The Extreme Alchemist of the Mighty Cauldron
Chapter 945 - Chapter 945 Chapter 945 Enemies Cooperate

Chapter 945: Chapter 945: Enemies Cooperate Chapter 945: Chapter 945: Enemies Cooperate Two figures streaked across the sky.

These two were none other than Gu Hanshan and the woman in the black dress.

They had been released by Fang Lin, but both the woman in the black dress and Gu Hanshan appeared extremely grave.

The reason Fang Lin had let them go instead of choosing to kill them was naturally due to his own plans and considerations.

Killing them would have been easy, with a swift stroke of the blade, but as the woman in the black dress had previously stated, other assassins from Hidden Kill Hall would come after them.

However, by sparing their lives, he could better grasp the movements of Hidden Kill.

The so-called cooperation was in fact full of hidden agendas; neither side would truly trust the other, especially Gu Hanshan, who only thought of killing Fang Lin and did not care at all about any cooperation, nor would he ever collaborate with Fang Lin.

Of course, Fang Lin would employ some tactics, and the simplest, most direct, and practical was to use poison.

In order to control these two, Fang Lin had gone to great lengths, refining a particularly cunning poison pill and forcing them to take it.

Once consumed, this poison pill would not reveal any abnormalities no matter how it was probed, and its toxicity would not activate on normal days.

However, Fang Lin had taken a strand of their life souls, and by activating it, he could trigger the poison pill within their bodies, subjecting them to pain worse than death and making them utterly obedient to Fang Lin’s manipulation, like walking corpses.

Although Fang Lin had long mastered the method to refine such a poison pill, he had never actually made one in his past or present life; this was his first time refining such a poison pill.

With the poison pill consumed, Gu Hanshan and the woman in the black dress were thoroughly bound to the same boat as Fang Lin, helpless and extremely unwilling as they were.

“Do you still seek revenge?” the woman in the black dress asked Gu Hanshan.

Gu Hanshan’s face was dark: “Why wouldn’t I?”

The woman in the black dress sighed, her previously charming demeanor no longer to be seen, replaced instead by complexity and sorrow.

“His strength, and his methods, are too formidable,” the woman in the black dress said, her tone still somewhat gentle, but Gu Hanshan could clearly discern the implication in her words.

“Are you saying I’m inferior to him?” Gu Hanshan said coldly.

The woman in the black dress gave a bitter smile, “The enmity between you and him, indeed, is difficult to resolve, but just as he said, you are not his match right now. Perhaps it would be more suitable to seek revenge after you’ve become strong enough.”

Gu Hanshan remained silent. Although he had a heart full of vengeance and was fraught with resentment, he was not blinded by anger and hatred.

They shared a hatred that could not be resolved, but under the current circumstances, he indeed was no match for Fang Lin, whether in terms of strength or methods.

In such a situation, to seek revenge on Fang Lin would simply be courting death, completely meaningless.

Not to mention the current predicament where both had been fed a poison pill by Fang Lin, completely at his mercy.

As for the so-called cooperation, Gu Hanshan had no interest in it; he would still continue to hone and elevate himself within Hidden Kill Hall, just as before.

If there ever came a day to truly break away from Hidden Kill Hall, how free that would be,” the woman in the black dress murmured.

Gu Hanshan remained indifferent, as if he hadn’t heard the woman in the black dress’s whisper at all.

*****

Fang Lin stood in his own courtyard, with a contemplative look on his face.

Releasing Gu Hanshan and the woman in the black dress was something he had planned from the very beginning; he never intended to kill them.

As for the alliance, Fang Lin merely planted a seed; whether it could prove useful was something that only time could tell.

But Fang Lin could see that Gu Hanshan seemed to have experienced some subtle changes, although his hatred for Fang Lin had not changed.

“Hidden Kill Hall, truly a headache-inducing existence,” Fang Lin muttered to himself.

From Gu Hanshan and the woman in the black dress, Fang Lin had obtained quite a bit of little-known intelligence about Hidden Kill Hall, even mastering the locations of several secret bases of Hidden Kill Hall within Qian Country.

Hidden Kill Hall was indeed terrifying. In the land of the Nine Countries, they had secret bases everywhere, and the number of bases was exceedingly large. Like a cunning rabbit with three burrows, even if one base was eradicated, a new one would immediately be established.

Beyond the bases, Fang Lin also learned that Hidden Kill Hall’s reach had infiltrated many of the forces within both the Pill Alliance and the Upper Three Countries.

This was an astounding secret; even Gu Hanshan was unaware of it, and it was known only through the woman in the black dress.

After all, the woman in the black dress was a disciple of the Fire King, one of Hidden Kill Hall’s four great assassins; it was quite normal for her to know these secrets.

With Hidden Kill Hall’s influence seeping into many forces of the Pill Alliance as well as the Upper Three Countries, it wasn’t good news for Fang Lin.

After all, he too was situated within the Pill Alliance, and with Hidden Kill Hall’s minions inside, he was likely being watched at every moment.

Fang Lin felt that it was necessary to inform Elder Tiankui about this so that Elder Tiankui could reorganize the Pill Alliance; otherwise, the situation would probably escalate into something even more severe.

Immediately, Fang Lin sprang into action, following the intelligence provided by the woman in the black dress to root out the Hidden Kill Hall bases within Qian Country.

Fang Lin didn’t tell anyone else about this and chose to act alone, fearing that too many people knowing could cause panic.

Over several consecutive days, Fang Lin was constantly on the move, not resting for a moment.

He eradicated a total of sixteen Hidden Kill Hall bases, killing more than a hundred assassins, and among them were several Spirit Vein martial artists.

However, by the time Fang Lin arrived at three of the bases, they were already deserted.

There was not much Fang Lin could do; he couldn’t be everywhere at once. After all, word was bound to spread to other bases as he eradicated each one.

Although he knew it was a temporary solution rather than a cure, Fang Lin could only do so much with his current strength. Once he was strong enough, he would attempt to destroy Hidden Kill Hall, this colossal entity.

A month later, Dugu Nian had fully recovered.

Fang Lin also felt it was about time to leave.

Before departing, Fang Lin visited many old acquaintances in Qian Country, including members of the royal family and individuals from the Pill Alliance.

Within the Qian Country branch of the Pill Alliance, Fang Lin learned that Elder Su’s granddaughter, the alchemy prodigy Su Xiaotong who often suffered memory loss, had joined the Pill Alliance like Fang Lin and had been taken on as a disciple by a significant figure within the Alliance.

Fang Lin still had a vivid impression of Su Xiaotong; at the Alchemy Tao exchange meeting in Black Cauldron City, she was quite remarkable, hardly less talented than himself, and Fang Lin was full of praise for her aptitude.