the drifting moon

The next morning the Nexus Mountain was in turmoil as all of the low truly righteous members demanded revenge for the city-wide invasion and the higher-ups didn't disappoint as they ordered if any member of their group encountered people from the vast rift to take lethal action.

And like that, the first evaluation war was born and Ken was salivating thinking about how much he would benefit from this war. But first, he took out his plank and messaged Sara to get in contact with him.

Sara immediately replied "Ken I thought you were caught a sold. I am sorry I couldn't do anything I am not part of the group which carried out the raid."

Ken: "I was lucky but I am hearing that there is going to be a war between the vast rift and the nexus mountain.is it true?"

Sara: "Yeah, I am just a low-level member but everyone is getting ready for a fight. If you can you have to hide before this further escalates."

Ken: "Thanks, you stay safe too."

Ken didn't have a plan to hide but to become a mercenary for hire for both sides. He might not be the strongest of the candidates when it comes to stealth but his past experiences will be a major advantage and once he catches up with the top with cultivation he will be the go-to guy for spying and assassination.

Ken had already identified his first customer and an alias for his upcoming jobs. His mercenary name was going to become the drifting moon. He knew this was going to raise the question if the dark moon was involved but he didn't care as this was payment for looking down on him.

After this news gets out the dark moon will try to track him down, but from the amount of request they are going to receive they won't have the man power to waste.

Ken dressed put on an overcoat to hide his peak or any indicators. Wearing the peak uniform is an obligation one found wearing other clothes will immediately be disqualified, but it didn't state you can't wear other clothes over it. Ken put on a grey mask with two lines going from the eyes to the cheek.

The mask looked plain and minimalist. 

Next morning Ken got out of the barber shop before dawn and used one of his previous martial arts he learned ghost movement and coupled with chimera breathing art brought his stealth to a whole new level.

Ken went around the auction house and searched for clues and eavesdropped on conversations to find the pseudo-leaders of the nexus mountain and the vast rift.

He first went to the headquarters of the vast rift which was an indoor training center. Ken easily passed through their security and searched for the leaders which positioned themselves at the far end of the building.

So ken looked around the center of the building which is usually used to house the most important secrets because of the location and it is easier to protect from raid and infiltrators. Ken found a small conference room and 5 bed rooms disguised as storage rooms in the storage room.

Ken guessed that either this are where the leaders are or it is the second bedrooms for the fake leaders and the other one in the far end is just a decoy.

As he entered one of the bedroom he found a women sleeping and it looked like she sensed him subconsciously and woke up. Ken was alarmed as he stopped moving and started using turtle shell arts which was better in hiding when not moving.

She looked around trying to find any intruder but didn't find any so she went back to sleep. Ken made sure she fell asleep and carefully left a note. He did the same for the other 4 leaders and left.

Ken was in cold sweat as they almost caught him and all of them gave him an immense murderous intent. Ken wasn't even sure they were in the body refining stage which was unbelievable as there is another week left before the evaluation and they already have broken through to spirit condensation stage.

Ken ran around the city to find the headquarters of the nexus mountain. Unlike the vast rift, the nexus mountain chose to use a collection of pagodas which collectively took a shape of a "U".

The security here was more lax than the vast rift which was expecting an attack, but the nexus mountain leaders were shrewder the vast rift.

The nexus mountain distributed there leaders amongst five pagodas which helped in case of an assassination attempt.

Ken had his work cut out for him as he had to study the inner structure of each with was different and find the real leaders. It took him more time than he expected but he found all of them. Before there leaders got up from sleep and left the same notes as the vast rift.

The content of the letter was comically simple 

"A mercenary for hire 

If you are interested contact a waiter with a red belt in the restaurant and give him a 2 Qi stones tip and a details for further talks. Any attempt to investigate us will be met with force.

The drifting moon"