The people in the grand meeting hall were all in an uproar after hearing what Teng Xiaolian had just spoken. When the people had been informed that an important meeting was organized they had not expected for it to be this serious.

Most of the mercenary companies had sent their members out to the mission that was assigned by the mayor of the Wu Lim city, thus they were quite enraged, to say the least.

"This cannot go unanswered, the mayor must give us an explanation!" One of the hundreds of mercenaries yelled.

"Yes, yes! This has never happened before." 

"Mayor Wu Xun's audacity is too much. How dare he blame the mercenaries without proof?" 

"Who knows, he may even have a part in this. Perhaps he does not want to keep up his side of the bargain." Someone else said.

The higher ups of the mercenary company that were sitting at the front of the room seemed quite agitated by hits too. But they knew that they could not express their displeasure directly like this. It would only be detrimental to them in the long run.

"SILENCE!!" The old man who was sitting at the head of the room shouted as he slammed his fist onto the table.

His voice was thunderous and spread around in the room, making the furniture shake. One could feel the power in the voice and could tell that it was amplified by qi. But to make things shake by mere voice meant only one thing. The old man in question was a Nascent soul realm cultivator.

All the mercenaries that were shouting immediately fell silent after seeing the old man spoke. Evidently the old man had a very high positing and inspired fear in them. After silence descended in the room, the old man gazed at everyone with a hawk like gaze.

The weaker mercenaries could feel chills going down their spine just from the gaze and subconsciously swallowed their saliva. 

Only when the old man stopped looking did they relax, but even in this time, their backs had been covered with cold sweat.

The old man then looked at Teng Xiaolian before speaking.

"Teng Xiaolian, do you swear on your life and your honor as a mercenary that all you've said is true?" The old man questioned.

"I swear on my life, my honor and the souls of my fellow mercenaries that all I've said is the entire truth that I've experienced." Teng Xiaolian declared as he slammed his fist upon his chest.

~Sigh~

A sigh escaped the old man's lips as he too went silent for a bit. After thinking for a minute, he looked at the mercenaries gathered and the higher ups of all the mercenary companies that were sitting at the front.

"I've come to a decision. All the events that happened as Teng Xiaolian narrated will be reported to the sects. Since it is a matter of blood sacrifices, there may be unorthodox evil cultivators involved. This may go beyond our capacity to handle. 

Still, we don't know the full extent of this. Hence I am ordering a total recall of all the mercenaries currently on missions. They are to report to the union as soon as possible and we will be doing a full scale assessment." The Old man declared.

Surprised expressions appeared on the faces of all the higher ups and then their expressions turned serious. One of them who was wearing a full set of armor stood up and looked at the old man. The old man gestured with his eyes to let him speak.

"Union head, but if we recall all our mercenaries the backlash would be too great. Our reputation may fall greatly, how would we deal with that?" The man spoke.

The old man who was apparently the head of the mercenary union thought contemplated for a second before gesturing for the man to sit down.

"Do not worry about that," The union head spoke before flipping his palm and making a golden scroll appear in his hand, "I'll be using the royal decree for this, no one will dare question us for our actions them." He added.

The people were incredibly shocked after hearing the union head's words and knew how severely he was taking it. The royal decree was no small matter, and it had been bestowed upon the mercenary union by the king of the Shuang Qian kingdom for their services over the years.

The royal decree allowed them to request the king of anything as long as it was within certain limits. A request such as the one they were asking was certainly not a problem for the king, who could silence all the people who had commissioned the missions.

Even the cultivation sects would have to take Royal decree rather seriously, even if they did not come under their rule. Besides, some of the bigger mercenary companies had cultivations sects backing them, anyway. There was no way they would take this loss of their members silently.

"And, if the implications of the event are as they have been told so, then there will be no problem anyway and the royal decree would not be needed." The Union head continued.

The expressions of all of the mercenaries were visibly relaxed after hearing the union head's decision and they all nodded in acknowledgment.

"Now then, except for the higher ups, all of you can leave." The union head commanded.

The mercenaries all stood up immediately and left the meeting hall, leaving the remaining people to discuss further.

While leaving, two of the mercenaries from the crowd did not go to their respective bases, but rather they went to a building that looked like a pleasure pavilion. The two of them took different routes, thus did not meet each other and did not know that they had come to the same place.

One of the mercenaries went up to the receptionist that was sitting at the entrance and whispered something to her, after which another worker took him to a secret room. A similar thing happened with the other mercenary, and he was taken to a secret room as well.

"The Lord needs to know about this as soon as possible." One of the mercenaries muttered under his breath.

"Master needs to know immediately, they mercenaries have found out about us…" The other mercenary inwardly spoke with distress.

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