With a sudden, furious roar from inside the carriage, an assassin was blasted backward right out of it!
A burly man charged out of the carriage, his left hand gripping a slender sword while dripping with blood, his right hand slamming against the chest of an assassin at the Seventh Level of Dark Force amidst a sound like crackling thunder!
Not far away, Fan Yi, who had been watching the show from a tree, muttered to himself, "Good thing I hit Gu San's sleeping acupoint earlier, otherwise that roar alone would have scared that paranoid little fellow awake."
Taking the blow straight to the chest, the Assassin Leader flicked his right wrist and smoothly pulled his slender sword out of the burly man's grip. It was a good thing the burly man let go quickly, or that single move would have sliced off half his palm!
Yet, what assassin ever used a weapon free of poison?
The fresh blood pouring from the burly man's left hand instantly began to turn black, emitting a foul stench.
"Despicable!" roared the burly man. Forcing his Internal Force to surge, he unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks like a violent rainstorm.
Over half of the twenty-six guards were killed on the spot! The remaining eleven were all nearly covered in wounds.
"Form ranks!" roared the oldest guard, his eyes bloodshot.
He was a veteran of a hundred battles; the instincts honed on the battlefield made him instantly block the slender sword with his heart-protecting mirror, and then, with a clean and decisive backhand slash, he cut down the assassin in front of him!
The rest of the veterans similarly dispatched their opponents in an instant, then hastily gathered together to form a tight protective circle around the carriage!
An assassin's trade was to kill with a single strike; if the first strike failed, they were supposed to retreat immediately. However, they were operating under strict orders to the death, so when these veterans instinctively evaded the fatal points, the assassins did not hold back.
The result was that eleven of the assassins were immediately counter-killed by the veterans. These assassins had once been the elite forces Emperor Xia Hong used to whip the world into submission!
Inside the carriage were two half-grown children, a boy and a girl.
Through the gap in the carriage window, a boy of eleven or twelve stared at the assassins ahead, his teeth clenched in grim determination, his lips pressed tight. Cradled in his arms was a terrified and bewildered six-or-seven-year-old girl.
"Don't be afraid, Junyao. Big Brother is here." The boy hugged the girl tightly, like a frightened little beast.
Clutching his weeping and terrified younger sister, the boy looked at the assassins with eyes filled with biting, murderous intent!
Fifteen assassins charged at the carriage all at once.
"Hmph, a mob of rabble!" A veteran of a hundred battles let out a cold snort. Taking the lead, the guards swiftly found their positions and formed a defensive military array.
"Oh?" Fan Yi, watching from the sidelines, lit up with interest. "This formation has some substance to it. It faintly links people's vital energy, breath, and spirit together as one, creating a lingering trace of mental power filled with oppression and endless killing intent.
Though the quantity is small and virtually imperceptible, if it were an army of thousands, wouldn't this mental power become directly tangible? No wonder, back in the days when the Qi Refining technique had not yet reappeared, mortal might could never truly match individual supremacy."
While Fan Yi was quietly pondering, the military array over there had already slaughtered seven assassins.
The military array made these veterans act with even greater tacit understanding, their mutual coordination and support achieving an effect where one plus one was greater than two. Among them, the veteran of a hundred battles single-handedly hacked three to death.
"Fall back!"
Ordered the assassin whose form was as erratic as a willow catkin in the wind, dodging the burly man's attacks.
"You dare get distracted while fighting me?!" Seizing a split second of distraction from the Assassin Leader, the burly man bypassed the snake-like slender sword, closed in, and rained blows like raindrops onto his chest!
Thud, thud, thud. After taking three punches, the Assassin Leader barely managed to force the burly man back with his sword. As the burly man retreated, he casually snatched the mask right off the leader's face.
"This person? He was sent by the eldest uncle!" The boy's eyes widened in shock. He had seen this Assassin Leader at his eldest uncle's banquet. He never could have imagined that the always smiling, round-bellied eldest uncle would send people to kill them. Didn't he always dote on Junyao? Why would it come to this!
Without realizing it, the boy exerted some force with his hands until his younger sister shifted uncomfortably in his arms. Snapping back to reality, he hurriedly loosened his grip. "Don't worry, Junyao. With Big Brother here, you don't have to be afraid of anything."
Tears already streamed down the little girl's face, her eyes red and swollen. Hearing her brother's words, she raised her head and gave a timid little acknowledgment.
"Hahahahaha! Feng Zhenyue, you are all poisoned and have only moments left to live! Once you're all dead, these two little brats will still fall right into my hands!"
Hearing this, the burly man Feng Zhenyue suddenly felt his entire body prickle as if pierced by needles, followed by an unbearable, bone-gnawing itch like a myriad of ants crawling beneath his skin!
"I'm going to kill you!" Feng Zhenyue's iron fists whistled through the air with ferocious power, but his form had lost all discipline, leaving the Assassin Leader handling him with ease.
The remaining eight assassins stood in a distant standoff with the guards. The veteran of a hundred battles was the only guard who remained uninjured. He gritted his teeth and declared, "The three most severely injured, follow me out of the formation!"
There was no arguing, no fuss. Six figures stepped out from the formation, but the last three, seeing that three men were already ahead of them, naturally retreated back to their original positions.
"Kill!" The veteran of a hundred battles charged forward leading three guards.
Seeing this, the eight opposing assassins immediately fell back. Since the leader had given the order, there was no need for them to fight a group of men already doomed to die.
"Throw!"
With a fierce roar from the veteran, four long sabers flew through the air, directly cutting off the escape routes of the nearest two assassins.
"Clang, clang." The two assassins batted aside the heavy, momentum-driven sabers with their slender swords, but their forward movement ground to a halt.
In that very instant, the four veterans lunged forward, grabbing onto the two men with a death grip. The moment he threw his saber, the veteran of a hundred battles had already drawn the dagger strapped to his left arm!
With two ripping sounds, the throats of both assassins were slashed open.
Seeing this, the other assassins rushed over to provide support, but they never expected three veterans to proactively throw themselves forward, shielding the sole unpoisoned veteran of a hundred battles with their own bodies.
Slender swords were better suited for sneak attacks and were not built for frontal combat. By now, the three veterans were fully prepared; they bypassed their own vital spots, wedged their bodies directly against the incoming blades, drew their daggers, and thrust them downward with fierce, ruthless eyes.
Aside from one veteran whose hand shook so badly from the poison that he had no confidence in pulling out his dagger, he simply lunged forward and bit savagely into the assassin's neck.
Of the three assassins, one was heavily wounded, one was stabbed to death, and one was bitten to death alive. The three veterans also passed away on the spot; their wounds were not fatal in themselves, but the intense exertion caused the poison to claim their lives.
Throughout the agony of this lethal poison that drove Feng Zhenyue of the Divine Fist Sect half-mad with pain, these three veterans never uttered a single groan until their dying breath.
Taking advantage of the three men blocking the assassins' advance, the veteran of a hundred battles rolled along the ground and slid right back into the military array.
The three remaining assassins stared with bloodshot eyes at the military array, which had already warped out of shape due to the unbearable pain and itching.
"As expected of elite troops forged from the slaughter of the grasslands." The Assassin Leader marveled at the fortitude of these veterans while effortlessly trading blows with Feng Zhenyue.
In contrast, Feng Zhenyue, driven frantic and entirely stripped of technique, looked thoroughly pathetic.
*Puff.* Spitting out a mouthful of blood, one of the veterans in the formation slowly collapsed.
The others gritted their teeth against the agony and shifted the formation.
*Puff, puff.*
As time ticked away, only two men were left barely standing behind the veteran of a hundred battles.
The three assassins watched from a distance, refusing to step forward.
"Heh, you can't fool these bastards!" The two veterans lying on the ground suddenly opened their eyes, managed a desolate smile, and finally breathed their last.
A chill ran through the hearts of the opposing three assassins. A moment ago, they really had been tempted to make a move, but restrained themselves due to the orders—who would have thought that obedience had just saved their lives!
The two remaining veterans behind him collapsed one after the other. At this moment, standing guard in front of the two children was solely this veteran of a hundred battles.
A mere Third-Level Dark Force veteran, yet he radiated the imposing presence of an army unto himself!
The three opposing assassins slowly drew their slender swords, awaiting their leader's command!
"Why does my eldest uncle want to kill me?" The boy climbed out from the carriage, staring coldly at the man who was completely effortlessly suppressing Feng Zhenyue.
The man remained silent. Aside from the performance of that veteran of a hundred battles, seemingly nothing could move him.
"True to his origins in the Vanguard Camp, a veteran who crawled his way out of a mountain of corpses. Do it, send him on his way!" The Assassin Leader issued the command.
The three assassins shot forward like arrows.
"Assassination is already base enough, and yet in your aristocratic power struggles, you can't even tolerate a child?"
As this voice echoed through the valley, a vast and mighty force crashed into the slender swords of the three assassins. All three swords shattered to pieces simultaneously, and the assassins flew backward more than a dozen meters as if struck heavily in the chest by an iron hammer.
With a casual wave of his hand, the Assassin Leader suppressed Feng Zhenyue—who had already passed out from the poison—and looked up at a youth in white descending from the sky.
If he hadn't seen that the target of the assassination was just a child, Fan Yi wouldn't even have bothered to interfere.
The youth in white frowned slightly, muttering, "I've had my eyes on these slender swords of yours for a long time. A real man should use a broad saber!"
At that moment, Fan Yi felt that the precious sword at his own waist suddenly lost all its appeal.