Chapter 942 - New Plan
"!!!" She drew a gasp when Alex let her see his burn mark.
Aria obviously never knew about it because she never saw it, and her Sword Eye had yet to be trained, so he couldn"t see Alex"s real appearance. However, it was obvious that seeing Alex"s face was quite a shock to Nella, so she realized that Alex might have experienced something more painful than her blindness.
Nella realized what she had just done and immediately apologized. "I am sorry."
"It"s fine, you don"t really need to mind about it. I just want to show you that the joke isn"t really that great to me, so if you can, please help me to stop with that kind of joke." Alex gently smiled and put his mask on.
"I am sorry. It might not be much coming from me, but I don"t think it"s much important. If you find someone that truly loves you, they won"t care something like that burn mark." Nella tried to comfort him, feeling bad with the fact that her joke forced him to reveal that appearance. It must be so hard and traumatic for him.
Alex nodded. "Thank you."
"Either way, your skill is still a real deal. My mother said that Miss Aria"s skill could be compared to you, albeit on a smaller scale. Is that true?" She asked.
"In a sense, yes."
"I see. Despite having high cultivation like this, my fighting power isn"t that great. I can"t really fight against a 2-Star Martial Monarch." She looked down. People often told her how she was a genius to reach 1-Star Martial Monarch in fifty years, but everyone only recognized her cultivation speed, not her battle prowess.
When she asked about it, they quickly changed the topic with a weird expression. Of course, she knew how hard it was to fight someone above your level, but Alex and Aria made it look easy. Alex rendered Andre, a 6-Star Martial Saint, useless with his power alone, while Aria cut his hand in the most unexpected time, allowing a 2-Star Martial Saint like her to strike him.
"There is nothing wrong with it. Prowess isn"t necessarily the right answer. You can pressure your enemy with your cultivation alone, and there are many ways to take advantage of your high cultivation in your peers." Alex shook his head.
"Thank you." Nella nodded before taking out a paper and rolling it out on the table. "This is the map of the region. My destination is this Mount Moja, specifically at its peak. The inheritance can only be opened by me, and I am the only one who can enter also.
"The problem will be the bandit. Our first a.s.sumption is there will be a peak Martial Saint during the attack, so we have Millman to act as a guard force. It"s enough just to have me enter there, and we will win because the place can"t be opened anymore, and the inheritance is with me. Unless they can destroy my family, there is nothing they can do.
"Your mission is to protect me during the journey. Even if the opponents have an overwhelming number, you need to bring them there."
Alex touched his chin while thinking. "By the way, I want to ask. Why do you not use a Teleportation Array? It"s easy to teleport there."
"I don"t deny that it"s easy, but the enemies will probably have an ambush there. That"s why the first wave will be around a hundred people with powerful opponents to weaken our force before annihilating our main force in the inheritance place.
"If the opponent is only a single family, our family obviously won"t lose. But our current enemies are a joint of three families. That"s why it takes all of our resources just to stop these three from directly interfering.
"And if we teleport there, I am sure they have placed traps, so this is the only course of action that we can take." She sighed.
Alex thought for a moment and said, "I see. If we can"t destroy the first wave, there is a possibility that they will join the other group and ambush us there. But if we can annihilate this first group while conserving our force, there is a high possibility of winning."
Nella looked at him with a shocked face, never expecting Alex to see through the essence of their first plan in a single glance.
"We can probably make a detour, but if they know about it, the first group will stop waiting for us and return to their original camp. This way, there is no chance of you getting through them."
"Ye-yes. You are very smart." Nella praised him honestly. "I don"t know why but you look like a perfect person to marry for. I mean, you are strong and smart. And I have never heard about your reputation, so I believe you are not from a wealthy or prominent family. This way, if you are getting married, you will take the other party"s surname. I don"t mean anything, but many are marrying their daughters to a fat middle-aged man or an ugly b.a.s.t.a.r.d or a playboy to make a relations.h.i.+p among two families, but you are different from them."
Alex sighed and chose to ignore her blabbering. "Anyway, I have understood the earlier plan. Even though there will be a change of plan, I am sure it won"t be that big."
"I am not sure myself. Mother sometimes used an underhanded tactic to the point some people, including my father, were angry about it. Well, no one pursued the matter to her because her tactic would always be effective, so no one was shameless enough to rebuke the tactic."
"I see. Preparing for an unknown for tomorrow." Alex nodded before looking at Aria. "What do you think?"
"This is not my forte, so I can"t really say much other than changing the path and ambush them since they are chasing us," Aria commented.
"Well, I have another plan, but in the end, I am nothing but an outsider, and my task is to bring you to safety." Alex shook his head.
Nella wanted to say something but stopped. "For now, you can rest for today while my mother is handling another matter. If you—Never mind. Please enjoy your stay and don"t wander around for now to avoid you from being spotted."
Alex nodded. "Thank you for the information."
"You"re welcome." Nella walked toward the door but halted her footsteps right after opening the door. She then turned around and bowed her head. "Please take care of me during the mission."
Without waiting for the answer, she ran off.
Since there was nothing to do, Alex and Aria decided to spend the rest of the day cultivating since that would be the fastest way to waste time.
However, Nella returned as soon as night came.
"Knock Knock Knock."
Alex opened the door and asked. "What is it?"
"My mother wants you to join us in the previous room to discuss the plan."
"Alright. I will call Aria first." Alex nodded and went to Aria"s room without a care as if something like this didn"t even matter. In any case, it looked like a man walking to the girl"s room, but how he acted certainly raised an absurd idea in her mind.
When he came with Aria, they found her face red.
"Is there any problem?"
"No-no." She repeatedly shook her head and turned around, walking toward the room as if running away from the embarra.s.sment.
"Naughty child." Since she teased him earlier, Alex couldn"t help but comment.
"Ugh." Nella looked down and walked even faster. It seemed she was a girl who often "attacked" someone, but she would cower and couldn"t do anything when the opponent struck first.
When they entered the room, there was only Alcea and Millman this time. It seemed she didn"t choose any replacement for Andre.
"You have come." She nodded. "Firstly, I want to thank you for catching a traitor earlier. Your observation skill is indeed powerful, and you look like you know something about medicine. Anyway, let me move on first because we lack time right now. I will give my thanks after this mission."
Alex and Aria nodded while walking to the table, where they found a few pieces on the map as if they had gotten a new plan.
"They are going to ambush us in this area." She pointed out an area within the only forest they would need to cross before reaching their destination. "There are one hundred bandits waiting for you there. Their leader, the 5-Star Martial Saint, will appear too, but more importantly, a 9-Star Martial Saint will appear. As you might already know, the bandits are under a certain family. Even though they claim they know nothing about it, the information network of a big family like us can"t be underestimated.
"My point is, we are going to strike and annihilate them here. Because they are trying to use the poison to eliminate the biggest threat in this operation, we can be a.s.sured that they will be taken aback when they realize Millman has no more poison in his body.
"That"s where we are going to strike them. Unlike the normal plan, we are going to bring more carriage than we are supposed to and hide people inside them using a Concealment Array. With this, we can send around another fifty people or so.
"Unfortunately, if there is a single G.o.d Rank Expert inside the carriage, the enemy will know because that"s how big the power contained in Divine Body.
"Anyway, the plan is to annihilate the first one hundred with a hundred fifty people. After that, we will break through their ranks and have Nella go to the inheritance palace. Any questions?" She asked.
Alex looked at the map and furrowed his eyebrows, feeling a bit unsatisfied with the current plan.
"Do you have anything to add, Young Nyx?" Alcea felt Alex was a bit special after the show she had just seen early in the morning.
"No, no. The plan is good, but I feel there is a better plan. Of course, this costs a bit more money, but I don"t think the Luzear Family will mind, right?"
"Ho?! I am listening."
"Teleportation Array."
"…" She didn"t understand his plan immediately, but when she thought more and more about it, she was shocked how the plan would impact their overall situation. "You little devil."
"Is that a praise?"
"It is. Or should I throw my daughter as a prize?"
"Wha?!" Nella looked at her mother with a weird face, but more importantly, she had yet to get recovered from Alex"s teasing earlier. And she didn"t forget how she teased her with something like this in the morning.
"I am just saying, I don"t mind if it"s true though." She had the same opinion as Nella after realizing Alex"s plan.
Aria was laughing inside, seeing how popular Alex was. In fact, she started thinking that the reason why Alex wanted her to be in the spotlight was to avoid anyone trying to match their daughter or granddaughter with him.
"You are strong and smart. Although your plan will cost money, we are known as a merchant family, and Nella is good at managing money. Isn"t that perfect?" She shrugged.
"Pfft!" Aria couldn"t contain her laugh anymore. She also knew the reason why they shared a house when the others weren"t. Illevis wanted to use her to bind Alex that seemed to have no loyalty to the sect.
Alex twitched his eyebrows before sighing. "I hope that madam can go back to our main topic."
"Come on. You are no fun. I mean, the plan has been finalized with that one word of yours, you know."
"In that case, may I return to the room to rest for the battle tomorrow?"
"Oh! Nella, take a bath right now. I will bring you special clothes for tonight!"
Alex was speechless. "This is the first time that there is a mother like you. Usually, there are too many old sly foxes around me."
"People know me as a witch." She smirked.
"Can I change my mind and reject this mission?"