The entire branch fell into silence.
Eaten by a wolf?
Then why hadn't White Ghost also been eaten by that wolf?!
Desert Storm was a Late Archmage, and he was the second strongest Named Agent of the branch! If there were a beast powerful enough to kill him, it would also be powerful enough to kill White Ghost!
But even more than that, Desert Storm should have received information about whatever beast was approaching their location! He shouldn't even have come into contact with such a strong beast!
White Ghost's statement couldn't be a more obvious lie.
But then, what happened if Desert Storm hadn't been killed by a beast?
Did he flee?
No, that made no sense.
If White Ghost were on the Temple of Blood's side, he wouldn't be lying for Desert Storm, and if White Ghost were on Desert Storm's side, he wouldn't have returned to this place.
So, did White Ghost kill him?
Sure, White Ghost was very powerful, but he couldn't possibly jump three levels, right? Especially after literally just reaching his new level.
But then, what the fuck even happened?!
Nothing made sense!
"I see," the Keeper said after a bit. "It can't be helped."
Trapper and House Wife looked with shock at the Keeper.
Then, their eyes widened in fear and realization.
The Keeper obviously wouldn't have believed such a stupid lie.
Yet, she didn't contradict White Ghost at all and even accepted his statement without even asking any questions.
This could only mean that she was involved in whatever happened to Desert Storm, and since she got involved, it could only mean that Desert Storm had done something that the Temple of Blood didn't like.
He could have been a spy sent by a different organization to purposefully accept and screw up missions that would go against their goals.
He could have also been someone that tried to gather information on the Temple of Blood and sell it to the Natural Selection Company.
He could have also thought about leaving the Temple of Blood without wanting to sacrifice his Sensitive Knowledge Partition.
Leaving the Temple of Blood wasn't forbidden, but there were two things that stopped a lot of people from leaving.
First of all, they had to pay a lot of money to buy their freedom.
Second of all, they had to sacrifice their SKP.
The SKP included all the knowledge they had gathered that involved the Temple of Blood in any way.
Depending on how long someone had been part of the Temple of Blood, this could result in decades of information and experiences just getting deleted from their minds.
This could severely confuse someone and even permanently weaken their comprehension abilities.
Due to these two things, many people that wanted to leave thought about leaving quietly without anyone noticing.
Trapper, House Wife, and even Shang didn't know why the Keeper had wanted to kill Desert Storm.
In Trapper and House Wife's minds, Desert Storm had probably been killed by one of the Sweepers.
The job of Sweeper inside the Temple of Blood was on the same level as the job of Keeper. Only Ancestral Mages could take up that role.
Sweepers were responsible for getting rid of Named Agents that posed a danger to the Temple of Blood.
If a Keeper grew suspicious regarding an Agent, they could send a Named Agent to kill that Agent or just kill them on their own, but they would also need to inform a Sweeper about everything that had transpired.
However, if a Keeper grew suspicious regarding a Named Agent, they needed to inform the Territory Lord. If the Territory Lord deemed the Named Agent to truly be suspicious, they would send a Sweeper to take care of them.
Keepers were not allowed to just randomly kill off Named Agents.
While House Wife and Trapper thought that Desert Storm had been killed by a Sweeper, Shang thought about why the Keeper had sent Desert Storm to escort him.
Surprisingly, Shang hadn't gotten any information regarding what he should do with Desert Storm.
The Keeper had only said that Desert Storm would guard him during his breakthrough.
Yet, Shang knew that the Keeper wasn't stupid. She knew about Shang being a physi, and she must have also realized that Shang had killed three of his escorts already while he had been a Trial Agent.
She should have known that Desert Storm would have realized Shang's secret and that Shang would kill him like the others.
So, it meant that the Keeper actually wanted Shang to kill Desert Storm.
But she hadn't said why.
It was certain that Shang was supposed to kill Desert Storm. There was no doubt about it.
The Keeper could have just sent Shang to breakthrough in a different branch, with another Keeper keeping watch over him and isolating everything. Shang was powerful, but he couldn't possibly kill an Ancestral Mage.
Surely, there had also been a way to make Shang breakthrough in secret without anyone else noticing.
Sadly, Shang just didn't know why, and he couldn't possibly ask.
Obviously, the Keeper was somehow skirting the rules by doing that. Shang wasn't sure, but it felt very suspicious how the Keeper acted.
House Wife and Trapper got a reminder that they shouldn't step out of line today.
The Keeper had gotten rid of Desert Storm, which meant that she could also get rid of them.
While the two of them remained silent, Shang's Spirit Sense focused on the Keeper.
"I have a request. I will pay for it," Shang transmitted. He didn't want this conversation to be public.
"Speak," the Keeper answered.
"I want to see a Beast Lord," Shang transmitted.
At that point, the Keeper turned around and looked at Shang.
There were not many Beast Lords in the world.
In fact, there were only ten Beast Lords in the Natural Selection Company's territory, which was also the Territory Lord's territory.
Every Beast Lord was very far away from each other, and it wasn't easy to create a safe path to these locations.
This definitely was not a simple request.
