While Sam is researching the seal and thinking of ways to break it, the next day Arkiv came with their target. The lackey of the second young master, who gives him the dirtiest ideas.
Sam came out once and just took a look at him and left the rest of the teammates. He already explained what they need to do, so Sam doesn't have to explain again.
Kiran started observing the behavior of this guy.
Meanwhile, Arkiv gave out the list of the businesses and other things the Second Branch along with the people that are assigned to different positions.
The extra help Sam hired would be used to deal with them.
"So, we only have six days. We need to speed up. Of course we need to speed up."
"I know, but I think we don't have that long. In at most three days, the clean up process would be done in the first branch, the two branch leaders will go back to their respective branches and at that time it would be impossible to not suspect the first young master.
Particularly, with him being the last person to be at the furnace of the first branch and the current plan of ours also involves the same thing, his presence at the furnace. So, it would be hard to not draw any suspicion and as soon as the suspicion hits, we need to get away from this place. For the last branch we could just deal with them directly, even though that would take some time."
Arkiv thought for a moment and nodded. When he was about to return, Sam suddenly said.
"I saw a few black cloaked men in the first branch. They are definitely not the members of the Puppet Organization, see if you can find anything related to them. After all, in this turmoil, I don't see any reason for the puppet organization to entertain any guests."
"Okay, I will try. But I think we need to wait until the Branch leader visits."
"He will visit."
With that Arkiv was gone and Sam looked through the list he brought. He divided the list into six parts and one part to each prisoner.
"These are your targets. They are spread all over this realm and you have to deal with them. I don't care how you deal with them, but they shouldn't be able to fight. There is also another condition.
I want you guys to not deliberately hide away, at least while you are attacking. You don't have to deliberately reveal yourself, but don't deliberately hide while you are fighting."
"Why do you want us to do that? Are you trying to use us as a bait?"
One of the prisoners asked.
"Yes, actually. But not particularly to divert their attention to you guys. But to divert their attention away from me. I will give you something to save yourself in a critical time."
With that he took a bunch of things and gave them to the six prisoners.
"There is a mask that could disguise yourself. It is not the best out there, but it can still help you in fooling the people at the worm hole of the planet, just make sure that you encounter the higher level cultivators and not definitely the branch leaders.
If you can do that, you will be good.
And you don't have to destroy everything, destroy seventy-five percent and that would be enough."
He sent them away. Five prisoners walked away while Markan still stayed and it is because, his targets are within this planet.
"I need you to occasionally come back here in the next three days while you are dealing with those people. I will crack the seal no matter what."
He nodded and left.
Sam once again went back to research, his team is preparing for the inevitable clash with the second branch.
After all, the only reason, the first branch is easier is because their elders are all dead earlier.
So, now they need to be prepared.
While the team is preparing, Sam is feeling a bit frustrated while researching. No matter what he did, the seal is like a black hole devouring everything.
In fact, it didn't matter what kind of technique he used on the simulation, it just kept on devouring the set up he is making and it is close to the core, if something happens, Markan can completely lose his cultivation.
But no matter what he did, nothing is working.
He didn't give up though, he persisted and for the next two days, Markan came back at night after dealing as much damage as he could in different places of the planets.
Sam conducted a few more tests to it and tried to make some progress, but to no avail.
Meanwhile, in those two days, the second branch suffered severe losses due to the prisoners and they became alert. The news that the prisoners are doing this didn't escape them and many elders are dispatched, they also sent the news to the branch leader who is still in the first branch dealing with the aftermath.
But the branch leader didn't get the message, because he was busy with something else.
He was in a meeting with the Black cloaked men that went away after fleecing him a lot on the day the first branch is destroyed.
"What happened in three days?" The leader of the black cloaks asked casually.
"Many things happened. Do you have the information?"
"Of course, we would always meet the requirements. Here it is." He took out a scroll and gave it to the second branch leader.
The two branch leaders looked through the scroll carefully and were stunned by the information they saw.
"Are you sure this is true?"
"Yes, it is."
There is a mixture of excitement and relief in the eyes of two branch leaders.
Third branch leader took out another spatial ring and gave it to the black cloaked men and said.
"Thank you so much for the information."
The black cloaked man took the ring and stood up.
"Pleasure doing business with you."
With that he left along with his entourage.
The two branch leaders sat alone in the room and there is a silence looming in the area.
"So, what do you think we should do?"
"I didn't expect that someone high up would be involved in this. I thought it was just the five great sects. But it turned out that the outer deacon is just a pawn."
"This became way more complicated. According to the rules, the upper level powers shouldn't be messing with the matters of the lower level powers, currently Sam trying to deal with us is like a war between him and us, the other party don't have any plausible reason to attack us.
Even the reasons they have the grudge against him are not exactly valid according to the rules, so it would be impossible for us to gain too much help from them."
"But some subtle help could be expected. Let us just slip in the information about Sam and see if we might attract something. Anyway, until now, he did everything carefully without showing himself, but if we make him show himself with proper planning, we might be able to get rid of him with the help of a foreign hand."
They discussed their plans for a bit and immediately sprung into the action. The aftermath was instantly dealt with and before the same day, the two branch leaders left.
When the branch leader abruptly arrived at the second branch, they were stunned but also excited. After all, the pressure on the elders was too much due to the sudden loss of members.
The second branch leader is not exactly pleased by the numbers but he didn't dwell into the matter too much and passed the orders.
"Use all the resources you currently have to hire the mercenaries. I want every mercenary within the realm to be at door step. Tell them that we would be giving a puppet with an independent control which has the combat power of at least Initial stage Transcendent realm to them and we will also give one weapon or armor of their choosing after they finished the task.
Call for all the subordinate organizations that are loyal to us. Within a day, I want the capital to be flooded with them.
Ask for the citizens to retreat to the emergency bunkers and use the lowest level disciples to guard them. Arrange every kind of defensive formation you know around the city and every kind of trap formation you know in the city. Same goes for the estate. Engage every defensive formation. In just one day, the whole city should be in lockdown.
After everyone arrives, seal it and seal the core furnace area. Every member that has a task there should leave it in the middle.
Take out all of your puppets with the independent control and let them patrol.
I don't even want a single fly coming in or going out of the city without our permission."
As he recited the orders, all the branch elders ran to execute them.
