The Keeper didn't answer for several seconds.
This was such an obvious lie that Shang was basically just directly making fun of her.
He could just have said that Ice Princess had betrayed them. There was nothing wrong with taking care of a traitor. There might even be a reward.
Yet, Shang came up with such an obvious lie.
"What really happened?" the Keeper asked through the Communication Crystal.
"Why ask a question you already know the answer to?" Shang asked with an even voice.
Silence.
"I'm not throwing my life away by fighting such a strong wolf," Shang added.
Suddenly, Shang felt quite an aggressive aura coming out of his Communication Crystal.
Things seemed different than the last time.
When Shang had killed Desert Storm, the Keeper hadn't acted like this, but this time, she didn't like the answer.
"What really happened?" the Keeper asked again with a serious voice.
"You already know what happened," Shang repeated.
"She was eaten by a wolf."
"What kind of wolf?!" the Keeper asked immediately.
Silence.
For several seconds, there came no answer from the Communication Crystal.
"What kind of wolf?!" the Keeper repeated.
"Give me a second," Shang said. "I'm doing something right now."
"What can you possibly be busy with right now?!" the Keeper nearly shouted.
No answer for several seconds.
"It was a Late Archbeast wolf with a Wind Affinity. It's currently about 80 kilometers away from me," Shang said.
The Keeper gritted her teeth.
It was like White Ghost wasn't even trying to sound believable!
"Retrieve her corpse!" the Keeper ordered.
"How?" Shang asked.
Silence.
"What do you mean, how?!" the Keeper asked. "Just kill the damn wolf!"
"That wolf just killed a Late Archmage without any troubles. I'm not fighting that," Shang answered.
The Keeper gritted her teeth.
"What about the target of the mission?!" she asked.
"I have her corpse."
"How did she die?"
"I killed her."
Silence.
The silence was very long, and Shang couldn't tell what the Keeper was thinking about right now.
"But you can't kill the wolf?"
"No."
Silence.
"Why are you making this so difficult?" the Keeper asked after several seconds with a calmer voice. "I know that she was about to betray us. You don't have to act like a wolf ate her."
"But it did," Shang answered. "Although it's taking its sweet time with it," he grumbled.
"Killed her then," the Keeper said after taking a deep breath. "You don't have to act like a wolf killed her."
Shang noticed that the Keeper was very different from usual.
Usually, it was an unspoken agreement that Shang would kill whomever he was sent on a mission with, and the Keeper knew that very well.
She had sent Shang with Ice Princess, knowing that she would betray them.
But then why was the Keeper suddenly acting like Shang wasn't supposed to kill her?
"You thought that she would betray the Temple of Blood," Shang said. "Yet, you still sent me on a mission with her. Why?"
Usually, this wasn't a question. It was obvious that the Keeper sent Shang with Ice Princess on the mission so that he would kill her.
But, apparently, that wasn't the case this time.
For a couple of seconds, the Keeper didn't say anything.
Then, she took a deep breath.
"She was supposed to escape successfully and deliver incorrect intel."
Silence.
"I sent you with her to make it seem like I honestly wanted to kill her so that she wouldn't suspect that I actually let her escape. I sent you because you are powerful enough to be a threat but not strong enough to win against Ice Princess and Samantha Wildfern together."
"According to the plan, you were supposed to inform me. Then, I would send a Sweeper and tell you to keep following them without risking your life, but due to their higher Realm, they would inevitably get away before the Sweeper arrives."
"Ice Princess would unveil everything she knew to the Wildfern Family, and they would trade the information to the Natural Selection Company. The Natural Selection Company would pay a hefty price for the information, but it would lead nowhere."
"This would sour the relationship between the two families, taking pressure off us."
Silence.
Shang was so close to breaking his Communication Crystal.
'This means that no one was actually watching!' he thought with burning anger.
'I actually didn't need to keep my powers a secret! Literally nobody was watching!'
'I risked my life for no reason whatsoever!'
Shang didn't say anything for quite a while.
He had thought that he had seen through the Keeper's plan, but he had actually completely overlooked this possibility.
Shang had thought that the Keeper knew how powerful he was and that this was some kind of test to see if it was worth investing more resources in him.
Shang had essentially managed to fight 2.5 levels above himself and win, which would put him among the truly talented people of an Empire.
He suspected that the Temple of Blood actually had the backing of one of the Empires, and he had thought that maybe some Mage Lord of this Empire was evaluating his power from the shadows.
Everything would make sense in this way.
Eventually, Shang took a deep breath.
"You can't fault me for the sudden appearance of this powerful wolf," Shang said.
"No, I can't, and I won't," the Keeper said. "I made an incorrect call. I didn't expect that a Late Archbeast could be so powerful. Did the wolf eat the entire corpse?"
"Yes, everything," Shang answered.
"What about the target's corpse?" the Keeper asked.
"Still here," Shang answered.
"Throw it to the same wolf with all the belongings," the Keeper said.
This was unusual, but Shang understood why he should do that.
The target wasn't supposed to die this time.
Shang lifted the dried corpse and its belongings with his mind and threw it at the wolf that had just finished eating Ice Princess' corpse.
It was just some random wolf Shang had found.
When the corpse flew towards the wolf, it became startled and fled for several kilometers.
A couple of seconds later, it slowly came back and kept watch over its surroundings.
This was suspicious.
But after about a full minute of nothing happening, the wolf eventually wolved down the corpse.
"The wolf ate everything," Shang said.
"Took long enough," the Keeper answered. "Come back to the branch. We need to talk about your future."
