Chapter 117: the 9th platoon

"You want all that for only 1 LD-EC?" The bartender raised his eyebrows as he questioned.

"This alone is more than enough," Alex answered with a straight face. "Unless you want me to pay in silver coins." Alex placed his right hand into his pocket and pretended like he was about to bring out silver coins.

"No, no, no need for you to stoop so low. Silver coins are clearly below your standards beloved customer." The bartender said hurriedly.

['I didn't know that you had it in you, rabbit, making me proud.'] Al commented.

['Shove it up your ass mutt.']

['Hahahaha, touché.'] Al wasn't offended by his reply.

"There are 30 men in the 9th platoon. The strongest, their lieutenant, is a late-stage disaster realm cultivator at the 9th rank. Apart from him, half of his men are mid-stage disaster realm cultivators. The rest are all late-stage nascent realm cultivators. According to our informant, they like to drink to their fill the night before they change location. All of them in the platoon are water elemental users. Is there anything else that you would like to know?" The bartender added.

"No, that's enough." Alex passed the energy crystal to him discreetly.

['From what I've deduced from this conversation you had with the bartender, I take it that they would have someone follow you. They have the guts to keep tabs on the military without them finding out, if anything happens to the platoon they will want to have the information of the person responsible for it. Find a way to ditch whoever follows you.'] Al said before he stood up from the stool.

['Alright.']

"Do you know where I can find a weapons shop?" He asked the bartender. "I suppose that I don't have to pay for that kind of information." He added.

"No, not at all. This is something almost everyone here knows." The bartender responded and gave Alex the directions to a weapons shop…

['Whoever is tailing me is very good at it. I can't sense anything.'] Alex thought.

['Or you are not as good as you think you are. Switch with Lex, I think he's the best for this job too.'] Al suggested.

['I'm starting to feel useless, but I can't also help but agree to that too, Lex?'] Alex mentioned.

['Whenever you're ready.'] Lex answered.

He closed his eyes and,

-Switch.

As soon as Lex was in control, he activated his bloodline ability. Lex began to blush as he walked around, noticing the gaze of many on him.

['Lex get it together, if you blow my cover then we might not have the chance to complete this thing smoothly.'] Alex reminded him of what was important at the moment.

Lex reached the weapons shop and stepped into the building. There were quite a few people in the shop checking one or two weapons out. The weapons were hung on the walls of the building and some had stands made specifically for a certain type of weapon. The shop seemed to be flourishing in business as the price tags on the weapons were overpriced.

Lex walked to an aisle where throwing knives were placed. He picked 6 throwing knives and closed his eyes.

['Since I took over, I noticed that we were been watched and followed by 2 persons. They are standing at different sides of the road, blending in with the crowd on the streets. They are waiting for me to step out, Should I kill them?'] Lex relayed to the rest.

['Yes, please. And then leave this place quickly as soon as you've done that.'] Alex advised.

['Okay.']

Lex threw the knives in his hands at the floor but before they could hit the ground, they passed through spatial holes.

-Vnnn.

The knives appeared outside the shop and pierced the throats of his stalkers, three knives to one. The people that had been tailing him expected nothing of sort, the last thing that crossed their mind was how they could be killed like this in broad daylight without seeing their killer.

"Ahhhhh!!!" A bystander that watched their bodies fall to the ground, screamed out when she saw the knives in their throats.

Lex quickly but discreetly left the shop.

"These knives, they are from this shop. The person must be inside the weapons shop," The security present at the scene concluded. Lex could hear them as he left the area.

When he was far away from the city, he switched back with Alex.

['Lex, I'm still going to need your help.'] Alex said.

['With what?']

['With killing the disaster realm cultivators of the 9th platoon, including the lieutenant. I have to admit, even if I use the fire bloodline and the boost from the weapon Dao I wouldn't be able to take those above the third-rank of the disaster realm. But you, with the advantage of space manipulation and the element of surprise you can take them on and even take their lives without them knowing that you were the one that did it.']

['Okay, I'll be happy to help.'] Lex sounded a lot more cheerful than he usually does. He was happy that this time, he was the one that they have been relying on.

Alex found his way to the north-west outskirts of the capital city. It was a remote hilly district, and the 9th platoon had set their camp all around the place. Not too far from the hilly district was a forest.

['First, use the skin crawler to scan for heat signatures. I don't want to believe that those people don't have eyes on the platoon. Those people are the ones that we have to take out first. Secondly, I have a plan to make things easier for us, would you like to hear it or would like to go with your plan?'] Al stated.

['I hate to admit it, but I have a feeling that you are a better schemer than I am.'] Alex clenched his fist.

['Just a feeling? Boy back on Mars I was the one that gave you genius ideas. I was the devil that whispered those wise words into your mind, compared to me you are but a child in this game.'] Al boasted.

['Shut your cocky attitude up and tell us what you have in mind.'] Alex dictated.

['Hahaha, I'm glad you are coming to terms with your flaws. Back to the main thing at hand, as I said previously we start by taking out the people that were sent to tail the 9th platoon. Whether we kill them or knock them out is up to the personality that is going to do the job.']

['We kill them.'] Lex and Alex interrupted at the same time.

['Eiiisshh! I'll hate to get on the bad side of the two of you. Such savagery without any second thoughts. After taking them out, we monitor the camp until the sun has set. With the darkness infiltrating their base will be a lot easier. As for how we infiltrate, I suggest that we find a suitable victim and kidnap him. The person's height and stature should have similarities with ours, that way all we have to do is to let the skin crawler scan his face and then we take his clothes and put em on.'] Al paused, waiting to see if any of them had anything to add to what he just said. After a few seconds of silence, he continued;

['For the lieutenant, I have a rough but possible plan on how to take him down. It will depend on how arrogant, conceited, and conscious he is of his environment, we will be using the art of deception. The primary weapon for his takedown should be a bow and four arrows. The first three arrows would be shot at random directions, and the last one should be aimed at the lieutenant. If he falls for the trick then he wouldn't see the first three arrows when they appeared from unexpected angles. Lex this plan is solely reliant on your abilities, if you are not okay with it then tell me so that I can think of something else.']

['It's fine. I like it, simple and straight.'] Lex replied.

['Before we go for the lieutenant we have to set preventive measures and the stage for plan B, just in case the lieutenant doesn't fall for the trick. In times like this where they are still reliant on crude oil, we can use that to our advantage. The platoon should have a reserve for crude oil, now don't get me wrong, I don't think that cultivators would get hurt from normal flames. We are just going to use it as cover when it is needed, we will burn down their supplies and camp. While they are busy trying to put the fire out we make a break for it, but that plan is only going to be considered if the first doesn't go smoothly.']

['But the bartender said that they are all water elemental users, I don't think it would be a hassle for them to put the fire out.'] Alex chipped in.

['Let me finish first. Normal fire can't hurt them and is easy to put out, but it is a different case with dragon flames.'] Al replied.

"Oh," Alex uttered and his realization turned into a wicked grin…