The Duke directly infused more magic power into the yellow sand, tightly binding the assassin, making his breathing somewhat difficult.

"If you say nothing, I can only personally open your head to see for myself." The Duke said this purely to intimidate the other party, as he actually had no real means of interrogation.

Unlike those soul-researching Wizards who can directly view the memories within a person's soul to gain information.

Upon hearing the Duke's words, a flash of terror passed through the assassin's eyes, followed by an extremely decisive look of ruthlessness.

In an instant, black blood oozed from the corner of his mouth, emanating a foul odor.

In just a moment, after a few violent heartbeats, the assassin's heart suddenly shattered, leading to an instantaneous death.

The Duke didn't even have time to stop what was happening before him, as this assassin must have used some means to choose suicide.

He preferred to kill himself rather than reveal any information, giving the Duke no opportunity at all.

The Duke was a bit dumbfounded, he was merely making threats, who knew it would scare the assassin into committing suicide.

He knew the assassin wasn't afraid of him; surely there were consequences worse than death prompting the assassin to opt for death rather than leak information.

The Duke was somewhat puzzled as to who was targeting him to have such committed Death Warriors at their disposal.

He didn't relax his vigilance, still binding the assassin with yellow sand, only determining after a thorough check that the assassin was indeed dead.

The Duke felt a little confused, as in Azure Vault City, he didn't really have any enemies, and generally kept a low profile without any conflicts with anyone.

Who exactly would send such Death Warriors to deal with him?

The assassin had the strength of a First-level Knight, though it seemed skewed, with most of it directed towards assassination, while his defensive capabilities were rather weak and frontal combat ability even weaker.

He seemed to be specially trained, just cultivated to achieve certain objectives, a mere tool in some people's hands.

The Duke, possessing the Sand Guardian talent magic, could nearly be termed as an assassin's nemesis.

Unless the assassin's speed was fast enough for Sand Guardian to react in time, but an assassin with such abilities wouldn't need to assassinate, they could directly crush the Duke.

The Duke took out a black stone; this was a Communication Stone from the Oracle Plane, used for short-distance communication.

The Communication Stone is much weaker compared to the Wizard's Mark, with only a ten-kilometer effective communication range, beyond which messages cannot be sent.

While the Wizard's Mark allows communication throughout the entire plane, relying on the strong foundation of Wizard Civilization, enabling everyone to achieve internal plane communication.

The Duke used the Communication Stone to send a message to Dali: "An assassin has appeared on my end; it's unclear who he is…"

Although he had been here for two months, his understanding of the place was limited; it was quicker to ask the locals about such a problem.

After receiving the message, Dali promptly brought people over, accompanied by Knight Henry and dozens of Knights and Mages from the Light Sect.

The Duke was speechless to see such a large group; it was causing too much commotion.

Originally in the night, such a large gathering was sure to attract attention as many people were already gathering around to see what was going on, causing the Light Sect to dispatch so many people.

Dali and Knight Henry entered the Star Embers shop, while others kept guard around.

In the yard, the three were examining the corpse before them, searching for clues.

The Duke had already checked; the assassin had nothing on him that could identify him.

The clothes were the most ordinary garments with no markings, and the weapons were usual purchasable daggers.

The only thing slightly different was that the dagger was poisoned.

After testing, the Duke found the poison was a type that paralyzes the whole body, causing brief unconsciousness.

It seems the opponent's purpose wasn't to kill him, but to control him, what they intended afterward was unknown.

From the start, the assassin's actions were destined to fail, as they knew too little about the Duke's intelligence information.

With Sand Guardian, such levels of ambushes couldn't pose even a hint of threat to him.

While such means generally are hard for lower-ranking mages to defend against, the Duke wasn't the conventional mage here.

Especially given the Duke's strong physical condition, it was uncertain whether the poison could indeed take effect.

He had many antitoxic potions in his pouch, and detoxifying such poison was very simple unless the poison could instantly rob him of resistance.

Even if he fell unconscious, Sand Guardian would continue to protect the Duke; these were pieces of intelligence unknown to the people behind the assassin.

After Dali completed the inspection, she pondered for a moment, also thinking quickly to find clues.

After a while, Holy Daughter Dali said, "This person is highly likely to be from the Shadow Council."

Knight Henry also approved of this speculation, saying, "Indeed it is the style of the Shadow Council; they have always been like this, like sewer rats, forever living in dark corners."

"What is the Shadow Council?" Duke asked.

Dali explained, "The Shadow Council is an opposition to the Four Gods Sect and Light Sect. If we and the Four Gods Sect only secretly battle, the Shadow Council is akin to street rats scorned and hated by everyone. They worship entities that are deemed heretical or vile by the Four Gods and even the Lord of Light, pursuing forbidden powers often accompanied by death, distortion, and madness."

Her voice carried undisguised disgust as she pointed to the corpse on the ground with pale fingers: "Cultivating Death Warriors and having them slaughter themselves is a typical method of theirs. They treat life as trivial, their members merely tools to achieve objectives, once exposed or captured, death is the only option, even considered an 'honorable' ending."

"Because they believe their souls will be guided by the Shadow Dominator or Nameless Mist they worship, or worse, it's to prevent leaking of the council's core secrets, thus undergoing soul torture a thousand times more terrifying than death."

Knight Henry joined in, his tone cold and hard as iron: "They hide in the deepest shadows of Azure Vault City or behind some seemingly glamorous places. Their actions are secretive, with unclear aims, but every time their activities surface, they're accompanied by disasters, plagues, or dreadful rituals."

Only after Duke's understanding did he realize that both the Four Gods Sect and Light Sect deeply despise the Shadow Council.

No matter their conflicts, it would not be publicly displayed, nor involve ordinary people.

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