Two days after Sui Luxiao’s last treatment, as Wu Long was walking back to the Ye family manor in the evening, returning from Yu Huan, he suddenly stopped in a secluded alley he usually took on the way as it was the most straightforward route. The moonlight was the only source of light as there were fences of residential houses on both sides.
He took out the sheathed sword from the spatial ring, holding the sheath in his left hand, and casually unsheathed it with his right hand.
“Very perceptive”
A cold voice rang out and people clad in black clothes with metallic masks in the shape of demon faces covering their facial appearance walked out from the shadows of buildings in front of him. Their clothes were without any fluttering parts, tightly wrapping around their bodies while their shoes were soft and flexible. There were shorter thin swords over their shoulders with halved hilts and the cultivation base for most was Qi Condensation, with a couple of Qi Manifestation experts among them. Their gait and posture, as well as the way they positioned themselves gave up their years of experience and training.
In this world, this was quite an impressive lineup to meet in a mortal country and not a sect.
They were supposed to let him pass through and there was a second group a bit further to pincer him, that was now approaching since the ambush failed. Their concealment of their aura, breath and presence was indeed quite impressive for this backwater place but it was still not enough to deceive Wu Long.
‘These masks are… hoooh, so they belong to the Bahshi Assassination Group huh. Haha, I did not expect to meet them here, but if it is them, I can understand how their foundation survived the events that turned this world into a fractured one’
There was a look of surprise and recognition in Wu Long’s eyes when he saw the masks of these assassins. It seems this secluded world is not as safe as it looked like after all. There seemed to be remnants of organizations from the Seven Boundless Worlds here. Though he doubted anyone from their higher ups survived, there was still that possibility, so he had to be a little more cautious.
He was well acquainted with this organization as he was at one point in time the target of their numerous assassination attempts. After all, he had a large number of very powerful and influential enemies, but he also had a lot of powerful allies and influence among very powerful people, so they could not be openly attacking him. Thus hiring assassins to go after him was among the limited number of ways of going after him. Later, Bahshi Assassination Group, like many others, had to stop as he achieved levels of strength none of their top experts except ‘her’ could reach. And he also spared them from his retribution because of ‘her’.
He also had a potential clue as to how this world turned into a fractured one, as Bahshi Assassination Group offended a very powerful enemy not long before he was trapped in a collapsing world. He remembered that many of their secret branches were under siege and some minor worlds in which they were located became sealed off. He knew this because he helped them sort out this situation not long after it started, but by that time the damage was already done.
This may be one of the minor worlds their secret branches were located in, and in the intense assault the world became so damaged that it closed off and had to recuperate. Being the secretive organization they are, it was quite possible their disciple training facility escaped the attack, and the survivors have continued to operate independently in this secluded world.
Analyzing up to here, he made a decision to look for them when he had the time, to see if they have any records to let him better understand the situation, and maybe find out how much time passed since he was witnessing that collapse of a minor world from within. He may be lenient to the Bahshi Assassination Group, but this detached branch that could probably not even be considered part of the same group anymore was not something he needed to go easy on.
He launched forward, without much small talk, as it was meaningless. They also had swords in their hands now, flying in his direction.
He stepped in front of the first one, but suddenly made a pivot on his left leg that was in the front, pushing his body around while lowering his posture as two swords passed over his head while he cut two torsos with a diagonal revolving slash.
As the one he was in the front of pierced his sword forward at his back that was still in the process of turning away from him, his right leg that went first when he started turning tripped the front leg of the one who pierced the sword at him, making him lose balance and miss the shot, at which point his revolving sword caught his falling body to cut it cleanly following the same trajectory as the revolving slash before.
In a flash, three of the assassins were dead, and as Bahshi Assassination Group people usually operated in three-man teams, one team of five was gone.
The others, however, did not halt their movements rushing at him, but he already destroyed the formation of the five teams, making his choices freer, and thus much more difficult for them to predict.
Suddenly, sword qi flew towards him from the direction of one of the Qi Manifestation Realm experts who was leading his team, and another one flew from a different direction.
They tried to kill him if possible, or to at least limit his choices. But to their utter shock, as Wu Long stepped in a forward direction, his figure blurred and stretched like smoke, making a fast and quick turn, and when he reappeared in human form again, his sword was already beheading one of the two Qi Manifestation Realm experts.
“B-Bahshi Ghost Step?!?!?!?”
They recognized the movement technique he used, as this was the core movement technique of their assassination group. Only the core members were allowed to train in it.
As Wu Long advanced to the Qi Gathering Realm, his options in using techniques and skills widened with the appearance of pure Spiritual Qi he could use. And with the Qi Manipulation Ring his options expanded yet again.
This trick was not really the best movement technique in his arsenal, but he had fun using it sometimes, and in this case, it achieved his goal of shaking his enemies. Though, if he could really utilize it, he would disappear like smoke into thin air and reappear at the target location, this current application still amplified his speed and disguised the complete movement trajectory. It was already very amazing and quite taxing to use this mild version with his current cultivation base, so he was not really complaining.
He used the opportunity that appeared because of their shock at seeing their own group’s secret techniques used by their target and pierced the head of the second Qi Manifestation Realm assassin with relative ease.
There were now only Qi Condensation Realm practitioners around him, and two teams out of the four that were left were now incomplete.
When he saw the first sign of them preparing to run, he stopped testing his current strength and simply killed them with the sword wind imbued with sword intent.
‘Hmm, for someone trained in the Bahshi Assassination Group, their training is lacking even for their level of cultivation. Maybe the part of the organization that survived received more severe damage than I thought…’
He was a little surprised, but he could not investigate for now. If these were Bahshi Assassination Group people, then once they failed their mission, they would have to raise the price for the assassination, and send better assassins, that is if the employer agrees to pay more.
He could guess the employer, but did not know anything about the pricing. However, an organization that survived the great calamity should be deeply embedded everywhere in this world, and should be quite influential. It may be a bit out of the league of this employer’s means to pay if the target elimination difficulty rating goes too high.
To ensure a successful operation Bahshi usually sends an overkill amount of people with an overkill cultivation realm difference based on their preliminary investigation. Since he was in Qi Gathering Realm, several Qi Condensation Realm practitioners was already a high estimation of his strength, so they sent even two Qi Manifestation Realm practitioners. Next, if the client is willing to pay up, should be a group of Qi Manifestation Realm practitioners with a few Revolving Qi Realm experts.
Whatever was the case, unless a Core Formation Realm practitioner showed up Wu Long would not really struggle to defend himself. Not to mention he was in the process of strengthening himself.
While it would seem to someone if they looked at Wu Long fight that he would be basically undefeated in this world with his sword intent, since it cut through everything he needed and he did not seem to struggle in any of his fights that much, but that was only since his enemies always roughly matched what he could handle, and he was always fighting at the top of his abilities at the time to reach a quick conclusion.
Unless he had a specific goal in mind like testing his strength, he did not like a long and probing fight, so if he could kill his enemy fast just by releasing all of his abilities, he would kill even a fly with strength far exceeding what was needed if he just wanted to kill it. And he never really gave his opponents any opportunities to adjust, so they might not have even released their full strength before they were killed.
While sword intent was incredibly miraculous, it also had its limitations, and the greatest one for Wu Long at the moment was that with his current cultivation base and physique, it was not safe for him to release any more power of his sword intent. He was, in fact, grateful that he now improved to the point that this tiny tip of the iceberg could be released somewhat safely, but not for long.
Thus, at the moment, he could at most fight with a Foundation Building Realm expert, and not in a prolonged fight. As Core Formation Realm was another watershed, similar to Qi Manifestation, the difference in power between these realms was higher than between normal major realms. To fight a Core Formation Realm practitioner would require him to achieve at least Qi Condensation Realm.
Though, of course, it all depended on fighting expertise and skills, so he might struggle even with someone in the same realm if someone was as skilled as him and had superior combat techniques. As unlikely as that possibility is here, he still has to be ready.
‘Hmm, that Song Lingfei and the old man beside her seemed to be quite high profile people, I wonder why the people attacking them were not Bahshi?’
As an ancient by this world’s standards organization with a profound foundation, it seems they should be at the top of the line in assassination business. And the first pick for influential people, but the people attacking her, who Wu Long killed before, were not even assassins, but warriors in disguised clothes. With such a seemingly high profile assassination it seems that the choice of the personnel was not optimal, but he could not deduce anything based just on the information he had, and he was not usually that meddlesome in someone else’s affairs except some particular cases.
Regardless, he went on his way, leaving some poor soul to be frightened out of their wits discovering this gruesome scene.
—
When his next appointment with Sui Luxiao came up he arrived at the trading company headquarters as usual.
When Sui Luxiao’s husband saw him in a hallway he dropped the scrolls he was carrying in his arms and stared at him in disbelief while Wu Long went past with an indifferent expression, not caring about him at all. It was not like he did not guess that he hired the assassins, it was that he currently did not want to eliminate him yet, if possible. As he was still crucial for Sui Luxiao to be freed.
He made his way into her office, waiting for a bit in the waiting area of her reception, as she was occupied with a meeting. When he was invited in he went straight into the bathroom, as she readied the room by waving her hand over the array on her table.
When he came out of the bathroom after cleaning his hands and leaving the ring, she was already waiting, sparks of anticipation in her eyes as she looked at him. There was still some reluctance in her, but there was definitely more anticipation than last time when it only appeared. 𝚍ｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐
She was wearing a dark silver dress that was made of sparkly material, with two long cuts on the sides from around the beltline. The long legs that could be seen through the slits were wrapped in dark semi transparent tights. And her high heels accentuated her graceful legs in those tights.