From time to time, an assassin would find Petra.
Seeing this strange young child with green hair that coincidentally matched the green tide, casually walking through the stronghold, it wasn't difficult to connect her with this unknown disaster.
Regardless of whether she was attacked or beseeched, threatened or promised, anything that approached her would disappear with a wave of emerald green powder.
Petra's indifference to this kind of massacre was a reflection of what she had become in her past life. The innocent would be given an opportunity, but those who lived in the darkness would just be destroyed. Petra couldn't care less for those who waved their right to life.
-
Petra was stopped by someone who finally demanded her attention.
This man wore a large cloak with many layers of grey robes, and a dark hooded mantle draped over his head. The face concealed behind the long hood was old and withered, but his unfocused eyes flashed with a bone chilling bloodlust. Despite his old age, he stood tall and straight, with a posture one might mistake for that of an experienced soldier. He radiated a silent and deadly aura, surrounded by a layer of grey fog that seeped out from the depths of his robe. The assassins here had ranged from the first order to the third order, but this man was likely a fourth order.
The fourth order was significant because this was when a pathway would start to develop unique properties.
For example, the man before her.
As a fourth order Immortal cultivator, aside from the normal improvements to his mind, body, and will, he could also use his spiritual power to fly.
This man was probably the big boss.
He did not stop to talk, he just released a violent wave of 'spiritual suppression' that pressed down on Petra like a violent wave. She could feel her skin sting as the spiritual energy vibrated in sync with the man's furious emotions.
Petra tilted her head, conjuring a box around the man with her mental energy.
Whoosh!
He moved in a blur, avoiding the green box that smashed flat where he had just stood.
Petra's eyes flashed.
He was fast, almost too fast for her eyes to keep up with. She was just a first stage practitioner, so fighting a man of his level would normally be suicidal. Fortunately for Petra, logic and levels didn't really work on her, at least not at the low levels.
He moved like a blur, following the face of the wall like a living shockwave and leaving afterimages in his wake. A short blade was drawn from the depths of his robe, dripping with a black poison.
It split through the air with a boom and pierced towards Petra's throat.
A white mist spiraled out from her body, twisting into the shape of a white shield. When the dagger pierced through, it melted before it could reach Petra.
The white mist rippled like water and formed into a spear that shot towards the man.
During the time when he dodged the spear, several green lantern-shaped cubes formed around Petra's body, flickering like silent shields, their light casting Petra in an eerie green glow. She snapped her fingers, and a flock of polygonal butterflies flew out of the lanterns in waves. Then, there was a blinding white light, and the lanterns each 'ignited with a green flame'. The shadows that each lantern cast stretched out from beneath Petra's feet, solidifying and reaching across the floor towards the assassin.
The man frowned, then dove behind some rubble, disappearing as quickly as he came.
Petra's mind turned, commanding the green butterflies to spread out and destroy the surrounding rubble.
A moment later, Petra's eye twitched.
There was a shift in the wind behind her, and from the void exploded a strong figure.
He had closed the distance and was only a few meters away from Petra. His dagger pierced forward, weaving through the green shields and winding shadows to strike for the center of the head.
Clang!
The dagger struck Petra, but when it came into contact with her skin, it rang with a metallic echo.
The man's eyes widened, but Petra just smirked.
"Old man, you're pretty good. That's my first loss, you know?"
A green light rippled out from her skin.
This was what she had been focusing on. Petra had coated her body in a thin layer of mental energy, one too small to notice, but still strong enough to block most attacks. This was normally used by controllers to avoid getting dirty and staying dry, but with Petra's abnormally dense mental energy, it became a ridiculously strong shield.
The world closed around them, trapping both of them in a green box formed from Petra's mental energy, then the space split, separating the two.
Petra dispelled her own box and then stuck out her tongue at the annoying old guy.
His face turned dark, and he bit down on something.
"Tsk, do you think I care? Bah, you old baddie." Petra didn't need to stop him, she already had everything she needed.
To her surprise, the man didn't commit suicide, or at least, not in the traditional sense. After he bit down, there was an earth-shattering explosion that caused the mental energy cage to expand and crack. It barely hung on, managing to contain the explosion by just a small margin.
Petras's sarcastic smirk froze on her face, her eyelid twitching.
She had almost fallen for the double suicide.
Oh boy, that could have been a game over! It was a good thing that she didn't bring any of the girls, or she would have died from embarrassment.
-
After Petra dealt with the last of the assassins, it was time to leave.
Before leaving, Petra made a few 'adjustments' to the black market.
First, she left behind a poison that would return the strength of all of the slaves at the same time, then she dropped a plague down to the bottom of the bottomless pit, and finally, she left solidified cubes of poison in all the establishments that she didn't like.
Over the next few years, Petra hoped that this would destroy the black market. This wasn't because she had a sense of duty, instead, she felt like the black market was an eyesore.
After that, she left to join the other girls on their ascent back to the city.