Sam came out of the dimension with Jack and Watt. The duo is still in disbelief.

They didn't know what to think of what they saw in the dimension. They never expected that Sam could possess a swarm of those insects which could eat a person clean to his bones.

All this while, Sam didn't even look back, he is thinking about the information he got out of the Young master.

The information is nothing short of overwhelming. Even though, Jack and Watt are also overwhelmed but that is due to their visit to the dimension. The information shocked them but not more than the experience.

After taking some time to calm themselves down, the trio took a seat in Sam's study.

They had to process the info they got and think of ways to proceed further.

First thought Sam had when he heard the situation of underground forces is a "Well-hidden."

From what the Young master Stone heart said, there are a total of four people in every zone of these cities with same position as himself. That means in the commoner zone, there are three more hidden bosses other than the Young master himself.

All four of them are under the orders of the Lord of their respective zones.

From what young master knew, these four lords are working together and there is a possible chance that they are working for someone.

The most important thing is these four lords are at least at Late stage Great realm cultivation and the hidden bosses working under them have Late stage Novice cultivations at least. There are even early stage Great realm cultivators in noble zone.

The main problem is that, Young master Stone heart only knew the identities of the people in charge of the Commoner zone.

So, if Sam took action, the remaining three zones would be on high alert. That makes things complicated.

First, he has to gather info on the remaining three zones candidates as well.

On that thought, all ten shadow mice are on constant duty and out of them four followed the Elder who is in charge of the Young master Stone heart, the remaining six went to the different zones to find at least one hidden boss.

After all, he has the identities of the hidden bosses of the Commoner zone with him.

The month passed just like that and the shadow mice barely got an identity of a hidden boss.

But they still weren't able to get the identities of the remaining hidden bosses due to their lack of number.

Even though, he could use the zoi termites, their intelligence to clearly identify a person will only be activated when they are at least Level 3, but their size will gather a lot of attention inside a city.

If it was a forest, he would have happily utilised the zoi termites.

Watt and Jack are practically living on the streets for the past months trying to find out the hide outs, but there seemed to be too well hidden. There seemed to be thinking that they are being targeted after they noticed the destruction of the Prostitution den and the missing of Stone heart.

While, Sam is thinking on how to get unearth these people, a message from Marquis came.

When he visited the marquis mansion, the high and righteous Marquis has a face full of worry and anger.

The report Sam asked seemed to be ready.

When both of them sat down, Marquis passed a list of names containing the officials and also the places they protected and one of the places happened to be the Prostitution den.

But the places didn't seem to tally much. Because, from what Young master stone heart said, there are four different businesses in each zone and there are total of sixteen hide outs. But the list absolutely showing twenty hideouts.

To search them all, Sam didn't have enough shadow mice. The four which left to tail the Elder are still on the same duty. The remaining lords are yet to make an appearance.

Sam also shared the info he got with the Marquis and the latter almost coughed blood in exasperation.

There are already more than ten officials who are corrupted, but now that he knew that there are more hidden bosses and when he learnt the few identities Sam traced, he couldn't contain his anger.

Almost half of the nobility was corrupted. Even if the whole family might not have involved, some core members have direct participation.

When Sam learnt of their names, he didn't know what to think of it. This empire has one of the most corrupt systems Sam has ever seen.

He didn't know what the emperor is doing at all.

"What should we do?" Marquis asked.

"I have to know how strong the most powerful person in that organisation is to decide on how to proceed."

"What do you mean? Aren't there four Lords the bosses? Are you suspecting that there is even more powerful person behind the scenes?"

Sam nodded his head. Because, in all the cities, black water has always matched the power of the ruling authority. Since, the old Marquis is the strongest one, Sam couldn't help but think that Black water must have that strong person acting.

Just as he was thinking, the attendant came and gave Marquis a message and that is the second team also came back.

Marquis led Sam to a larger meeting room where the second team are waiting, this team is full of nobles of the Marquis city and some of the sons of Counts.

They seemed to be tired and exhausted and when they saw Sam, their looks changed. They worked their assess off, by splitting up and doing the investigations.

But still, Sam defeated them.

Marquis took the reports and all they could see is that his brows are furrowed and there is an obvious disappointment in his eyes.

"How did you gather the intel?" Marquis asked and someone answered immediately.

"Lord Marquis, your second son Luther provided the intel, we don't know what method he used, but he seemed to already has certain understanding of various cities and villages under your territory. He will definitely become a great official in future."

The one who answered was a girl who is a daughter of Count. Her eyes are filled with obvious admiration. She seemed to want to highlight Luther in front of his father and get noticed by him.

But Sam noticed something different at this moment.

When the girl said that Luther is the one provided intel, Sam looked at him subconsciously, only to see that latter has a flicker of anger and anxiousness forming.

It felt like Luther doesn't want this credit. Zeke and Blue fire are also looking at their brother with excitement, but they didn't notice that flicker.

Marquis dismissed everyone of them and led Sam back to the private room. Until night, they discussed on how to go against this Black water.

At night, their discussion stopped because some messages came. One of them is from the attendant to the Marquis and another one is from a shadow mouse.

Both messages were equally surprising.

"The next phase of the examination is cancelled. Duke sent a message that the next stage will be beginning earlier, and all the candidates who passed the assessment shall report to the Dukedom capital in the next month."

Sam was stunned, that means that the initial one year phase has been reduced to six months and the last phase has been completely eliminated.

From what Marquis said before, there are going to be twenty candidates who will be promoted and only two teams came.

"I shall inform the remaining team to come back immediately." Marquis said.

But Sam stopped paying attention to him. Because, he just listened to the message of the shadow mouse and that message gave him chills.

The four lords and their boss, all gathered their subordinates and are hosting a meeting right now, in an underground facility of the nearby woods. But that news would have made Sam excited because, all shadow mice would have gathered there and the intel would be with him in no time.

The problem the next statement of the shadow mice.

{Watt is captured.}

When he heard this, he immediately stood up. But he didn't react immediately.

"Sam, what happened?" Marquis asked. But got no reply.

At this moment, Sam is thinking hard.

'What happened? How did Watt got captured?'

He kept on asking himself. In one day all the situation changed.

These past few days, the underground forces are under complete lock down. Sam barely got any info even with the shadow mice involved. Even yesterday, he didn't have any info.

But in one day, the situation was changed, what brought this change? What happened exactly? What changed in this one day? This is the biggest hiccup he faced in his plans after he was reborn

Sam closed his eyes and thought of all possibilities, it has been a long, long time since he used his brain to his maximum capacity.

After a strange silence of around five minutes, Sam opened his eyes as a dangerous thought surfaced his mind.

"Where is your second son?" He asked the Marquis and the latter asked his attendants.

"He is in his quarters."

"Lead the way." Sam said without hesitation.

"But Why?"

"Will tell you later, it is urgent." Both of them moved, but when they entered the quarters Luther is not there. When they asked the servants, they only said one thing.

"Young master went inside and didn't come out since morning."

Sam suddenly had an understanding.

"I will contact you when needed. I have to leave now."

Sam said and without waiting for Marquis' reply, he disappeared on the harbinger accompanied with his shadow mouse. He arrived at the mansion and immediately called Jack over before going to his study.

At the same moment. In a deserted area of the woods, under the surface there was a huge cave illuminated dimly like a horror setting.

An old man is sitting in a large chair. Many people are standing on either side of the room and all of them are wearing some masks, within the room, there are five people who are completely injured and are on verge of death while a person is already dead.

The cause of these deaths was a person who is in centre of the room.

Watt was tied up, to a stone chair. In actuality, the chair has a lot of inscriptions which are restricting his cultivation.

His face has a lot of bruises and a cut was formed on his right eyebrow from where the blood is leaking and even fell on Watt's coat.

He has minimum combat power, but his eyes are unyielding and ferocious. He doesn't look like a person who was injured at all.

That is the reason the old man didn't let anyone remove the coat and rings on Watt's hands.

They caught him with great difficulty and if they gave away a moment of gap to take those items away and untie him, he will definitely take at least three lives along with him.

"Are you going to tell me or not?" The Old man asked a question which he has probably repeated many times.

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