Chapter 9: Hijacked
Inside the highest floor of the Hunter’s Guild Tower, the temperature was freezing despite the sun blazing outside. A wide, circular room encased in reinforced glass hovered above the city, built like the crown of a sword plunged into the skyline.
In the center of the room stood Grandmaster Li, watching with his arms crossed behind his back, eyes fixed on the floating screen before him. His robe flowed graciously as he moved, and his greying hair offered years of experience and knowledge. The screen before him flickered with real-time visuals of Ning Que’s trial, the cliff, the illusions, the confrontation with his past. The only catch was, he couldn’t make out why the system chose that scene as his darkest memory.
But to him, Ning Que did have a life outside of being a hunter, no matter how famous he might have gotten, so Grandmaster Li brushed it out of his mind. He glanced around the room.
It was lined with high-ranking officials, guild tacticians, data analysts, and a few masked figures whose presence was never acknowledged but always obeyed.
"He made contact with the shadow parasite," one of the analysts muttered, typing furiously into the system. "And he resisted it... without system interference. That shadow is D rank at most. He should’ve had some help to even discover it."
Li didn’t respond immediately. He leaned forward slightly, narrowing his eyes at the screen.
"Replay that frame," he ordered, his voice was quiet, but it silenced the entire room. The analyst obeyed. On the screen, Ning Que’s sai sliced through the shadow creature’s tendrils. A burst of dark mist and liquid exploded, accompanied by the creature’s shrill screams, then vanished. A simple move. Clean, and efficient.
But what caught Li’s attention wasn’t the attack, it was Ning’s cold and calculated expression.
"He knew what he was doing. How could he have even figured it out?" Li said flatly, his hand stroking his grey beard. It was a habit that helped him focus when his thoughts were scattered.
One of the officials, Elder Tao Cheng, adjusted his robes and stepped forward, crossing his arms in front of him. "What if it’s not him?"
"What do you mean?" Li asked without turning, tilting his head at the screen.