Chapter 675: Bow and Arrow - 675
Even ignoring the fact that it was simply such a good book, it gave him an idea he had never thought of before. It started with the issue of range.
When using poisons, it was more or less impossible to do so without being close. If you wanted to do it from afar, you would have to set it up in advance.
However, as the Weapon God had, why couldn't he use a bow and arrow? He simply had overlooked it before, as range had never been a major issue.
Though not an issue, it would surely help to be able to assassinate someone from farther away, without having to perfectly throw a vial of poison.
Skymender stood up and looked at Skymerge.
"What did you think?" Skymerge asked.
"It was one of the greatest things I've ever read in my life." Skymender said honestly.
Skymerge lightly smiled. "I know. My new book should be done in around a year. Prepare yourself."
Skymender nodded. He would absolutely come back.
Nearly a year had passed since he had started reading the book. Everything about him had advanced greatly. This included poison knowledge, money, and his assassination organization.
He had two things he needed to do. One was to begin practicing with the bow and arrow. He would not use it unless he was absolutely confident in his aim.
The other was to finally purchase some of the classified materials he now had access to.
He started with practicing the bow and arrow. He had one specially made, with his own money of course. It was high quality, powerful, long range, and fit perfectly to his current stature. He naturally had it made through an underground channel as he would end up using it for assassinations and being as careful as possible couldn't hurt.
With his current connections, he basically had full access to the underground of Sky city, and could even go so far as to be considered one of the most major individuals involved in it. This naturally included association with those he may eventually assassinate. Therefore, he had recently started a new business, where he was able to make even more money than before, and by a lot.
He called it assassination insurance.
He would give individuals who were interested an amount, and by paying that amount, they would be safe for an entire year, no matter how much he was offered to kill them.
Of course, the amount they paid would either go up or stay the same after a year, depending on how much interest they garnered and how much others would be willing to pay to assassinate them. Along with making him far more money than before, this also actually saved a few lives, even those which the police had wanted dead.
They had tried to cause some trouble after his rejection, but the threat he posed made them very quickly calm down. If it happened again, Skymender may have to take action to let them understand that they were the lesser party in their agreement.
But for now, everything was once again calm, and they seemed to understand the idea of assassination insurance.
Skymender spent a lot of time practicing with the bow and arrow. He practiced both as Skymender and the Skygod. Perhaps it was his experience with weapons, but he progressed rapidly. He felt as if he had much more talent with the bow and arrow than he did with the sword.
After around a month, he was able to hit most of his targets at any range. Only extremely far targets had a lower hit rate.
However, he did not need to shoot that far. A hundred feet or so was more than enough for a majority of his targets. He would naturally continue practicing, as the further he could attack from, the better.
Just as Skymender had felt like testing his new bow and arrow skills by assassinating someone, he received a very interesting assassination mission from the hesitant informant.
"I'm not sure whether I should even give this to you, as it may get me involved, but since we've worked so well together, here."
Skymender opened up the envelope, and was surprised. Indeed, it was a tricky situation.
The assassination target was a police officer, and not some corrupt one, but a truly positive aspect to society.
Naturally, one would be hesitant to even consider accepting it, but the price paid was something that nobody could ignore.
Skymender thought for a moment. The police's reaction may be an issue, but he believed that they needed to be put in their place regardless.
Skymender nodded. "I can take this mission."
The Informant nodded. "This is dangerous even for me, as they will know it was I that gave you the mission. I can pay you to protect me."
Skymender nodded. "It's on the house this time, Informant."
He breathed a sigh of relief as Skymender left.
That same night, in the house of the police officer, an arrow shot through the window, piercing his heart. No poison was necessary.
The police were oddly silent about the matter in the morning and afternoon. However, the entire city could feel the tension in the air.
Skymender had an idea about their plans. That night, the police gathered and advanced towards the Informant's house. Since they had no idea who Skymender was or where he could be, they could only make a move on the Informant.
The Informant looked out the window for a moment before closing his curtains. He laid on his bed, possibly for the last time. "It is up to you, sir Skygod."
The police, silently moving and hidden, soon entered the open yard. The house was surrounded.
It was as they neared that they stopped.
On the roof of the Informant was a silhouette, the moon high behind him.
Without a word, he raised his bow.
The police chief yelled out. "SKYGOD! RETREAT!"
But he was late. Skymender released his bow. Arrows coated with poison fell as he rapidly shot tens of arrows.
Poison mist sprang up as the police fled.
Like a god of death reaping the battlefield, tens of police officers fell to the ground, never to get back up.
Chapter 676: New Materials - 676
As the police officers escaped beyond the trees, Skymender knocked one more arrow on his bow.
He aimed it at the Chief of Police. "Next time, don't make the same mistake." He mumbled.
He released the arrow.
It flew far, exceeding one hundred feet, and scratched the Chief of Police's arm.
"I had planned to bury it in his arm, but that works as well."
He did not disturb the Informant, who was laying in his bed, and returned to his house.
The next day, a memorial was held for the police officers who had fallen, including the one from the day before.
The Chief of Police had a bandage visible on his arm as he gave a speech to a crowd of concerned individuals.
"Last night, we attempted to raid a gang hideout. Although we were successful in our goal, it cost us the lives of multiple police officers. For this, I sincerely apologize. I should have never taken them without absolute certainty that there would be no deaths."
After he spoke a bit more, and a few more people spoke, the memorial ended. The entire time, the name of Skygod or the mention of assassination did not occur.
Neither was the Informant mentioned. That night, Skymender entered a house through a window.
The Chief of Police was there, waiting for him.
He turned around and looked at Skymender, any arrogance he previously had gone.
"So, I suppose you still want to work together." Skymender said.
The Chief of Police nodded. "How much for assassination insurance for the entire police force."
Skymender smiled a little beneath the mask. "Now we're talking."
He and the Chief of Police had a fairly long conversation, lasting around thirty minutes.
They came to many agreements about future cooperations.
The Chief of Police indeed felt a bit of hatred and anger at Skymender for killing the officers, but instead of pointlessly seeking out revenge, and most likely getting more killed, he decided to make sure that no more would die, even if he had to sacrifice revenge.
For the first time, Skymender realized that the Chief of Police was actually an intelligent individual. Not many could stand accepting defeat in a way that allowed them to gain the most, even at the cost of their pride.
Skymender eventually left. Now, he had the absolute upper hand in all negotiations and deals.
With everything now settled, he decided that it was finally time to purchase the classified materials he now had access to. He had narrowed what he wanted to use first down to three choices. One was a plant that he hoped could be used to enhance his corrosion poison even further.
Another should be able to enhance the mist poison even further.
The final one would not be used in the process of creating a poison, but was known as a neutralizer for a vast amount of poisons. With that one, he had a special plan, one he would need to go to the Imperial Capital for.
Otherwise, it was far too risky.
Skymender made the order, and sent it through the mail. This would naturally be a highly secure and even classified process, as it involved the purchase and transportation of classified materials.
Skymender waited around a month before he finally received the materials he ordered. He had ordered more than one of each, besides the last one. The last material alone cost more than the amount he had spent to purchase multiple of the first material.
Skymender placed all of them in high quality storage containers and got to work.
He first started with using the first material to enhance his corrosion poison. After a few attempts, he finally felt as if he had succeeded. There was only one way to find out. He threw it at the wall of his lab, which he had purchased a while ago, and put his hand on the dripping poison.
It began to corrode his hand immediately.
It felt just as bad as the first time he had done it long ago, which caused Skymender to nearly smile. The pain was bad, but his resistance to pain was beyond human at this point.
Even with the resistance he had built up to the corrosive poison, especially in his hand, he was still harmed just as badly as he had been the first time he had ever put his hand on the corrosion poison.
Once his hand healed, he could repeat the process. It was a bit dangerous, considering he was an assassin and using both of his hands was important, but he would survive.
After around two weeks, when he could hold his second hand steady again, he began to attempt to increase the potency of his mist poison. He was even more excited for this one, as the mist poison was his original poison, the first he ever created.
On his second attempt, he got a whiff of the finished project and smiled. His throat was closing in and a bit of blood seeped from his nose. However, he had essentially built up an immunity before, which meant that it would be unable to kill him unless he was able to increase the potency by at least five times.
He barely had a two times increase in potency after finishing up. It was incredible, but could not harm him.
Building up an immunity to the mist poison was far easier than doing so for the corrosion poison. As he spent another two weeks planning a trip to the Imperial Capital, he built up a near immunity to the improved mist poison.
There was around a month left before the summer ended. He began to make his way to the Imperial Capital once again.
The journey was the standard ten days. He entered through the gates without any trouble at all.
Without stopping, only changing his carriage to a smaller version, he made his way to the Imperial Palace.
Meanwhile, in the Imperial Palace, the Imperial Scholar received word that Skymender had entered the city.
"What are you doing here?" He asked himself.
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
121 Power
stone 
Paragraph comment