And after sending the report, a member from the headquarters would arrive to escort the newly promoted member to the headquarters, where they would complete the higher-ranked missions.

The smaller branches only handled missions that involved cultivators below the rank of Master. There were over hundreds of thousands of cultivators across the continent, yet only around ten thousand of them had reached the rank of Master.

This number might seem large at first glance, but considering the entire continent, it was actually quite small. Most Masters served in the armies of the great noble families or the Church. Some Masters had opened their own guilds and businesses, choosing to remain independent, while others were affiliated with the finest academies.

The Reaper Guild headquarters handled missions that involved high-ranking cultivators such as Masters, or even Grandmasters if necessary.

And today, a member from the headquarters was about to arrive.

Every vessel of Asher simply waited for the person’s arrival.

Just then, a disturbance rippled through space, and a man appeared before every vessel of Asher.

It was a man wearing a mask, dressed entirely in black. As expected of an assassin, there was no way an assassin would wear colorful clothes before killing someone in the dead of night.

The man glanced at every vessel present in the room before finally turning his gaze toward the vessel who had reached the Master rank.

Without removing his mask, he spoke in a calm voice,

"I am a member from the headquarters, as you all already know. You may call me 46."

Every vessel in the room nodded.

"Understood."

The masked man then looked at the Master-ranked vessel and said in a tone devoid of emotion,

"So, you are the one who broke through to the Master rank. For now, you are merely an elementless Master. However, after reaching the headquarters, you can begin learning an element. With enough talent and effort, you may even reach Mastery over it, becoming a true, full-fledged Master with the potential to one day reach the Grandmaster rank."

He paused for a moment before continuing,

"That is... if you survive long enough in the battles to come. Masters are quite difficult to kill unless one possesses a powerful artifact."

An elementless Master was still a Master.

Even without mastering an element, they had already undergone the transformation that came with breaking through to the Master rank. Their physique was far superior to that of lower-ranked cultivators, their mana control had reached an entirely different level, and every movement carried overwhelming strength.

However, that alone did not make them a true Master.

Without an elemental affinity and the Mastery that came with it, an elementless Master was noticeably weaker than a genuine elemental Master. More importantly, they had no hope of stepping into the Grandmaster realm unless they first increased their Mastery over an element.

For ordinary cultivators, this weakness would be fatal.

But the Reaper Guild was different.

Every assassin within the guild was trained extensively in close-quarters combat and precise mana control from the very beginning. Their purpose was to eliminate targets swiftly and silently. Large-scale elemental techniques were powerful, but they created far too much destruction and disturbance, defeating the very purpose of an assassination.

To a Reaper, a silent blade guided by flawless mana control was often far deadlier than a raging storm or an ocean of flames.

That was why an elementless Master of the Reaper Guild was still capable of killing opponents far above what others would expect.

Even so, against a true Master who had attained elemental Mastery, the difference in strength remained undeniable.

The masked man did not say anything else.

He simply raised his right hand and then a silver-colored ring on his finger started shining.

The next moment, a disturbance happened in the surrounding space.

Ripples spread through the air, and soon a silver-colored spatial gate appeared before the newly advanced Master rank vessel.

It was not the masked man’s own power.

It was a Spatial Element artifact, one capable of transporting people across extremely long distances. Such artifacts were incredibly rare, and only organizations like the Reaper Guild headquarters could use them so casually.

The masked man looked at the newly promoted Master rank vessel of Asher and said in his emotionless voice,

"Step inside."

The Master-ranked assassin nodded without saying anything and walked toward the spatial gate.

Before entering, he looked once at the other members present in the room.

Every vessel of Asher simply nodded.

The next moment, he stepped into the spatial gate, and his figure disappeared from everyone’s sight.

Soon after, the spatial gate closed as if it had never existed.

The masked man looked at everyone present in the room and said,

"Continue your assigned missions."

Every vessel nodded.

"Understood."

The masked man then activated the Spatial Element artifact once again.

Space distorted around him, and the next moment, he disappeared from the room.

Silence descended upon the branch once again.

None of the vessels reacted.

To the masked man, they were nothing more than ordinary members of the Reaper Guild.

He had absolutely no idea that every single person standing in this branch was actually a vessel of Asher.

After the masked man left.

Every vessel looked at each other, and then one of them said,

"Finally, it is over. Now let’s play for some time before another mission arrives."

The Master-ranked vessel of Asher, who had entered the spatial crack, found himself standing in the middle of a forest where there was no sign of any building.

The Master-ranked vessel of Asher was not really panicked or anything. He simply made a confused expression before turning around to ask No. 46 what the meaning of this was and where the headquarters was.

But suddenly, Asher jumped away from his position without even looking back.

A kick passed through the spot where he had been standing just a moment ago.

After creating some distance, Asher looked at No. 46 and said,

"What is the meaning of this now?"