The tunnel led to a high ledge, miles above the ground. Greatcrest City was built atop a flat mountaintop miles high, and the secret tunnel's entrance was carved into the cliffside halfway up the mountainside, at which point it zig-zagged up to the city above.
John glanced out into the darkness of the night, which was illuminated by the glowing moon high above. He took in a beautiful landscape of forests, mountains and rivers illuminated by the silver glow of the moon.
"Follow me," Zuri said, stepping off the ledge.
John followed, stepping off and plummeting to the ground below. Zuri used her Qi to stall her fall and land softly just before hitting the ground, and John did the same. They landed without making noise, at which point Zuri rushed forward, her body turning into a black mass of dark shadows. Clearly, she did not want to be detected.
Following suit, John used his Dao of Space to shroud himself in a spatial cocoon, and followed behind Zuri. The two sped into the nearby Immortal Forest, surprising him in the direction. From what he knew of this area of the Human Continent, the Immortal Forest dominated a decent portion of the south-west portion of the continent, with almost no settlements within.
It ended at the coast, which was also sparsely populated. He remained silent as he followed Zuri's barely perceptible shadow, venturing deeper into the Immortal Forest. He noticed many slumbering beasts on their way through, none of which were alerted to their presence.
They eventually came to a stop a dozen miles into the forest, at the base of a massive tree. The tree was larger than any of the surrounding trees, thicker and taller than any other nearby. Zuri slipped under an arching series of roots at the base of the massive tree, into a small tunnel that pierced into the tree.
John followed and came to a halt as they arrived at a dead-end. John studied the dead-end, and thought he could just faintly feel some source of Qi in the area, like a formation or something. It was almost impossible to detect, and would have been impossible had he not been this close.
Zuri's Qi flared for a brief instant, and the dead-end quickly parted to the side, revealing a small tunnel on the other side. She slipped into the tunnel, as did John a moment later. The wall reformed behind them, drowning the tunnel in darkness.
They moved down the tunnel, which seemed to go on for a mile, before coming to a large chamber, one clearly carved by hand. It was a hundred yards in each direction, and had a large transportation formation in the very center.
A small pedestal jutted out of the center of the formation, which Zuri quickly made her way towards. The flat top of the pedestal had many formation runes on it, each glowing with a different color. Zuri reached out and started pressing and moving the formations in a practiced sequence, obviously doing something John didn't yet understand.
John hopped on the formation as well, studying the formation with slight awe.
"This formation is connected to dozens of other formations, which allows us to travel throughout our domain of influence in secrecy," Zuri said.
"Who built such a powerful formation all the way down here?" he asked.
"The Guild, of course," Zuri said, rematerializing from her mass of dark shadows and into her true form. She glanced at John as he stepped out of his spatial cocoon, and nodded firmly.
"Your command of the spatial Dao is quite incredible," she praised him.
John smiled wryly, as his command of the Dao was nothing compared to Lilian.
"It's alright," he said.
"You sell yourself short," Zuri shook her head at his modesty. "The Dao of Space is a pinnacle Dao, and is incredibly hard to learn, let alone utilize. For one as young as yourself, your current level of control can only be praised as heavenly."
'I guess I've only compared my control of the spatial Dao to Lilian, who is an absolute monster in the Spatial Dao, so maybe I have been selling myself short,' he thought.
"In the entire Shadows of Death Guild, there are only a handful of spatial Dao users, and only three who command it more efficiently than you," Zuri said, "And each of those three are ancient monsters, so it's only natural you fall short of their spatial Dao prowess."
"Entire Guild?" John asked curiously. "Is there more to the Shadows of Death than what you showed me?"
"Haha, of course," Zuri laughed softly, still working on whatever she was going to the pedestal formations. "What you saw was just one branch of the full guild. There are twelve branches, which covers twelve different areas of the Human Contient, and also the main headquarters, which gives out missions to the branches, as well as carries out the highest priority assassinations themselves. When a truly strong target is identified for assassination, it's normally someone from the headquarters who comes out to assassinate the target."
"Wow," was all John could say, as he was taken aback by the scope of the guild. He had assumed it was a rogue guild operating out of Greatcrest City, but was instead a continent spanning guild which was far more powerful than he had ever imagined.
"Our faction covers the south-west corner of the Human Continent," Zuri said, still adjusting the formation on the pedestal. "Which includes Greatcrest City, as well as hundreds of other cities within our domain."
John nodded his head in thanks for her explanation, now realizing why Zuri was so confident in her guild's information network. It was a continent spanning assassination guild, which would naturally be very interested in obtaining as much information about the continent and people within it as possible.
"Originally, the Tier One Sects carried out assassination missions themselves, but eventually found them to not only be a distraction for their sects, but also brought too much scrutiny whenever an assassination was revealed, as well as danger to the assassins of the sect whenever their identity was revealed. Too many important sect-members were dying for their liking," Zuri said, seeming to give him a background in the guild's history.
"So eventually they agreed to form a standalone assassination guild, one that operated without their influence, and also outside of their command, so as to put distance between the assassinations and themselves. Once the Guild was established, it became a self-operating power that never revealed its existence publicly. The three Tier One sects silently support our operation through resource donations and sometimes sending youths talented in assassination arts to us, but other than that, stay hands off," she continued.
"While rumors of its existence have obviously surfaced, not many on this continent and beyond know for certain of its existence. It's been like this for centuries now," she said, finally falling silent.
John thanked her for the background, getting a better grasp of the situation he found himself in. Zuri tapped the formation one last time, and it lit up. John felt his body pulled through space for a brief instant before returning to the real world.
He looked around, noticing himself in a chamber almost identical to the one he had been in.
"Our mission starts now," Zuri said, her face becoming firm. "And based off the details we have thus far, it could be incredibly dangerous. Stay on guard, and do not stray from me."
John nodded and followed closely behind, anticipating rising within, a small smile forming on his face.
Surely an assassination mission would bring him quite a bit of fun.
'I think joining this Guild was the correct decision after all,' he thought to himself, thinking of the wonderful battles it would surely bring.
