Ye Yu looked over the man who had earned the title of one of the Four Rakshasas among the masters of the Imperial Fist Temple. Glancing around the surroundings, he asked suspiciously, "Don't you Four Rakshasas always take on missions together?"
In his memory, the Four Rakshasas invariably appeared as a group. If only this man was here, teaming up with Lox might give them a chance to take down Sirom; otherwise, running away was their only option.
While there are green hills left, there is no need to worry about firewood.
"Kid, I don't know what kind of alchemist you are, but who told you that the Four Rakshasas always take missions together?" Sirom was not the least bit flustered. He gave Moses a kick with his foot and said with a tone of relief, "Good thing he's not dead, or I wouldn't even know who to collect my bounty from."
Having confirmed Moses's condition, Sirom turned his gaze to Lox and Ye Yu. "Now there are two paths before you: either you stand there quietly and obediently let me kill you, or you fight desperately and get tortured to death by me."
Lox stepped forward, picked up a long saber from the ground, and said calmly, "Sirom, are you certain you've got us cornered?"
Watching Lox's actions, Ye Yu remembered what He had mentioned while they were crouching in the bushes preparing to ambush him—that Lox's greatest strength was his swordsmanship. He wondered how great the gap would be between a sword-wielding Lox and the Four Rakshasas.
"Lox, you must understand that He, the one who sparred with you, is completely different from a Rakshasa ghost like me." Before Sirom even finished speaking, his body suddenly shot forward, his arms—fitted with metallic iron rings—lunging straight at Lox. Lox moved to shield Ye Yu, deflecting the incoming double-handed strike with the minimum expenditure of force, and then charged directly at Sirom.
Sirom was not surprised that his attack was blocked by Lox; after all, both sides were still testing each other. He quickly withdrew his arms and met Lox's onslaught without the slightest retreat. The iron rings and the saber clashed, sending out dazzling sparks. Their blindingly fast attack frequency was dizzying, but Lox had already expended a considerable amount of energy in the previous battle. Although his form remained flawless, his fight with Sirom was gradually tipping into a disadvantage.
The longer they fought, the higher Sirom's battle lust grew. A grin spread across his face, resembling the bared teeth of an evil spirit and sending a chill down the spine.
Seizing a flaw in Lox's defense just in time, Sirom lashed out with a claw. Lox hurriedly widened the distance, his breathing already falling into disorder as three vicious bloody gashes abruptly appeared on his arm.
"Ha!"
How could Sirom give Lox any breathing room? His left arm whipped out, stretching like rubber, and shot straight toward Lox's face. Lox hastily ducked to dodge, causing Sirom's attack to hit empty air.
Years of combat experience made alarm bells ring furiously in Sirom's mind. There should have been a kid right behind Lox, but now he was gone! Could it be that Lox's earlier block was meant to buy time for that kid to make a move?!
At this thought, Sirom hurriedly retreated. He vividly remembered how Ye Yu had reaped the battlefield like the Grim Reaper earlier. Although he could easily accomplish such a feat himself, Ye Yu possessed an aura of death that even Sirom—despite killing so many people and battling countless masters—had never been able to attain. It was precisely this aura that made Sirom deeply wary.
An invisible Ye Yu was like a black veil cast over Sirom's heart, making his breathing gradually heavier as his hawk-like eyes swept continuously over the surroundings, hoping to pinpoint Ye Yu's location.
Ye Yu was already stained with the scent of blood, making it impossible for Sirom to determine his position by smell.
"What are you looking around for!"
During the time Sirom spent searching for Ye Yu, Lox had finally steadied his breathing and hurriedly raised his saber to charge at Sirom once more. With Sirom needing to split his focus to guard against Ye Yu's assassination, this undoubtedly provided Lox with an excellent opportunity to press a frontal attack.
"Get lost!"
Annoyed and distracted, Sirom let out a loud roar, stabilized the stance that Lox kept driving back, used the iron rings on his arms to block Lox's saber, and then blasted him flying away.
"Are you looking for me?"
Hearing Ye Yu's voice, Sirom's pupils abruptly constricted, and the heart that had just settled was once again thrust into his throat.
Before Lox was knocked away, the flying knife in Ye Yu's hand had already been hurled forward. At the same time, he dashed forward gripping two more flying knives, executing a seamless transition with Lox.
Sirom hastily reached out to bat away the incoming blade. By this time, Ye Yu had already plunged into Sirom's blind spot, the dagger in his hand lunging fiercely toward the target like a raptor spotting its prey.
Striking true on the first attempt, Ye Yu's blade sank into the junction between Sirom's shoulder and arm. He prepared to yank the blade out and retreat, only to find he couldn't budge it—Sirom was using his muscles to clamp down and lock the blade inside his body.
Without a moment's hesitation, Ye Yu immediately let go of the weapon and prepared to withdraw.
How could Sirom let Ye Yu escape so easily? A whip kick, fast as an afterimage, struck directly at Ye Yu's head.
Failing to dodge in time, Ye Yu could only barely cross his arms to block, and was sent flying by the kick.
Lox hurriedly darted behind Ye Yu to catch him, his eyes never leaving Sirom for an instant.
Sirom pulled out the bloody flying knife and tossed it to the ground, using his body's musculature to clamp the wound shut and staunch the bleeding. He glared ferociously at Ye Yu, who was clutching his head and swaying, as if he could devour him alive.
How long had it been since anyone had actually wounded his physical body?
"Kid, just what kind of person are you?"
Sirom said viciously. He wanted to know the name of the person who could injure him. As someone standing at the pinnacle, anyone capable of hurting him possessed the qualification to fight him—and the qualification to be remembered by him. (Even if it was an ambush.)
Hearing Sirom's words, Ye Yu patted his head a couple of times, looked into Sirom's eyes, and said, "Ye Yu, amateur killer."
A smile hung on Ye Yu's face as he hooked a flying knife with just his thumb, his hands spread wide. The light shone upon his face, casting one half in shadow, his feet treading a dead end paved with fresh blood.
Lox, standing behind Ye Yu, looked as though he were kneeling in worship, while the trees beside them rustled like flags waving and shouting in battle—the rebirth of a bloodthirsty monarch.
"Amateur killer?" A head full of question marks filled Sirom's mind.
With a scene this grand, how could his title turn out to be something so pathetic?
Sirom hurriedly shook his head to cast aside these stray thoughts and assumed an offensive stance. "Fine! Let my glorious life record the name of an amateur killer!"
Lox, standing behind Ye Yu, also rose to his feet. The corners of Ye Yu's lips curved upward as he said with a smile, "Good, let's begin—a righteous two-versus-one."
Ye Yu had never been any sort of upright gentleman. Back when he was being trained as an assassin, no matter what methods were used, as long as they allowed him to kill his target, he would employ them without reserve.
In the world of assassins, there was only one goal—to survive.
Lox rapidly surged forward. Ye Yu spun the knife in his hand into a flashing arc before throwing it toward Sirom. The flying blade reached Sirom even faster than Lox.
Sirom quickly moved to intercept and block the flying knife, then met Lox's onslaught head-on. The combined attacks of Ye Yu and Lox left Sirom overwhelmed, and several more bloody gashes were added to his body.
Seeing Ye Yu standing motionless in his spot after throwing the flying knife, smiling as he watched him...
It made Sirom's heart leap back into his throat. With one hand, he blocked Lox's chopping slash, while his other fist punched straight into Lox's abdomen.
Lox was struck flying by the blow, rolled twice on the ground, and lay motionless.
Sirom let out a sigh of relief and hurriedly shifted his attention back to the spot where Ye Yu had just been.
"Gone!"
A tight feeling gripped Sirom's heart as he once again searched for Ye Yu's figure. Two whistling sounds cut through the air from behind. Sirom spun around and blocked with his hands, but found no trace of Ye Yu, prompting him to instantly whip back around.
By this time, Ye Yu had already closed in on him. Seeing Sirom turn back, Ye Yu leaped off the ground and once again drove his blade into the shoulder-joint wound Sirom had sustained earlier.
Employing his old trick, Sirom locked down all his muscles, once again trapping the flying knife in Ye Yu's hand. But this time Ye Yu did not retreat; leveraging his momentum, he delivered a fierce elbow strike straight to Sirom's throat.
"Cough-ha."
Sirom coughed in agony, and the reflection of the flying knife in Ye Yu's other hand already filled his vision.
"Ahhhhhhh!!!"
Screams echoed across the heavens. The agony of losing his eyes was no longer enough to make Sirom keep his muscles locked on Ye Yu's blade. Ye Yu pulled the knife free. Seemingly realizing what was happening, Sirom blindly threw a punch at Ye Yu.
Ye Yu blocked Sirom's attack with his arm, while his other hand gripped a flying knife and drove it viciously into Sirom's neck, before being blasted backward along with the knife.
"Cough, cough..."
Ye Yu gave a dry cough and forced himself up with all his might. His struck left arm hung limply and swayed slightly in the air, prompting him to quickly clutch it with his right hand. He looked over toward Sirom's position—the man was already sprawled on the ground, blood still gushing from his neck.
"Hiss, it's dislocated..."
When he was young in his past life, having a dislocated arm had been an everyday occurrence for him, and he was quite experienced in handling such issues himself.
With a firm upward jerk of his right hand, a sharp *crack* echoed from his left arm's joint as it snapped back into place. Had he used any more force, that arm probably would have been broken straight through.
Ye Yu hurried over to the fallen Lox, checking his breathing, pulse, and other signs to ascertain his current condition. "Phew, good thing he's not dead. Lox, wake up, the city guards will be here soon."
Lox laboriously forced his eyes open and let Ye Yu help him up.
After Ye Yu finished off Moses with a blade, the two of them left the scene directly, failing to notice the two words "Amateur" left behind near Sirom's hand.
Shortly after they departed, two squads of patrol soldiers arrived at the spot. Surveying the corpses and blood covering the ground, the commanding officer's expression darkened, and he commanded with stern authority, "Go quickly and check what kind of people these dead ones are."
The soldiers behind him immediately stepped forward to search the bodies. Walking up to the fallen Sirom, the officer's pupils constricted. He hurriedly shouted, "Stop searching! Bury them right here, and all of you forget everything that happened tonight!"
To think that the Four Rakshasas of the Imperial Fist Temple would die here—this must not be allowed to reach the ears of those above. Since he knew nothing about it, should an investigation come later, responsibility would be unavoidable for him.
Let him vanish from this world. Glancing at the two characters for "Amateur" written by Sirom, the officer pondered for a moment, then reached out and wiped the characters away with the sole of his boot.
This officer had also once studied at the Imperial Fist Temple and had occasionally caught sight of the Four Rakshasas, which was why he recognized their appearance and had witnessed their martial prowess.
"Even such powerful people can die? I wonder how terrifying the person who killed him must be." The officer stroked his bearded chin, staring at Sirom's corpse as these thoughts crossed his mind.
Once his subordinates swiftly cleaned up the scene, the officer led his men and evacuated the area.
Ye Yu sneaked Lox back into the inn where they had stored their carriage. The battle had not lasted long—not even ten minutes—and since the inn had not yet closed for the night, guests could return directly to their rooms.
Steering clear of everyone, Ye Yu found their room and slipped inside quietly, without alerting a soul.
Ye Yu swiftly disposed of his and Lox's clothes—after all, getting caught by someone who might report them to the authorities would spell trouble. He then took a bath, changed into fresh garments, and stepped back out.
This inn was the finest establishment in Guangxi Town, the kind of place only someone with a bit of spare cash like the current Ye Yu could afford to stay in.
Enduring his pain, Lox headed off to wash up as soon as Ye Yu emerged from the bath.
Lox lay on his own bed. Today's battle against Sirom had relied entirely on Lox frontline efforts to whittle down Sirom's condition, which had finally created an opening for him.
They had taken down Sirom, but even with both him and Lox combined, it had been an absolute, narrow victory.
If it had been just himself fighting Sirom alone, he probably wouldn't even have survived the first blow before meeting his maker.
Ye Yu squeezed his fist. The present him still had a gap to close before reaching the upper echelon of power in this world.
Too slow.
His growth was simply too slow.
Other people who transmigrated and were reborn always brought along some kind of cheat system or another; how come he didn't even have a single hair's worth of one? Could it be that it required a specific awakening method?
Ye Yu glanced toward the bathroom where Lox was still washing up, and with the air of someone making a resolute decision, he whispered softly, "System!"
"Open sesame!"
"Old grandpa hiding inside some object!"
"Manifest! The power hidden within my bloodline!"
"..."
Ye Yu pulled his pillow over his face. He never expected he would commit such an idiot act.
He let out a sigh, raised his still-throbbing left arm, and remained silent for a long time.
The next day.
Lox woke up with a groggy head. His entire body felt as though it were falling apart, aching excruciatingly with even the slightest movement. Enduring the discomfort, he managed to sit up and looked over at the other bed—Ye Yu was already gone, off to who knows where.
While he was pondering this, Ye Yu pushed a small food cart into the room. Seeing that Lox was already awake, Ye Yu greeted him with a smile, "Morning, old Lox. I went to get some food, come and try some."
He wheeled the cart right up to the edge of Lox's bed, picked up a piece of cake to pop into his mouth, and then sat down on his own bed, swinging his legs back and forth. "How are you feeling?"
"No fatal injuries." Lox shook his head, picked up a piece of cake from the cart, and began eating slowly. Although the fight yesterday hadn't lasted very long, the toll it took on human physical and mental stamina was immense, and both needed replenishment now.
"That's good." Ye Yu nodded. When he woke up in the morning, he had quietly checked Lox's body and confirmed there was indeed nothing seriously wrong, though he still needed proper rest—forcing himself to move around would leave hidden internal injuries.
"Then get some good rest here. We'll rest and recover for a day, and head for the Imperial Capital tomorrow." Ye Yu hopped off the bed and picked up another piece of cake. "I'm going out for a stroll. If you need anything, you can press the button on the counter, and someone will come to take care of it."
Lox nodded to indicate he understood. Just as Ye Yu reached the doorway, Lox, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke up, "Young master, are you an alchemist?"
Ye Yu paused in his tracks and looked back at him in surprise, not expecting him to ask such a question. He replied jokingly, "What if I am an alchemist?"
"As long as young master can help me exact my revenge, whatever identity you have doesn't matter." Lox shook his head and said calmly. The allegiance he swore to Ye Yu was simply because Ye Yu's words had struck a chord with him.
Having spent half his life fleeing, only Ye Yu had given him a promise, so Lox didn't care in the least what kind of person Ye Yu really was.
"Then does young master think my life has been a failure?" Lox asked again. In the first half of his life, he had served as an instructor, taught many students, and had numerous friends; yet if not for Ye Yu's appearance, he might have been hunted down and killed by He and Luo right there in Sanshui Town.
Moses, the student he had valued most at the very beginning, had ultimately plotted to kill him and even invited one of the Four Rakshasas to do it. When he was wrongfully accused, many of the students he hadn't thought much of—and had even neglected—had died right before his eyes just to protect his safe retreat.
Unable to distinguish loyalty from treachery, he had harmed both others and himself.
Ye Yu looked at Lox's dejected expression; he looked as though he had aged several decades.
"I'm just a kid and don't quite understand these things, but I think the answer to that question has already been given to you loud and clear by the students, friends, and family who fought desperately to protect you."
Ye Yu leaned against the wall and pondered slightly. "What you should be doing right now is not to let down their trust, and to work hard."
"If you were someone unworthy of being entrusted with such faith, I wouldn't have let you stay by my side for so long." Ye Yu pushed himself up from the wall, walked back to the doorway, and with his back to Lox, said, "Every time you stood in front of me to shield me, I saw it."
"Those people who died for you, standing in your path at the most critical moment—they were doing just what you used to do for them."
Lox's eyes were already brimming with moisture as he murmured several names. Ye Yu didn't know who they were, but they must have meant a great deal to Lox.
Without disturbing him, Ye Yu quietly stepped out of the room.