There were about thirty to forty people at the peak of the Revolving Qi Realm and one man at the peak of the Foundation Building Realm who seemed to be another branch sub-leader.
“You have guts to remain here, exposing your position…”
Their leader said as he was unsheathing the sword behind his back. But as there was not response from Wu Long, the eyes behind the silver demon mask narrowed.
“I have heard that you are someone dangerous. Heh, you even killed those Golden Ox Mercenary Group boys…”
‘Golden Ox? Hmm, it seems one of the arms that is being used to move along various schemes is the Golden Ox Trading Company. No wonder the regional manager of the Soaring Feather Trading Company in the Tingren Kingdom was so annoyed with them’
As the man spoke Wu Long inwardly made his own associations. He has heard that Golden Ox Trading Company seems to have started targeting Sui Luxiao’s company from the regional manager before, but that was strictly in terms of business.
Apart from their trading, Golden Ox Trading Company operated a mercenary group that not only protected its goods in travel but also sold its services to whoever needed them. Wu Long knew about that but was a little surprised to hear the people he met before as ‘enforcers’ were their mercenaries. What he was precisely surprised at was the level of people they were able to raise, signifying that they had some background.
‘It seems I may have to visit their Bullshit Training Camp now that I know where they are’
He made a note to himself as the list of things he would have to deal with on this continent once he returned became even longer.
“…not to mention that you even fought some of the Fantian Kingdom sub-branch elites and survived… but you got saved by Prime Demon Hong Ye. This time, there is no one to save you from us”
The leader finished his monologue but still got no response from Wu Long as he just looked at him with a pondering face.
“There was nothing about you being deaf in the reports though…”
A vein popped out on the assassin leader’s forehead under the mask as the indifference in Wu Long’s gaze started to unnerve him. The cautious reactions of the others were what he used to see, not the completely calm demeanor of a man who looked like he encountered regular roadside bandits.
“You will take their leader and I deal with the rest?”
Ye Ling asked from beside Wu Long, as Bahshi Assassins in the Revolving Qi Realm were not someone the others could handle yet.
“No need, just concentrate and don’t miss what you wanted to see”
He replied, this time completely enraging the leader of the assassins.
“Hah! What arrogance! Do you know that because of you, that crazy bitch massacred the entire sub-branch!? You will not be getting out of this alive!”
The assassins’ leader shouted with fury. He lost his close friend who was the sub-branch leader and a nephew who served as his right-hand man in the Fantian Kingdom sub-branch after Hong Ye was done with her ‘investigation’ since she caught them red-handed trying to deal with Wu Long in an unsanctioned operation.
But as Wu Long simply raised the sword in his left hand and reached for the hilt with his right, all of the Bahshi Assassins and the women behind Wu Long unsheathed their weapons, as the tension in the air instantly reached its peak. His movements were unhurried, but Ye Ling’s eyes widened a little when she saw them. Everyone else did not see anything peculiar about his simple motions, but in her eyes, a light of astonishment flashed as she stopped caring about the people surrounding them and concentrated on his sword, which he was deliberately slowing down so she could see clearer.
“You are hurrying to die, but you still have questions to answer. Were you the one who killed a few squads of our men about five months ago?”
The sub-branch leader of the Jurong Kingdom asked as he still had to confirm whether Wu Long was the cause of all of their recent troubles or not. It seemed highly likely, given that he was causing trouble not just for them, but almost every single vested interest on the continent by now, but if they killed him and never got a definite answer there would still be that unsolved mystery that would cause them unnecessary worry.
Wu Long started to unsheathe his sword, and as soon as the tiniest glimpse of the sword blade could be seen, the surroundings lost a little color, and the light of the sun that was so bright before became dim in this discolored world. A sense of a sword tip piercing between the eyebrows appeared for every single Bahshi Assassin that surrounded them. The movements Wu Long made seemed extremely slow, and then, as if a part of the scene of his movement was cut out, and the rest was sped up to fill in the gap, his sword flickered and appeared on his side as he was already making his second step forward. While they looked at this scene the assassins around tried to move as soon as Wu Long did, but they quickly noticed that even if his movements were slow, theirs were even slower, as if he was dragging them along into his own pace.
As they moved millimeter by millimeter Wu Long made several steps around his group of women, and each time his sword moved the scene was cut again, speeding up the part right before the sword in his hand moved, which made it look like he was teleporting into a different posture, before the sword was swung, and then almost immediately, after it already stopped moving.
As he made a full circle of movements, the assassins around moved only a few centimeters at an extremely slow speed, some of them trying to move forward, some of them adjusting their swords, and some of them starting a circling motion around Wu Long and the others. Only their leader did not try to move as he looked with horror and absolute shock since he knew that he was already dead the moment Wu Long’s sword flickered for the first time. .𝘤𝘰𝑚
Despite the movements, the surroundings were deathly silent, but as Wu Long returned to where he stood before and started to sheath his sword, the discolorated area started to make formless ripples, as if an interference was made between the area and its surroundings. As the hilt touched the sheath, completely hiding the blade, the discolored area completely and instantly disappeared as the color and light returned to normal, and jumbled noise, as if the previous sound caught up all at once assaulted the people. But no one cared about that as the assassins around all moved at normal speed, and with their cultivation bases and techniques it was a blurry shadow, but then fell in the direction they were moving in two pieces as blood splashed all around creating a spectacular sight if the area was looked from above as a circle of splashing scarlet was blooming like a rose.
The leader of the assassins, since he did not move even a muscle, was still technically alive, as he stood and looked at Wu Long.
“W…Who are you?”
He said, as an extremely thin line of blood appeared on his neck, and then started trickling down unevenly. The movement of muscles and air required to speak was what broke the balance of his head that was already detached from his neck but so cleanly that if he could perfectly balance it he could survive even a few hours given that not even a little wind blows his way.
“Wu Long”
Wu Long finally replied to the man for the first time, as he was not that crude to not even name himself to the selfless volunteers.
“What a monst-…”
As the man tried to say his last words, the blood flow from the line intensified and his head slid off the neck, falling to the ground a few seconds before the body did.
“I-is that…”
Ye Ling said, but could not finish, as her expression was one of astonishment and disbelief.
“Yes, this was a Sword Domain”
He replied to her with a smile, and a light of enlightenment emerged in her eyes, with a wondrous and excited expression on her face.
Sword Domain was not strictly separate from Sword Intent, it was an extension of it, but required a higher comprehension and understanding to create a domain in which the authority of the sword prevailed over that of the authority of the laws governing the world. Wu Long did not need that to get rid of these people, but as he wanted to show Ye Ling something that would be beneficial to her, he went at his current full strength of the sword.
Wei Lan to the side covered her mouth with disbelief when she heard the words “Sword Domain”, while Hua Ziyan and Shen Min were looking with wonder. Luo Mingyu seemed a little uncomfortable, so Wu Long went to comfort her, as they left this area. Shen Min volunteered to pick up the swords and spread talismans to burn the bodies, and the group returned to the inner parts of the sect.