Right at that moment—
"Hm?"
Perched on the treetop, Shao Qiu's brow suddenly furrowed. He looked into the near distance. Before long, a man in a green robe appeared with both hands clasped behind his back, treading upon azure light and shrinking the ground with each stride as he swiftly arrived before the carriage.
Beside him hovered a pocket-sized azure blade, humming from time to time.
"You're here."
Looking at the newcomer, Shao Qiu toyed with the dagger in his hand, a cold glint flashing through his eyes. He smiled and said, "You didn't really need to come. I'm enough for this. I can keep things under control."
The arrival was none other than Qi Yue.
He felt somewhat displeased with Qi Yue—not because Qi Yue had once pinned him to the ground with sword qi. He did not mind that much; being outmatched was only natural. What irked him was that this fellow had actually claimed no one in the world could kill him.
*Old sir, you are merely a Level 9 cultivator. Even if you're only a step away from Martial King, that single step is like a chasm for many people, one they can never cross in a lifetime.*
*Isn't talking like that a bit too arrogant?*
At the peak of his record, Shao Qiu had assassinated a Level 11 Martial King!
Besides, this fellow was far too full of himself.
Over these past days, Qi Yue had remained in Fan Domain training Zhou Mo and the others. The results were plain to see: the cultivation and combat power of everyone in Fan Domain's War Pavilion had increased substantially in a short time.
The Gongyang clan had been completely entrusted to Gongyang Yiyue's leadership, and they were likewise participating in this market frenzy led by Fan Domain.
Only Gongyang Yue stood at the canyon entrance every day holding meals, waiting for Qi Yue.
At present, Qi Yue was the only outsider permitted to enter Fan Domain; no one else was allowed.
Clad in his green robe with his hands behind his back, Qi Yue stood in the forest. Drawing his gaze back from Shao Qiu, he looked toward the solitary carriage and said calmly, "The Domain Lord summoned me, saying something is wrong with the people in the carriage and that my intervention might be needed."
"As for you..."
"Your cultivation is considerably higher than last time. You've improved fast."
"Heh."
Sitting on the tree branch, Shao Qiu swung his legs and tilted his head with a grin. "Previously, one of my souls was held in that woman's grip, stored in a soul tablet. Now that the Domain Lord has returned that soul to me, my strength and cultivation have naturally recovered."
"Did you really think I was some nobody?"
"At my peak, I assassinated a Level 11 Martial King."
Qi Yue's eyes flickered slightly. He had heard of soul tablets, but...
"The Domain Lord trusts you this much?"
"I'm trustworthy."
"I've heard of swordsmen being trustworthy, and I've heard of bladesmen being trustworthy, but I've never heard of an assassin being trustworthy."
"You seem to have a bit of a prejudice against assassins."
Shao Qiu fixed his eyes on Qi Yue, growing somewhat displeased. "In your eyes, it's as if assassins are some filthy wretches, as if we're rats hiding in the gutters, ready to strike a fatal blow at any moment."
"Are you not?"
Shao Qiu was momentarily at a loss for words. Just as he was about to say something more, the carriage suddenly stopped.
The people inside ceased struggling.
Qi Yue, standing in place, narrowed his eyes slightly. The pocket-sized azure blade hovering beside him suddenly shot forth straight toward the carriage. The carriage drawn by three Skeleton Horses instantly shattered, and even the three Skeleton Horses dissolved into bone fragments.
The several men inside the carriage tumbled onto the ground.
However, they were already unconscious. Dense, intricate patterns had spread across their skin at some point, appearing utterly chilling.
"Slick..."
Watching this unfold, Shao Qiu felt a trace of wariness flash through his eyes. This fellow was definitely no ordinary Level 9 cultivator. That carriage possessed fifty percent of a Level 1 wall's defense, yet it had been casually shattered in a single blow.
His strength was not to be underestimated.
*If that sword struck a person, it would probably hurt quite a bit.*
Still, Shao Qiu's sharp tongue did not let up as he teased, "That carriage sells for five thousand ghost stones at the Fan Domain marketplace. That was quite an expensive strike of yours."
Yet immediately afterward, the moment he noticed the patterns on the men's bodies, his expression changed drastically. His body darted backward, vanishing from the spot in the blink of an eye, leaving behind an urgent cry:
"Retreat!"
"Those are Nine Heavens Divine Demon Patterns!"
Almost the instant Shao Qiu's voice sounded, Qi Yue withdrew, vanishing into the forest. As for Sick Monkey, he had already led his Penal Pavilion subordinates far away long before.
In the next moment—
*Boom!*
The bodies of the pattern-covered men instantly blew apart. A dense mist of blood blanketed the entire forest, and the explosion was so deafening that it resounded across Nameless Mountain.
Even the ground trembled faintly.
When the group returned to the spot, neither the carriage nor the men remained. Only a deep crater had appeared in the earth—destructive power of this scale was already enough to obliterate a Level 2 wall.
"Domain Lord," Shao Qiu said with a somber face into his transmission, "those men detonated themselves. It was the Nine Heavens Divine Demon Pattern, an extremely vicious marking. It was originally an artifact-refining pattern passed down from ancient times, but someone later discovered that carving it onto human skin through a special method produces extraordinary effects."
"What do you mean by 'ancient times'?" Qi Yue immediately seized on the key phrase, turning his head toward Shao Qiu.
"Now isn't the time for that." Addressing the transmission again, Shao Qiu added, "Domain Lord, you might be in danger on your end. Stay safe—I'll be right there."
With that, Shao Qiu hesitated no longer. Activating his movement technique, his body turned into a plume of gray mist that bounded through the forest, rushing down the mountain faster than a Skeleton Horse.
Nothing could happen to the Domain Lord.
Otherwise, he would never be able to build a world-renowned Dark Pavilion!
That was his dream.
Everyone needed a dream; otherwise, what was the difference between being alive and being dead?
Qi Yue likewise bounded swiftly through the forest, keeping close behind Shao Qiu. But in terms of movement techniques, he was inferior to Shao Qiu, and the distance between them gradually widened.
Soon, however—
Shao Qiu and Qi Yue received a message at the same time. They wheeled around and rushed toward the entrance of the canyon!
The enemy's target was not Fan Domain itself.
The Domain Lord had sent word: *Enemies have infiltrated the canyon. The Meat Grinder has not been activated. Try to capture them alive.*
Holding fort in Fan City, Chen Fan listened to the sound of the explosion echoing from the direction of Fan Domain and watched the images flashing across the Shadow-Projecting Formation. He sat calmly in his chair, taking gentle sips of the scalding hot tea in his hand.
When irritated, he liked to drink cold tea.
When calm, he preferred hot tea.
Sipping it mouthful by mouthful, he felt like a python, slowly devouring his enemies.
Fan Domain was at the peak of its prominence.
It was only natural that people grew envious.
All he had to do was sever every hand that reached for him and follow the vines back to the melon.
Fan Domain Canyon.
The members of Fan Domain stationed in the camp had all received word and retreated into the cavern to hide, with the wall sealing the cavern entrance completely. Not a single person remained in the canyon.
It was deathly quiet.
At the canyon entrance, a band of deathsworn had infiltrated silently. Instead of traditional black clothing, they wore brown robes nearly identical in color to the canyon's rock walls.
They moved with extreme caution.
The moment the wind rose, several nearly imperceptible shadows darted forward hugging the ground, their bodies almost parallel to the earth. It was hard to imagine how such a posture could achieve such speed; their movements rose and fell in perfect synchronization with the wind, masking all sound.
Taking advantage of every natural formation, they cautiously hugged both rock walls, rapidly advancing toward the sinkhole.
The lead man glanced at the canyon walls on either side and breathed a sigh of relief. The canyon Meat Grinder had not been activated, which meant Fan Domain's ghost fire had indeed been blown up.
They did not press any deeper.
Instead, they pressed themselves flush against the rock face, clinging to the cliff like chameleons.
Chen Fan was still in Fan City.
Now that all of Fan Domain's defensive structures had lost power, what they needed to do was lie in wait here. When Chen Fan received word and rushed back in a panic, this canyon would become his burial ground.
An architect, even with a spirit treasure protecting him, would find it difficult to survive the sacrificial strikes of dozens of assassins.
This was the deadly trap they had laid for Chen Fan.
First, lure the tiger from the mountain, drawing Chen Fan to Fan City.
Then, play hard to get, allowing Fan Domain to bring their "human ghosts" back into the domain's core to destroy the ghost fire, instantly disabling all of Fan Domain's defensive architecture.
Finally, wait for the hare by the tree, infiltrating the heights of the rock walls flanking the canyon, so that the moment Chen Fan rushed back in haste, their killing intent would erupt in full force!
This was a fatal ambush arranged specifically for Chen Fan!
Dozens of brown-robed deathsworn clung motionless like corpses to the cliff face over a dozen meters up. This spot was the middle of the canyon, five hundred meters from the entrance—a location well-suited to lulling someone into letting their guard down.
Soon, a message reached the man's mind:
*The fish has left the city, heading toward Fan Domain.*
*Here he comes.*
The lead man's expression showed no ripples, yet his breathing could not help but grow a fraction heavier. Chen Fan's fame had been immense of late; assassinating Chen Fan with his own hands would be a monumental achievement in his career.
Perched upon the protruding rocks over a dozen meters up, the deathsworn remained concealed with extreme stealth, hugging the rock face in near-total stillness. Several drew poisoned crossbow bolts wrapped in light-absorbing fleece from their robes.
Right at that moment—
Drawn by nine Blazing Flame Dragon Horses, the Nine-Five Dragon Carriage sped into the canyon. The entire canyon was deathly silent, save for the sound of wheels grinding over loose gravel and the clatter of hooves.
It was eerily peaceful—the finest prelude to death.
The assassination erupted without warning the moment the Nine-Five Dragon Carriage entered the precalculated strike zone.
There were no shouts.
From the cliff walls on both sides, the taut twangs of mechanisms rang out almost simultaneously. These were not bowstrings, but refined steel cables that shot not at the carriage itself, but deeply into the ground and rock walls just ahead of and behind it.
In an instant, several crisscrossing, low-slung steel trip-lines formed across the canyon passage.
The neighing of horses echoed through the canyon.
The steel cables did not sever the legs of the Blazing Flame Dragon Horses; with irresistible momentum, the nine steeds tore through line after line.
Before coming, the attackers naturally knew what the Nine-Five Dragon Carriage was capable of.
Yet slowing it down for even a fraction of a second was enough.
Almost simultaneously, another group of assassins fired a volley of short, thick, poisoned armor-piercing crossbow bolts from bizarre angles straight at the driver seated at the front of the carriage.
The driver was as good as dead!
The true trump card followed immediately behind.
Even before the crossbow bolts hit, the deathsworn clinging to the rock face sprang forward, diving through the carriage windows faster than free fall!
They blurred into streaks of afterimages.
From the release of the first trip-line to the deathsworn plunging into the carriage, the entire assassination took less than a single breath.
The once-empty canyon was instantly filled with flying cables, poisoned crossbow bolts, and deathsworn dropping from the sky.
Lethal intent bared its fangs!
Yet—
*Clang!*
When the poisoned crossbow bolts struck the driver with pinpoint accuracy, no mist of blood erupted. Instead, a metallic clash rang out. Tossing aside his cloak, the driver was revealed to be none other than Qi Yue.
With a cold countenance, he extended sword-fingers.
Sword light surged around him.
Several deathsworn who had not yet breached the carriage burst into sprays of blood and crashed heavily to the ground.
Qi Yue turned and lifted the carriage curtain, looking inside.
"Domain Lord, are you well?"
"Not bad."
The carriage interior was exceedingly spacious. Chen Fan sat in a chair cradling his emerald cane, leisurely sipping tea. Beside him stood four Level 3 arrow towers and a ghost fire.
The deathsworn who had lunged into the carriage now lay scattered in pools of blood.
While the Nine-Five Dragon Carriage could not attack outward without activating the Heaven and Earth Chessboard state, that did not mean he could not construct arrow towers inside the cabin.
Though they could not strike targets outside the carriage, they were more than capable of firing upon any intruders who dared enter.
Sprawled on the rock face, the lead man looked at the driver who had suddenly struck with overwhelming power atop the Nine-Five Dragon Carriage, and then at the carriage itself, from which no further sound emerged.
His heart sank.
He knew the mission had failed.
The intelligence was flawed.
No one had told him that Chen Fan's driver was a Level 9 cultivator.
Fortunately, he had not acted yet.
As the leader of the operation, his role was to deliver the fatal blow; now, no opportunity remained. He kept his breathing as steady as possible, blending into the sound of the wind, lying motionless against the cliff.
He planned to wait until the Nine-Five Dragon Carriage and the others departed before withdrawing.
Right at that moment—
A voice suddenly sounded by his ear.
It did not come from in front, behind, or any discernible direction; it was as if it had grown directly out of the shadows inside his ear canal.
Gentle, clear, and laced with an almost polite cruelty, it brushed against his ear:
"Before the dragon carriage entered the canyon..."
"Your breathing faltered."
The lead man's face drained of color in an instant, his mind going completely blank. He felt an icy chill against his neck; no matter which way he attempted to flee, that cold blade would slit his throat.
As one of the Wind and Rain Tower's finest assassins, how could someone have snuck so close without him noticing in the slightest?
It meant his supposedly flawless concealment was like a child playing hide-and-seek in broad daylight, while the adult stood quietly right behind him.
He could no longer control his breathing rate. Straining, he looked upward toward the cliff above.
High on the rock face hung a young man in an exceedingly eerie posture, like a ghost creature.
Directly above him.
Their heads were separated by barely the width of a palm.
The dagger in the young man's hand rested precisely against his neck.
"When... when did you get here?"
The man knew his death was certain. He looked at his captor with eyes full of bitterness and despair.
"The moment your breathing faltered, I found you."
Shao Qiu smiled, extending a medicinal pill to the man.
"Swallow this and tell me what I want to know. I'll give you a quick death afterward."
"We're in the same trade."
"You should know our methods well."
Chapter 131