Chapter 1489: Red Herring

"Damn it! Almost got him!" One Gorteaun Martial Senior cursed.

"We're gaining him, make sure we don't lose track!"

The chase had gone on for nearly ten minutes. Rui had made sure that there were plenty of close calls where they almost lost track of him. He could definitely feel that their desperation was real.

'Good, now time for the hardest part.'

STEP!

Rui pretended to trip over something, crashing extensively due to the high speeds they were all traveling at.

"Get him!"

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Rui activated Greater Phantomind Void and his Neo Godspeed technique, evading the powerful attacks, leaving behind a torn piece of the rob he stole from the corpse.

A piece that featured only a portion of the Carnil crest, not even the entire cloth.

"Where did he go?!"

"He disappeared..." Another gritted. "Find out which group was responsible for this. They're really underestimating us if they think they can get away with this!"

"Search the area! We can't give up so easily."

They immediately scoured the area with their powerful senses.

"That's right, you gotta search for it, otherwise finding it isn't going to be mean anything," Rui murmured, standing atop a tree with the Greater Phantomind Void active.

"Hey look..." One of the mumured, narrowing his eyes. "I almost missed it but is that...?"

"Hm?" Another came over, digging up a partially buried cloth. "That looks like a part of the robes that he was wearing. Nice catch but... It's not going to help us."

"I think you might be wrong about that sir," The man's eyes widened as he spotted the portion of the Carnil Crest that was on the other side of the torn of piece of Senior Gemu's robes.

"That emblem..." The man gritted. "That's the emblem of the Carnil Mafia. It's those Kandrian bastards!"

Word spread like fire.

"How dare they attack us?!"

"Are they underestimating us?"

"We should attack them and show them what it means to mess with us."

'Yes!' Rui cheered them on. 'That's a great idea.'

"Wait, don't act rashly," One elder Martial Artist cajoled them. "Firstly, good job finding this. We have failed in apprehending the assailant, but we were fortunate enough to find a piece of evidence that points us in the right direction. We will present this to the boss. We will have at least something to show."

Rui smirked. This was the failsafe that he had in mind. He had gone through a lot of preparation to ensure that they didn't suspect it being fake, however, there was always a possibility there would be a sharp-minded one who would suspect this being an elaborate ploy.

However, even if there were such a person, Rui's plan had already accounted for even such circumstances.

'Their failure is of a much greater concern to them than something as dubious as whether the crest is a red herring,' Rui smiled. 'Even if they were smart enough to conceive that this evidence was a red herring, they would still present it to their superiors as proof of the origin of the assailant to at least soften the blow of their failure.'

After all, it would be the Underworld that deals with political conflicts with other groups, not them. Rui's plan was not only elaborate in its deception but also accounted for those who might be smart enough to see through it and manipulate them using their own sense of self-preservation.

'My work here is done.' Rui mused. 'I can leave the rest to the Beggar's Sect.'

They were smart enough to know what could be done, and would certainly act to ensure that the Carnil Mafia would be framed even if Rui's measures weren't enough for some reason.

He didn't know what measures the Underworld of the Republic of Gorteau would take. However, he suspected that this wouldn't in and of itself result in a huge conflict. The underworlds, black markets, mafias, and other forces in darkness were extremely powerful.

While Martial Seniors were certainly not indispensable, they were forces of the Lower Realms. At most, this was no different from one person throwing a single jab at another.

It might result in an all-out fight, but in most cases, it would require a lot more aggression to devolve into a brawl.

Rui knew that had they been Martial Masters, it would have been an absolute declaration of war.

Had they been Martial Squires, it would have been insignificant and trivial. The death of a single Martial Squire was like a pinch or a flick to forces as powerful as these two.

Martial Seniors were somewhere in between.

Thus Rui was unable to predict exactly what would happen, however, he knew that it would make life harder for the Carnil Mafia in the Gereign Region, which would certainly deter them from investing too much in it.

"Time to resume my hunt," Rui heaved a sigh as the remaining five Carnil Martial Seniors at the Gereign base were still left on his list of targets.

Three of whom were high grades. The remaining two were on the verge of high grade. This time, he knew that he wouldn't be able to ambush them and kill them while they were vulnerable since they had already decided to get enough potions to keep the Martial Heart active at all times during the operations.

He was going to have to defeat and kill all three of them. He wasn't entirely sure how well he would fair against them, but he did possess confidence in himself, especially ever since he developed the Hypnomatrix and the three powerful hypnosis techniques that allowed him to inflict potent hypnosis with lesser effort, partially due to his powerful mind.

That along with the rest of his Martial Art was not something that could be overcome easily, even for high-grade Martial Seniors.

A small grin cracked at the edge of his face as he returned. He actually looked forward to testing his power against the upper echelons of the Senior Realm.