Another reason Charlot Meburg chose to embark on this expedition was that he had retly made signifit progress in his studies of the Agmirs Labyrinth and needed a suitable location to test his theories. Machubi served as the perfect testing ground.

  To maintain order among the diverse group of adventurers, Charlot adjusted the team structure during their journey. He justified this by saying, “We may enter danger along the way; we need a proper bat formation.” He gathered the leaders of the dozen or so smaller adveeams and reahe remaining members into two groups based on gender. Male adventurers were tasked with handling supplies, while female adventurers were responsible for food and water.

  Charlot’s reanization was her drastior perma, and he framed it as a temporary adjustment, so no one opposed the ges.

  In smaller adveeams, the team leader was oftero member and the core of the group. The rest of the team usually depended heavily on their leader.

  By temporarily separating the team leaders from their members, Charlot naturally weakeheir influence while slightly enhang his own authority. This gave him a modest level of trol over the group.

  With more than a hundred adventurers, this temporary team had already reached the size of a medium-te adventuring group, requiring attention to numerous details. Throughout the journey, Charlot seized every opportunity to solidate his leadership.

  After traveling for a day, the group decided to rest at a small vilge called Maple Leaf Vilge. The vilge was too small to aodate so many people, and fearing potential robbery, the vilgers refused to let the adventurers stay.

  Charlot once again dispyed his adept social skills. After iating with the vilgers, he arranged for the female adveo rest ihe vilge while he and the male adventurers set up camp outside.

  No sooner had Charlot settled everything than a group of individuals dressed in bck coats appeared from the dire they had e.

  “Members of the Fierce Horse Detective Agency?!”

  The distinctive bck coats of the Fierce Horse detectives made them instantly reizable.

  Charlot had previously entered these detectives in the vilge where he had cshed with the Giant Axe Adveeam. After parting ways, he thought he had avoided further trouble. However, the detectives had caught up.

  Charlot calcuted inwardly, “This group of adventurers is unreliable. If a flict breaks out, they may not side with me. I must strike first and give them a strong reason to fight.”

  Summoning the leaders of the smaller adveeams, Charlot whispered, “These people are detectives hired by my cousin. They’re also heading to Machubi. If they find the treasure first, we’ll e back empty-handed and have to watch them get rich.”

  “I ot allow that to happen. That treasure belongs to us.”

  “We outhem. Let’s capture these detectives alive and hold them until we find the treasure. Then we release them.”

  Most adventurers were relut to provoke powerful anizations. The Fierce Horse Detective Agency employed over a hundred detectives, along with two to three hundred assistants and numerous apprentices. Among them were over a dozen Transdents. Small adveeams wouldn’t dare ehem in a direct frontation.

  Moreover, the agency’s leader, Aubrey Tildon Atwood, was a renowned high-ranking Transdent known throughout the Fars Empire for his formidable abilities and ing.

  While none of the adventurer leaders dared to ht kill members of the Fierce Horse Detective Agency, Charlot’s suggestion to capture the detectives temporarily sparked i. After all, their group did have the advantage in numbers.

  A leader named Yas said, “There are only seven of them, but at least two of them are Transdents! Especially their leader, Winterburn—I know him. He’s a Fourth-Tier Transdent and a genuine Fme Dragon Knight.”

  Charlot smiled faintly and said, “I’ll take care of him. I just need five of you to assist me.”

  Charlot’s willio take on the most challenging oppo vihe leaders. Under Charlot’s dire, they assembled their stro fighters and quickly divided the other detectives as targets.

  Winterburn, with his stern expression, was deeply frustrated. The agency’s diviners had proven far less effective than Wells, their seer. He was now certain they had lost the target and failed the mission.

  Not only had they failed to capture Charlot, but they had also lost an important Transdeive. This mission was a financial loss for the Fierce Horse Detective Agency. Wells’s role as a seer was irrepceable, and many cases relied on his unique abilities. The agency wouldn’t be able to find aransdent with his skills in the short term.

  As Winterburn observed the mid-sized adventurer group in the distance, he was unimpressed. As a seasoned detective of the Fierce Horse Agency, he had no reason to fear this ragtag band, especially sihere was no apparent flict between them.

  Just as Winterburn prepared to bypass the group, someone called out, “Is that Mr. Winterburn?”

  Despite his honed battle energy, Winterburn cked night vision. Unfamiliar with the voice, he hesitated momentarily before responding, “That’s me!”

  Being a veteraive, Winterburn remained vigint, his guard unwavering.

  Then the voice decred, “So, you’re the one who seduced my wife?”

  Suddenly, a dozen men surged forward. Winterburn was taken aback. “When did I seduany men’s wives?!”

  Though Charlot had fidently decred he would handle Winterburn, he seized the opportunity created by the chaos to draw his Vampiric Rapier, Bloodrose, and thrust it at Addison.

  Even the Fierce Horse Detective Agency couldn’t field Transdents everywhere. Among the seveives chasing Charlot, only Winterburn and Addisoransdents.

  Having grown up reading stratagem books like The Thirty-Six Stratagems, Charlot had long decided on his approach: eliminate Addison first. Without this Transdent Knight, Winterburn would be left struggling alone, signifitly redug the trouble they posed.

  Addison was caught off guard by Charlot’s attack. A Third-Tier Knight, he reacted swiftly, drawing his sword to parry Charlot’s strike. However, he hadn’t expected Charlot’s ruthlessness—Charlot pulled out his Magnum Mauler and fired twelve secutive shots, f Addison to roar and unleash a fiery vortex of battle energy. The swirling fmes narrowly deflected the bullets.

  Charlot had anticipated this oute. Knights’ battle energy could form a protective shield, but its strength wasn’t uniform. While Addison trated his defense on the bullets ing at him, his back was left retively exposed.

  As Charlot fired, he pnted Bloodrose into the ground and activated his Eye of Insight. Spotting the weakest point in Addison’s fiery shield, he hurled his Vampiric Axe.

  Guided by his Bloodfire Qi, the Vampiric Axe arced through the air in an uny trajectory, breaking through Addison’s fiery shield.

  In the days siheir st enter, Charlot had advanced by a tier, enhang the power of his Bloodfire Qi. The strike was far strohan before, and the axe embedded itself three inches into Addison’s skull.