In reality, people did not just covet the secrets Huang Tian held; some wanted nothing more than to see him dead.
Such as the people of the Feihong Sect.
Such as Thousand Faces Old Ghost, whom the Feihong Sect had enticed with enormous wealth and who had already arrived in the Kunyun commandery seat, preparing to assassinate Huang Tian!
*Rustle, rustle...*
A bleak night wind swept through the streets and alleys of Baoqing Ward, sending clouds of dust swirling into the air.
In a dark alleyway near Qinghui Garden.
An old man with sallow skin, sunken sockets, and cloudy eyes stood cloaked in shadow. He silently gazed toward Qinghui Garden and, farther off, in the direction of the Martial Restraint Guard government office.
*I hear that old bastard Yu Jingcheng has emerged from seclusion and is holding down the fort at the government office. The office is exceptionally close to Qinghui Garden; it would take him merely three or four breaths to leap across and arrive here...*
*Still, three or four breaths are more than enough for me to kill Huang Tian and make a leisurely escape.*
*Heh, the Feihong Sect was quite generous indeed, willing to part with a Precious Elephant Sacred Fetus Pill for me. With this pill, this old man stands a real chance of breaking through to Grandmaster. A Grandmaster! A lifespan of three full sixty-year cycles, flying through the sky and diving into the earth—how exhilarating that will be!*
At the thought of achieving Grandmaster in the future and roaming the lands of Qin Province with untamed glory, a smile unconsciously curled at the corners of his mouth.
After indulging in this reverie for a long while, he raised his head to check the sky. The night was deep, wrapped in hazy mist—the very hour when people slept the soundest.
"Time to move!"
His expression hardened. A rattle of shifting bones sounded, and within a few breaths, he transformed from an emaciated old man into an ordinary-looking young man of medium build.
This young man's appearance was identical to that of a sturdy servant recruited by Qinghui Garden in recent days. Not only the face, but even his temperament and aura matched perfectly!
It was common knowledge that for high-ranking martial artists, simple disguise and bone-shrinking arts could never fool them, because while a person's outer appearance could change, their temperament and aura were exceedingly difficult to alter.
Yet he possessed the singular ability to completely mimic another person's aura, leaving onlookers incapable of telling truth from counterfeit. This was precisely why he was known as Thousand Faces Old Ghost—one man with a thousand faces, a thousand faces in one man!
Thousand Faces Old Ghost stepped out of the shadows. Moving like a drifting specter, he arrived soundlessly beneath the high outer walls of Qinghui Garden.
With a light leap, he landed without making a sound. His gaze darted like lightning as he swept his eyes across the surroundings, but the moment he steadied his footing, his body froze solid!
Because there, deep within the courtyard...
Beneath the solitary moon, beside a tall tree, a figure clad in crimson robes stood with hands clasped behind his back, gazing at him with utter composure, as if he had been waiting for a long time.
He could see clearly: that standing figure with hands behind his back was none other than the target of his assassination tonight—Huang Tian!
*How is this possible?! Even a Grandmaster would struggle to detect my stealth! How could a mere sixth-rank martial artist have discovered me?!*
A tremendous shock jolted Thousand Faces Old Ghost's heart. An electric current raced from the base of his spine straight to his crown, detonating across his scalp!
His killer instincts shrieked frantically.
*Flee!*
*Flee!!*
Regardless of how he had been exposed, he had to flee immediately! This was one of the most precious lessons he had learned from his years as an assassin: if a strike does not succeed, flee a thousand li away without the slightest hesitation. Otherwise, greed would inevitably see him dead at his enemy's hands one day!
His toes jabbed forcefully against the ground, and his body shot upward like a startled sparrow, about to plunge back into the darkness beyond the wall.
And yet.
"Thousand Faces!"
An exceptionally calm voice sounded. It held not a shred of murderous intent, yet it seemed to carry rolling wind and thunder, piercing the void to detonate right beside his ear!
"Thousand Faces! Thousand Faces! Thousand Faces!!"
With Huang Tian's voice reverberating in his skull, his body stiffened abruptly, hanging frozen in midair.
*Whoosh—*
A fierce gale surged from behind his head. Consumed by utter terror, Thousand Faces Old Ghost snapped his sinews taut and unleashed a violent surge of true qi, forcefully twisting his torso to raise his arms in defense.
Yet no sooner had he twisted around than he saw a palm—translucent as flaming glazed glass—cleaving through layer upon layer of airwaves as it struck toward him through the void!
*Whoosh!*
In an instant, the entire courtyard lit up brilliantly!
No, it was not Qinghui Garden that was illuminated. Rather, in his daze, Thousand Faces Old Ghost saw within Huang Tian's palm an ancient, towering pill furnace that seemed poised to melt and refine the boundless cosmos itself! And within that furnace, he saw a terrifying sea of flames capable of incinerating all of creation!
That boundless sea of fire churned and blazed, dazzling his vision as though he were staring directly into the scorching sun!
Trembling!
Panic!
Thousand Faces Old Ghost froze for an instant, and then an unimaginably overpowering force slammed into him. Like a fallen leaf swept up by a howling gale, he was thrown backward. Blood sprayed from his mouth, dispersing into a crimson mist while he was still airborne.
With a heavy crash, he slammed into the ground, causing the earth to shudder with a dull thud as dust and dirt billowed up around him.
Thousand Faces Old Ghost felt as if every meridian in his body were being gnawed and scorched by raging fire. His true qi scattered, his vitality fell dormant, and he could not even twitch a finger. Under the severity of his injuries, his disguise technique crumbled, revealing his gaunt, sallow face once more.
*How can he be this strong?! The Feihong Sect lied to me!! What 'sixth-rank realm with fifth-rank perfection strength, fourth-rank at most'?! How many sixth-rank martial artists in the world could possibly be this terrifying?!*
As this enraged thought flashed through his mind, his eyes nearly tore at the corners.
For in midair, Huang Tian, clad in robes of fiery crimson, plummeted like a falling star, unleashing another palm strike amid a succession of sonic booms!
That single palm contained hundreds, thousands of variations!
There were clashing wind and thunder, the blooming and withering of a hundred flowers, and the tracing of celestial constellations—countless variations enveloped with a resonant hum into an immense, sky-propping pill furnace!
*Boom!!*
The boundless sea of flames within the furnace melted those thousand variations into a single strike. Lying on the ground, Thousand Faces Old Ghost could even make out the fine ridges on the flesh palm and the torrential, shrieking currents of true qi!
"No! I don't want to die! I've roamed Qin Province for decades—how could I die at the hands of a mere brat?!"
He gritted his teeth savagely, trying to marshal the true qi in his body to mount a defense. Yet under that earlier blow, his body had already become like a ragged sack leaking air on all sides. His vitality and true qi were thrashing about wildly; he could not even stand, let alone channel true qi to fight back.
*CRUNCH!!!*
A sickening, bone-crushing sound of collapsing flesh and bone erupted. Thousand Faces Old Ghost's chest caved in instantly, a distinct palm print branded right into the center of his sternum.
The fabric across his back strained taut before tearing open with a violent rip, an equally distinct palm print bulging outward from his spine.
Before he could even register the agonizing pain, an indescribable, colossal force not only shattered his internal organs, but drove straight through his body like a towering mountain, slamming violently into the earth below!
*Rumble!!*
The ground shook violently. With his body at the center, several zhang of hard bluestone pavers caved downward in unison!
A mixture of gravel and dirt was jolted three feet into the air, only to rain back down limply with a soft, rustling patter.
Thousand Faces Old Ghost's eyes bulged wide, filled with disbelief and boundless regret. "Curse the Feihong Sect... deceiving me like this! They deserve to die! They deserve to die! Every last one of them deserves death!"
Exhaling his final breath, the light in his pupils faded to gray. His head rested limp against the cold, rubble-strewn ground, lolled to one side, and moved no more.
Standing beside the corpse, Huang Tian made no move to search the body or loot any spoils.
For through his supernatural ability, he had already "seen" that prior to launching the assassination, Thousand Faces Old Ghost had hidden all his worldly possessions—including that exceedingly precious Precious Elephant Sacred Fetus Pill—beneath a large tree in the dense woods outside the commandery seat.
He only needed to find a convenient time to head outside the city and claim them all.
*Thousand Faces Old Ghost really was a good man. Not only did he lay down his life to test the power of my new move, Tushita Heaven, but he even entrusted me with his entire fortune...*
Chapter 98