The common folk living near the dungeons were scared out of their wits when they saw the assassins pouring out in full force.
All of these assassins possessed cultivation bases; killing mortals would be as easy as flipping a hand!
What the citizens did not know, however, was that as terrified as they were, the assassins were even more terrified.
Though the Dark Night Pavilion had numbers on their side, not a single one was a match for Lu Yang and his companions. Even their Nascent Soul stage assassins could not withstand a single blow, let alone the Golden Core, Foundation Establishment, and Qi Refinement assassins beneath them—each strike felled several at once.
"Scatter and run!"
The assassins' hair stood on end from sheer terror. They enjoyed killing, but they had no desire to commit suicide. These three were simply not opponents they could take on.
Anyone with eyes could see that so long as one survived this battle, they would be able to cling to the coattails of a half-immortal. After that, their rise would be meteoric; they could call for wind and summon rain, with an immeasurable future ahead.
Under no circumstances could they lose their lives to these three youngsters!
"Thinking of running?" Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou exchanged a glance and moved in tandem, circling around the assassins.
"Drawing a Prison!"
"Drawing a Circle as a Prison!"
Before most of the assassins could even react, they were trapped in cages—either pinned aboveground or locked underground!
"What kind of technique is this?!"
The assassins panicked. The underground cages were utterly indestructible, snapping daggers on contact. What bound those aboveground was not physical bars but rings of light, yet within those glowing boundaries, not a single person could take half a step outside!
Some of the cleverer assassins had realized early on that they were no match for Lu Yang's group and had fled ahead of time.
"Split up and pursue them!"
Shi Chan dismissed his Six-Zhang Golden Body. Wind stirred beneath his feet as if wings had sprouted on his ankles. Walking on air, each step carried him a hundred zhang across the sky, like instantaneous spatial movement.
It was Divine Travel, one of the Six Divine Abilities of Buddhism.
As a body cultivator, Meng Jingzhou was not known for his flying speed, but the explosive burst of his legs was many times faster than flying.
It was only that he still could not match Shi Chan's pace.
*No, this is still too slow.*
Meng Jingzhou hesitated for a fraction of a second. He had not originally intended to use this move, but with human lives at stake, this was no time to worry about saving face.
*Fine, then let the world witness the might of the Heavy Nascent stage!*
He pulled back his Three Heads and Six Arms, re-fused his twin Nascent Souls, and sprouted six legs from his lower body!
He might not know the Six Divine Abilities, but he could grow six legs!
"Halt! Don't you run!"
Meng Jingzhou locked onto an assassin, pushing off with all six legs simultaneously as he charged forward.
The assassin glanced back over his shoulder and nearly lost his soul in fright.
A six-legged monster was closing in on him at terrifying speed. Then, a fist the size of a sandbag slammed into him, snuffing out his life in a single blow.
Meng Jingzhou was practically dripping with murderous intent. Every assassin who laid eyes on him in this form today—down to the last one—could forget about leaving alive!
Lu Yang directed his avatar to intercept fleeing assassins while he himself flew atop the pool. The Qingfeng and Mingyue swords flanked him like Dharma protectors, accompanying his every move.
The moment he spotted an assassin, the twin swords shot forth to claim their heads, or he simply rammed the Sword-Washing Pool straight into them, crushing them into gory pastes of flesh and bone.
One assassin realized that escaping like this was impossible; he needed a hostage to bargain with.
He darted into a grand manor. The people living in places like this were either wealthy or noble—the ideal hostages.
"Nobody move! If anyone twitches, I'll kill you!"
He barged into the room, glaring viciously at the master of the house as he barked his threat.
Four pairs of eyes, all simmering with chilling killing intent, looked back at him faintly.
"You dare threaten my husband?"
Four figures closed in, surrounding the assassin and causing cold sweat to break out all over his body.
He could sense that every single one of them possessed a cultivation base superior to his own.
Before he could react, an enormous serpent tail swept across the room, shattering every bone in his body and instantly extinguishing his breath.
"Just what has happened?" Liu Xiangyu's brow furrowed tightly. The disturbance had occurred too abruptly. They had no idea what was actually going on in Chunjiang City; they only knew that massive energy ripples were churning overhead, far exceeding their cultivation bases. It was completely beyond anything they could interfere in; a single stray shockwave would be enough to obliterate them countless times over.
"Xiao Qiu, you possess protective abilities. Stay here and guard my husband well. The three of us will go outside to check the situation and see if there is anywhere we can lend a hand."
"Understood, Mistress."
Another assassin was rather clever and chose a storefront instead.
"Nobody move!"
The assassin unleashed the pressure of the early Golden Core stage. To ordinary mortals, this was a cataclysmic weight. Based on his experience, releasing this pressure would leave mortals trembling in fear, unable even to stand.
Yet reality proved to be the exact opposite.
As if feeling no threat from the pressure at all, the shop hands looked up in unison, eyeing the assassin with bizarre expressions.
"Oho, you've got some nerve, daring to threaten us!"
"Shut the doors! Don't let him get away!"
"Damn it all, we're just running an honest business, and an assassin comes knocking. An honest living really isn't easy."
The assassin stumbled back two or three steps, suddenly overcome by an ominous feeling.
He whirled around to flee, but with a loud *bang*, the shop doors slammed shut on their own without anyone touching them. They sealed tight, fitting so seamlessly that not even a sliver of light could let an outsider peek inside.
"Help—"
"Gag his mouth!"
*Crash!*
The assassin smashed open the doors, collapsing onto the ground and desperately crawling outside.
The interior of the shop was pitch-black. From the darkness, countless hands reached out, seizing his ankles and dragging him back inside.
The assassin scraped his fingernails frantically against the paving, but could only leave faint white scratch marks on the ground.
The doors slammed shut once more, and all fell silent.
Perhaps because the doors had been shut with too much force, the signboard reading "Try Again Barbecue Shop Chunjiang City Branch" swayed gently a couple of times.
Elsewhere, beggars suddenly sprang into action, grappling and brawling with fleeing assassins.
Seeing this scene, Lu Yang recalled what Eldest Senior Sister had once told him: genuine beggars were rarely seen nowadays; those seen roaming the streets were actually cultivators tempering themselves in the mortal world.
While these cultivators were not as powerful as Lu Yang and his companions, dealing with stray assassins was well within their capabilities.
Venerable Yiqi burst into hearty laughter upon seeing Lu Yang's trio beating the assassins until they scurried in disgraceful rout.
"Is this the assassin organization you wanted so badly to preserve?"
The Void Supreme was a great figure who had lived through the chaotic struggle for supremacy at the end of the Great Yu era; he was not one to let such trivialities ruffle his composure.
Without a word, he conjured countless Dharma treasures out of thin air: sabers, spears, swords, halberds, precious cauldrons, divine towers, jade vases, and palm-leaf fans—every single one of them a Dharma treasure at the Tribulation Transcendence grade.
The Void Realm was his home turf; anything beneath the immortal realm, he could manifest at will.
If he were to attain the immortal Dao fruit, he could turn the void into reality, transforming the Void Realm into a brand-new world—not a minor world like a grotto-heaven, but a grand cosmic realm.
When that day came, he would truly be the master of a world.
Dharma treasures of the Tribulation Transcendence grade poured down like torrential rain, only to be blocked by thirty thousand li of purple qi. Under this relentless barrage, the innate purple qi was battered until it was riddled with holes.
"Let us see how many attacks this streak of purple qi can endure."
The Void Supreme conjured another countless array of Tribulation Transcendence Dharma treasures. Hanging dazzlingly in midair, they came crashing toward City Lord Liu and the others, forcing Venerable Yiqi to block the assault.
He had trapped City Lord Liu and the rest rather than killing them precisely to pin down Venerable Yiqi!
"Void Supreme!" Venerable Yiqi roared in fury.
"What, care to beg for—"
The Void Supreme sneered coldly. But before he could finish his sentence, an inexhaustible suction pulled him straight into the gourd.
Venerable Yiqi swiftly capped the precious gourd's mouth.
The treasure gourd had a purple base adorned with golden patterns. If one answered to their name, they would be sucked right inside.
The Purple-Gold Gourd.
Chapter 673