The three were veteran killers—one of them erupted with power and charged toward Qianye, while the other two sped toward the sides in different directions.
The leader’s charge was actually a feint. He shot out an almost-transparent thread which nailed itself to the side of a large tree. With that, he performed a sudden change in direction and escaped into the depths of the forest. This turn was extremely sudden, and that string was made of an unknown material capable of withstanding the extreme force. The lead a.s.sa.s.sin’s mid-air s.h.i.+ft was even faster and more agile than stepping through the air with origin power.
Seeing that he had left Qianye behind, the killer had just begun to heave a sigh of relief when a black shadow smashed down from above. Just before losing his consciousness to East Peak, there was only one thought on his mind: “How come he’s so fast!?”
The other two killers had already faded into the forest at this point. They weren’t far off, but it was extremely difficult to spot them with the naked eye. However, in Qianye’s True Sight, the origin fluctuations outlined two slowly moving figures.
It would seem this kind of concealment state would slow them down by a fair bit. Qianye quietly went after them and disabled them one after the other.
In the blink of an eye, the three a.s.sa.s.sins had been tossed onto an empty s.p.a.ce beside the forest. These people were quite strong, and it would have taken Qianye a bit of effort if they had tried to fight head-on. However, Qianye’s True Sight happened to be the bane of all concealment abilities, allowing him to take them all down with relative ease.
Nighteye appeared from a different direction and shot a glance at the three a.s.sa.s.sins. “It seems these three have a bit of fame.”
Qianye said while searching through the captives, “They seem to be rather well off, judging from their wealth. They have fifty high-purity black crystals and a number of other stuff.”
“How do we handle them?”
“Of course, we deal with them just like we did with the Predators. Our troubles should lessen quite a bit after killing these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, right?”
“Mm, I’ll go prepare the wood then.” With that, Nighteye walked into the forest.
She had just pa.s.sed by an ancient tree when the scenery there blurred briefly. A figure came into being and dropped onto Nighteye.
He made not a single sound or leaked even a bit of aura during the attack. He was like a natural predator whose fangs would only be revealed after the lethal strike.
Just as the attack was about to succeed, Nighteye’s figure flickered out of existence.
Spatial Flas.h.!.+
The move was so sudden that the hidden fourth a.s.sa.s.sin couldn’t react in time. He crashed to the ground in an awkward fas.h.i.+on and his figure became a bit clearer. A feeling of inexplicable danger welled up in his heart at this point. He looked back and found Nighteye a hundred meters away, the Carol of Shadows in her hand aimed straight at him.
The a.s.sa.s.sin didn’t have time to evade before the gun rumbled and the origin bullet tore through the air toward him.
Unable to escape, the man could only cover himself in his cape and take the shot head-on. He then used the impact to accelerate and escape into the depths of the forest. Weapons like the Carol of Shadows would suffer a considerable loss in firepower in the neutral land. It could only wound and not kill unless it struck the target’s vitals directly. The a.s.sa.s.sin held nothing back at this moment of life and death. He unleashed his rank fourteen origin power and ran like a bolt of lightning.
He was so fast in the woodland terrain that even a rank sixteen expert couldn’t quite catch up to him. This was his life’s greatest guarantee of survival. Escaping immediately after failed a.s.sa.s.sinations allowed him to a.s.sa.s.sinate powerful experts again and again. The a.s.sa.s.sin group’s name, “Impossible Triangle”, was mostly earned by this person. Outsiders would never know that the organization actually consisted of four people and not three. The constantly hidden fourth person was the true expert and key person.
Within moments, the unnamed a.s.sa.s.sin had rushed out over a thousand meters. Only then did he manage to sigh in relief because there was no way the two youngsters could catch up to him at such speeds. He wanted to change directions after a while and leave the Black Grove.
The two youngsters were quite odd. They were completely at home in these woods and even more well-adapted to the environment than he was.
Before he could slow down and change directions, however, a sudden rumbling sound arrived from behind him as the giant trees began to shake violently. The swaying ancient trees formed a straight line that seemed to be coming for him!
The a.s.sa.s.sin glanced back and saw a small figure emerge from the forest. After stomping on an ancient tree, she would shoot forward almost a hundred meters toward the next where she would bounce forward once more.
The trees in the Black Grove needed two grown men to encircle hand in hand. They were firm and st.u.r.dy in nature, requiring a lumberjack almost half a day to chop one down. Yet such trees would bend backward with each of this girl’s stomps, nearly breaking apart in the middle!
That little girl was flying over like a cannonball. This violent method of movement was even faster than his own!
The killer was shocked out of his wits. He could no longer care about hiding his aura and unleashed his full speed to run for his dear life.
He had a thousand regrets in his heart, knowing that he shouldn’t have accepted this business. Everyone knew that werewolves couldn’t enter the Black Grove. Hence, he was enticed by the ma.s.sive bounty, thinking that the Wolf King was helpless only because the two youngsters had taken advantage of the environment.
There was an old saying in the neutral lands: “There is no free lunch.” The Wolf King’s willingness to fork out such a ma.s.sive bounty naturally meant that these two youngsters were worthy of this reward. The Black Grove was only one of the reasons. With the king’s current status, how hard could it be to find experts from the other races who could enter the forest?
The little girl on his tail wasn’t on the bounty list, but the speed and power she was displaying were absolutely shocking. The only thing this a.s.sa.s.sin could hope for was that her stamina wouldn’t last that long.
It was at this time that his vision blurred as Qianye and Nighteye appeared to his left and right, sealing off all paths of escape.
Nighteye had appeared dozens of meters away, but Qianye was only a couple of meters out! At such a short distance, the two were destined to crash into one another the moment Qianye appeared.
The unknown a.s.sa.s.sin braced himself and rammed straight into Qianye. Although physical strength had never been his forte, the target seemed rather frail and was simply standing there without moving.
A m.u.f.fled thud echoed through the area as the two crashed into one another. The unknown a.s.sa.s.sin felt as though he had crashed into a mountain. The world spun about, and his vision blurred as he rolled a dozen meters backward. Meanwhile, Qianye was still standing there, completely unmoved. Only his feet had sunk a bit deeper into the ground.
The a.s.sa.s.sin struggled to jump up. He hadn’t even gotten the time to marvel at Qianye’s strong const.i.tution when he saw that young girl barreling at him like an artillery sh.e.l.l!
Failing to dodge in time, he took a square headb.u.t.t to the stomach. For a moment, he felt as though he had been blasted by a grade-eight handheld cannon. What remained of his origin barrier was shattered on the spot, and his body was bent into an unnatural angle. The next thing he heard was the crisp sound of his spine breaking!
“My spine was broken from the ram?” The unknown a.s.sa.s.sin could hardly believe this outcome. He drew his dagger and stabbed fiercely at Zhuji’s back, hoping to sever her spine in retaliation.
The descending blade tore through the armor and reached Zhuji’s flesh. But the moment it touched Zhuji’s skin, the a.s.sa.s.sin felt as though he had stabbed at the most premium of hide armor—it was exceptionally difficult to push the blade even a single inch further. And her origin power, while weak in capacity, was of an unknown but extremely powerful attribute. Each unit of hers could counter two of his own, disrupting any plans he had of expanding the wound by means of origin power.
The unknown a.s.sa.s.sin was quite powerful, after all. He eventually managed to push through the thin layer of flesh and reach Zhuji’s spine. But his dagger produced a crisp metallic sound at this point and could no longer make any progress.
The a.s.sa.s.sin was overwhelmed. “Her bones are even harder than my dagger?”
At this moment, he was already rolling on the ground with Zhuji. Soon, the little girl raised her head and b.u.t.ted the man’s chest, causing it to cave in entirely.
Zhuji raised her head and smashed down once more, but this time, she was stopped by Qianye.
“That’s enough, he won’t survive anymore. It won’t look good if you pound him again.” With that, Qianye picked Zhuji up and tossed her to Nighteye, saying, “This is the outcome of your combat training?”
Nighteye caught Zhuji and knocked her lightly on the head. “This is your vital area, you have to protect it. Don’t use it as a weapon, you hear?”
Zhuji seemed to aggrieved. “But isn’t the head the hardest part? I haven’t encountered anything I couldn’t smash with it.”
Nighteye knocked her head once more and pointed at East Peak. “Have you tried headb.u.t.ting that?”
Zhuji sized the sword up from top to bottom and said with some uncertainty, “I’m… not sure. Maybe? I haven’t tried before, so I don’t know.”
The unnamed a.s.sa.s.sin was on his last breath when he witnessed this scene. Just what kind of monster was this girl?
On the verge of his death, he would probably pa.s.s with grievances if he knew Zhuji could actually withstand the aftershock of a divine champion’s all-out attack.
Qianye didn’t mind the a.s.sa.s.sin’s death since he wasn’t interested in the man’s ident.i.ty, only the spoils. As the leader of the four-man team, the things he had on him were more valuable than the other three combined. Apparently, the group’s resources were gathered on him.
The greatest reward obtained was a type of st.u.r.dy, transparent thread. There was an entire roll of it stretching over a hundred meters. Although Qianye didn’t know much about this string, he could guess its value just from the materials alone.
On the other side, Nighteye was trying to educate Zhuji to no avail. It seemed more like she was consoling the young girl instead of reprimanding her. They were indeed a bit different because Little Zhuji was showing an increased tendency toward instinctive combat, while Nighteye’s style focused more on elegance. It was Qianye who occasionally went into a hacking and smas.h.i.+ng frenzy.
By the time Qianye had finished counting the spoils, Nighteye was still teaching the la.s.s. Qianye could no longer watch from the sidelines toward the end. “Wait until we reach Port City, I’ll prepare a weapon for her.”
“Weapon?” Nighteye reacted after some thought. Arachne also used weapons. One could only blame Zhuji’s body for being so strong it was usually enough for her. There was never a need for a weapon.
“We’re going to Port City?”
“Yeah, let’s go see the old man, I’m worried about him. But first, let’s wait a couple of days before that.
“We need to teach these greedy mercenaries a lesson or they won’t know when to restrain themselves.”