Li Jiya!
How could she be here?
Yan Xing asked Chui Chui, "Are you sure? When Grey Mouse and I left Li Jiya’s tavern, she was still there. Moreover, even I didn’t know Grey Mouse was bringing here, so how did she find out in advance?"
Chui Chui replied with utmost confidence, "Master, analyzing motives isn’t my forte. I simply base my conclusions on the data I can obtain and then carry out the most objective analysis. A person’s tone of voice can change. However, voiceprints possess both unique characteristics and relative stability. An adult’s voiceprint, for instance, can remain fairly consistent over extended periods. If one hasn’t undergone specialized voiceprint disguise training, ordinary voice changes cannot alter one’s voiceprint characteristics. I can restore the recently altered voice for you to listen to again."
After speaking, Chui Chui made so adjustnts to the recorded audio and then played it back...
"Are you here to post a mission or to accept one? To buy an alert or to sell intelligence?"
Back in Li Jiya’s tavern, when Yan Xing t Grey Mouse, he had exchanged a few words with Li Jiya. Listening to Chui Chui’s playback, the voice was identical.
Although Yan Xing still had so unanswered questions, he trusted Chui Chui with technical matters.
Now, how should he deal with Li Jiya? Her identity has been exposed to him, yet she herself remains oblivious to this.
Yan Xing’s silence made Li Jiya impatient. "Don’t waste ti, sir. You’ve been charged from the mont you entered this room. The one Gold Coin consultation fee isn’t enough for you to remain silent here for long."
Yan Xing slamd a Gold Coin onto the table. "For ... consulting on intelligence has never been a waste of ti. The more intelligence I gather, the better my chances of completing the mission and, crucially, getting paid while still alive."
Li Jiya reached out, slid the Gold Coin towards herself, and said, "I had so doubts about your legend, Mr. Terence. But after eting you today, I believe you truly deserve your reputation as a legendary thief who has completed so many major jobs. It’s an honor to provide my services to you. As long as you pay the consultation fee, I will tell you anything you wish to know."
Yan Xing asked, "How do you know who I am?"
Li Jiya chuckled. "The Nuta City Assassin’s Guild stands its ground here due to our capabilities. If we couldn’t even recognize the famous Mr. Terence, our intelligence-gathering capabilities would be a disgrace."
She really knows how to butter herself up, Yan Xing sneered inwardly. If I didn’t already know you were Li Jiya, I might actually have been fooled. But since this little vixen wants to put on an act, I’ll play along.
"The strength of the Nuta City Assassin’s Guild is indeed surprising... With your intelligence support, I believe I’ll have a very comfortable ti in Nuta City. I’m here to accept a mission. Reconnaissance, assassination... I can do it all. Do you have any good tasks or suggestions for ? I only accept tasks befitting my status..."
From Li Jiya’s tavern to this place, Yan Xing had gone to great lengths to embody the persona of Terence, the legendary thief, projecting an aura of utmost coolness. His talent for acting had awakened; his performance was in overdrive. He didn’t believe a city-level Assassin’s Guild could verify all of Terence’s glorious deeds in such a short ti.
Indeed, Li Jiya had no way to verify Terence’s deeds. In fact, most thieves and assassins do not openly reveal their identities or abilities. They wouldn’t boast about missions they had completed, making them known to everyone. Moreover, a skilled thief and assassin wouldn’t stay in one place for too long. The Assassin’s Guild lacked a system for advancent based on accumulated missions. Therefore, they could only assess a thief’s or assassin’s abilities by speculating based on existing information. When it ca to new arrivals in the city, assessing their strength was purely guesswork.
It was definitely true that the captain of the Farsight rcenary Corps was searching the city for the thief Terence. Most of the legends about Terence were surely concocted by rcenaries, but even if a small part was true, it proved he was an extrely formidable thief. Additionally, her own observations of Terence revealed his profound confidence in his abilities. In this world, one needed strength to possess such confidence. Therefore, Li Jiya held Terence in high regard.
She rummaged through a desk drawer, retrieved several mission commission scrolls, and pushed them across to Yan Xing, saying, "There’s a mission in Nuta City right now that’s very suitable for soone of your stature. To be precise, there are five commissions. These five commissions all target the sa individual: Yan Xing, the envoy from Thunderous Swamp stationed in Nuta City. The cumulative assassination bounty is three hundred and ten thousand Gold Coins. If you complete the mission, our Assassin’s Guild will take a twenty percent cut as a referral fee."
A twenty percent cut for one mission! The Assassin’s Guild is truly extortionate, Yan Xing thought.
He didn’t comnt on the commission rate but picked up the mission commission scrolls and began to read. These were scrolls because copies of such commission docunts were held by every mission liaison in the taverns. Qualified assassins could accept the mission from any liaison, and whoever ultimately completed it would receive the bounty, less the Guild’s commission.
On the mission commission scroll, Yan Xing saw no clues about the mission publisher, only a brief overview of the assassination target. Naturally, the Assassin’s Guild wouldn’t be so foolish as to blatantly write the client’s identity on the commission.
Therefore, if Yan Xing wanted to learn the details of the assassination mission targeting him, he first had to accept it. Only then could he obtain more information from Li Jiya.
"The bounty is quite generous! And killing one person to collect five bounties—I love these kinds of high-efficiency, money-making missions." Yan Xing readily accepted the mission and then asked Li Jiya, "I’ll take it... I’m not sure how your rules here differ from other places. What do I need to do? What kind of help can I get from you?"
Despite being a novice in dealing with the Assassin’s Guild, Yan Xing had to project an air of experience. Unfamiliar with the Guild’s mission acceptance process, he looked for an excuse to have Li Jiya guide him.
Li Jiya hadn’t suspected Yan Xing up to this point. The various branches of the Assassin’s Guild operated independently. While mission procedures were generally similar, each branch had its own specific rules.
"If you wish to accept a mission from the Nuta City Assassin’s Guild, you need to pay a five percent mission deposit. If you complete the mission, we’ll return the deposit along with the bounty. If the mission isn’t completed, the deposit is non-refundable. If the mission is completed, but not by you, we’ll refund half of the deposit. The deposit simply ensures you’re not acting impulsively or accepting the mission with malicious intent. I trust you understand."
"Understood..." Yan Xing replied, even as he inwardly cursed, This Assassin’s Guild is daylight robbery!
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