The person behind the hidden weapon was Si Yanran. She was the wife of Gong Sun Gan, the leader of the famed Thousand Dawn Spire. The man whom she had just killed was her lover, a disciple at Thousand Dawn Spire.
When she was only twenty, Si Yanran had carved a name for herself with her unique mastery of darts. When she was twenty-three, she had met and later married the leader of Thousand Dawn Spire, who was already by then more than fifty years old. In the blink of an eye, a decade had passed, and what had happened within those ten years… well, it could be summarized with reference to Woody Allen and Soon-Yi.
The young man who died was Wang Ao. He was twenty-four years old, and he had become a disciple at Thousand Dawn Spire about three years earlier. Due to his handsome face, he had been ’selected’ by the wife of his master and become her final disciple. It was since then that they had started this illicit relationship. But this Wang Ao was not just a kept man; he had his own ambition as well. He had joined Thousand Dawn Spire because he wanted to learn Thousand Dawn Spire’s ultimate—Thousand Dawn Kung Fu. Since he had that extra layer of relationship with the wife of his master, his confidence to steal that martial art grew.
About one year later, Wang Ao felt like the timing was ripe, so he started dropping hints to have Si Yanran steal or copy Thousand Dawn Kung Fu’s secret for him. Si Yanran was not an idiot. Even though Gong Sun Gan might not know anything about her affair, he was not going to be senile enough to not realize that someone had touched the book that held the greatest secret of the spire. Therefore, she did not make any moves. Yet, Wang Ao kept bringing this up again and again, and eventually, it turned from a persuasion to a threat.
It was also then that Si Yanran got the intention to kill…
This time, the two blade masters decided to have the fight at Chang Lin Town. As one of the biggest names in the martial world, Thousand Dawn Spire would not miss out on it. As the wife of the master and the wife’s final disciple, they had naturally followed the master to enter the village.
That was the reason behind the scene that Feng Bujue’s group encountered.
Just as Feng Bujue had said, now that they were in the town, she needed to kill the man at night. That was a period when no one would care what anyone was doing. As long as she dealt with the dead body after the fact, to prevent others from identifying her as the killer from the wounds on the body, everything would be fine.
That was Si Yanran’s plan. She had asked Wang Ao to meet her at night, using the pretext of them having an affair. But Wang Ao was as cunning as she was. He had already noticed the strangeness when they entered the village and taken the necessary steps to protect himself. As she was just about to make her move, he had already started running. But Si Yanran’s kung fu was so much better than Wang Ao’s, and the latter failed to escape his fate. However, before he died, he just so happened to appear before Feng Bujue’s group.
When Feng Bujue walked forward to examine the body, Si Yanran had cursed under her breath. There were plenty of people who knew her from her mastery of darts. Since the man had inspected the body and the murder weapon… the incident of her murder would definitely be exposed. Once this was exposed, her affair with Wang Ao would be dragged into the daylight as well.
At that moment, all Si Yanran thought was… I cannot allow any witness to live! Since these people look so weak, I should just kill all of them. This is your unlucky day.
Weng weng weng…
This rather strange sound echoed around Feng Bujue. The darts that flew through the air were blocked by an invisible barrier just as they were about to hit Feng Bujue. If one looked closer, one could see that the hidden weapon caused invisible ripples around Feng Bujue’s body.
Obviously, this was the Damage Mitigation effect of the Echo Armor coming into play. As mentioned earlier, the echo armor had a very good defensive effect when dealing with high-speed piercing strikes. This hidden weapon fulfilled the activation conditions perfectly. In terms of defense… the echo armor blocked K3-Red Iron’s multiple punches at close distance, so naturally, it could easily block the darts that were shot from afar.
Si Yanran did not anticipate this happening, and she had no idea at all how Feng Bujue had managed to shield himself from her attack. Feng Bujue sighed greatly in relief. If the enemy had charged at him to commit to a close-quarter attack, his Life Points would have dropped tremendously. Thankfully, the opponent had chosen a ranged attack, and that managed to let him escape unscathed.
After this small interaction, the situation had changed.
Si Yanran had thought that a person like Feng Bujue, who showed no sign of possessing any internal energy, would die from her dart attacks. She wished to kill all of them to silence the witnesses. Since she had assumed that Feng Bujue would die, she had already raced out of the alley to deal with the rest. But to her surprise, after being attacked by her darts, the man stood there completely unharmed, and a special weapon that she had not seen before appeared in his arm like some kind of magic. All this meant that she had to be careful and on the guard.
Feng Bujue merely drew his wrench due to his survival instincts. He lifted his head to look, and a woman fell into his eyes. She was dressed in white. A short, light-gray ermine cape was wrapped around her shoulders, and she had a silver belt around her waist. With her appearance and physique, she could be considered a great beauty. The maturity at around thirty added to her attraction and allure.
“Lady, I am sure we can talk with words instead of fists…” Feng Bujue grasped the reason why he was attacked in these few seconds. He astutely added, “I do not know you…”
Then, he pointed at the dead body on the ground.
“Nor do I know him.” He kept a safe and alert distance away from Si Yanran. “The incident that happened earlier has nothing to do with me.”
When he saw the opponent lower her weapon and not charge at him blindly, he sighed in his heart. “My friends and I… we can pretend that we did not see anything. We will leave quietly and leave you be.”
Since Si Yanran already wanted to kill, she naturally would not be persuaded by these few words.
“Humph… don’t you think it is already a bit too late for you to say something like that? You have already seen my face.” Her eyes moved to Wang Ao’s body. “And you have seen his face, which is more than enough.”
She was not wrong, and she had no reason to trust that these strangers would help her keep the secret. If they really did so, it could only mean that… this secret would become leverage they could use against her in the future.
“If you insist…” When Feng Bujue said that, he turned his face slightly around and raised his voice. He was calling his teammates. It was time to get moving. A fight was about to start.
In that instant, a red glow radiated from Feng Bujue’s body. He was surrounded by a strong burst of energy. He was cautious of the power level of the characters inside this scenario, and he was not going to let his guard down, so he activated Body Enhancement Spell at the start of the battle.
Si Yanran was more nervous than Feng Bujue. At first glance, she assumed her opponent was a weakling who did not even possess any internal energy, but that invisible shield that blocked her darts earlier meant that it was not all that she expected. That was a skill only usable by a martial expert. And this red energy that was visible was a skill that she had not encountered before.
At this point, Si Yanran did not hesitate any longer. Her goal was to kill her opponent. Since this young man was not as weak as she had predicted, she was going to use ten percent of her full power to kill him!
She gathered her essential Qi silently, bent her knees slightly, and straightened her arms. This time, only a single dart flew at Feng Bujue, but it had a great presence about it. The sound it made when cutting through the air was audible, and it headed right for Feng Bujue’s throat.