Xingdiao Outer City Governnt Office.
In a spacious courtyard, a middle-aged man in an official robe patterned with crows stood by a pond, hands clasped behind his back, admiring the colorful fish swimming within.
The man had a goatee and a drooping mustache that lent him a cunning air. Yet his powerful, brawny fra added a strange, nacing pressure to his sly appearance.
"Just as you predicted, sir. The Good Heart Sect has indeed mobilized experts from other districts in an attempt to make another move." A Peacekeeping Army soldier, nearly three ters tall, stood behind the man, bowing respectfully.
"Do you think the n I’ve arranged will be able to stop them?" the man asked with a smile.
"Impossible. They already witnessed your strength during the last assassination attempt, so they would never send weaklings to their deaths again. The ones coming this ti must be High Priests," the Peacekeeping Army soldier said in a low voice.
"Correct. Then do you know why I arranged for those five Circulation Martial Artists to go to their deaths?"
"They’re just five death-row inmates whose final potential was forcefully awakened. We call them Circulation Martial Artists, but in reality, they’re rely expendable," the Peacekeeping Army soldier said grimly.
"And you think five Circulation Martial Artists can wear down a High Priest?" the man asked again.
"Of course not. A genius Circulation Martial Artist might be able to, but artificially boosted ones like them can’t possibly have any real effect," the Peacekeeping Army soldier said, shaking his head.
"Exactly. So, their purpose isn’t to wear them down. It’s to..."
The middle-aged man raised his gaze, looking past the wall as if he could already see the three mbers of the Good Heart Sect leaping down from their vehicle.
BOOM!!
「In the distant wilderness of the Outer City.」
Huang Niu and Fox had just leaped from the Moth Car to face the five charging Circulation Martial Artists. Before they even got close, they sensed sothing was off. The martial artists’ bodies suddenly began to swell rapidly, and within a second, a deafening explosion erupted from all five of them at once.
The five of them were like balloons filled with jet-black powder. The blast instantly coated both Fox and Huang Niu in a thick layer of the black dust.
"It’s a tracking agent!" Huang Niu recognized the substance, his expression turning grim.
"What now?" Fox looked at him.
"We’ve been marked, so we charge! We have to end this quickly," Huang Niu said sharply.
He turned and sent a voice transmission to Lin Hui. "We’re about to move fast. Stay close and don’t get separated!"
"Got it!" Lin Hui nodded. He was just getting off the Moth Car, so he hadn’t been hit by the black powder.
SWISH!
In the next instant, Huang Niu struck out with his palms. His Internal Strength ford a massive Palm Seal, which slamd into the other Martial Artists and sent them flying.
He and Fox then crouched down, their Internal Strength rapidly gathering and beginning to glow.
BOOM!
A second later, a burst of Internal Strength erupted behind them in a shower of light. Propelled by this massive explosive force, they shot toward the Xingdiao City District at a speed far greater than before.
"Where are we going?"
"To the Outer City Governnt Office! The target is there. He’s waiting for us!" Huang Niu said in a low, serious voice.
The pair sped across the wasteland and entered the vast Boundary Zone of the Outer City District.
Here in the Boundary Zone, the dilapidated houses were teeming with unseen eyes, their gazes following the trio’s every move.
The number of watchers might have even outnumbered the remaining residents in the surrounding Outer City towns.
But the trio had no ti to dwell on it. They raced at full speed toward Zhu Chengqiu in the Outer City Governnt Office.
They sped past block after block. Nurous expert patrols mobilized to stop them, but all were cut down by the blade-like force of Huang Niu and Fox’s charge, suffering devastating casualties.
Any Martial Artist who stood in their path was instantly shattered into a pulp of flesh and bone.
BANG.
Soon, the vermilion-painted main gate of the Outer City Governnt Office was blasted to smithereens by a single palm strike from Huang Niu.
Shards of the gate flew inward, killing several constables and Peacekeeping Army soldiers who were standing too close.
Inside, Zhu Chengqiu stood quietly on the raised platform of the Trial Hall, just behind the judge’s bench, watching as Huang Niu and Fox stord in.
"You’re finally here. I’ve been waiting for you."
The mont he finished speaking, the entire floor of the Governnt Office lit up with a silver glow.
A massive, web-like silver array formation materialized, enveloping the entire Governnt Office and trapping Huang Niu and Fox within it.
"Lin Hui, wait outside. We’ll co out once we’ve dealt with the target. Don’t worry, it won’t take long." Huang Niu’s expression remained unchanged. He halted and sent the voice transmission while pulling a black cube from within his robes. Mysterious symbols on the cube’s surface flashed with white light.
CRACK.
The cube shattered.
The surrounding silver array instantly froze, its light ceasing to flash. It completely lost the powerful aura it had upon activation.
Seizing the opportunity, Fox shot forward like an arrow. A fierce expression crossed her face as an intricate black pattern erged between her eyebrows.
The next mont, Zhu Chengqiu was seen standing frozen in place, a stunned look on his face, his raised hand suspended in mid-air.
BOOM!!
Fox’s body erupted in a blinding white fla, wreathed in Void Power. She began to spin rapidly in mid-air, her right hand forming a sword sign—index and middle fingers extended—as she jabbed viciously toward Zhu Chengqiu’s chest.
WHOOSH!
But strangely, her sword-finger missed its mark.
She had misjudged the distance, her strike landing in the air several inches in front of Zhu Chengqiu’s chest.
The imnse force, accompanied by the white flas of her Internal Strength, still blasted Zhu Chengqiu and sent him flying backward, the impact snapping him out of his stupor.
"A top-tier Divine Decision that interferes with one’s perception of ti! Very good! Excellent!" Zhu Chengqiu roared, a mixture of shock and fury. In mid-air, he twisted like a swallow, circled, and dove back toward Fox.
’The Jiuhua Divine Decision of Distance? He’s cultivated it to such a degree... enough to make even miscalculate like that...’ Fox’s expression turned grave as she focused her entire being on the fight.
Their battle instantly reached a fever pitch. Both unleashed their Divine Decisions, their invisible Void Powers clashing violently. Fueled by the explosive burning of Internal Strength, their Void Power attacks were incredibly fast and imnsely powerful.
Watching the power of the two combatants made Lin Hui, who was standing guard outside, feel an itch of excitent. He compared them to the Black and White Blade, realizing that duo was clearly a tier below the two fighting now.
Although they were all High Priests, judging by their use of Divine Decisions and the speed and power of their attacks, the Black and White Blade working together would likely not be a match for even one of these combatants.
Just then, Huang Niu, having finished off the surrounding grunts, charged into the fray.
His expression fierce, he cupped his hands and gathered a large, swirling mass of mixed Internal Strength and Void Power.
Then he thrust it forward.
Though he was still over ten ters from the fight, the mass twisted and tumbled through the air.
BOOM!
It exploded instantly.
Motes of light, ford from the mix of Void Power and Internal Strength, rained down indiscriminately on both Fox and Zhu Chengqiu.
But a strange thing happened. All the motes of light precisely curved around Fox, which was understandable. Zhu Chengqiu, however, was in a bizarre predicant: wherever the motes were densest, he seed to be actively dodging *toward* them.
"A Divine Decision that controls area-of-effect... Interesting. What have I, Zhu Chengqiu, done to deserve such attention..." Before he could finish, his body was pelted by countless motes of light.
Each mote was like a razor’s edge, slicing innurable bloody gashes all over his body.
By now, the impact of the motes had blasted a hole clean through the Governnt Office’s Trial Hall.
The three combatants burst out from the rear of the building, their battle continuing as they crashed through wall after wall of the structures behind it.
Lin Hui followed, keeping his distance.
Right now, it looked like his side had the upper hand.
The enemy’s ambush array had been neutralized by Captain Huang Niu. Clearly, their opponent had never imagined that after being tagged with a tracker, Huang Niu and Fox would not retreat, but would instead press the attack and go for the assassination.
Such audacity was a blatant show of disrespect for the Inner City Governnt Office and the Rain Palace.
Seeing that the situation was favorable, Lin Hui focused on watching his surroundings, waiting for the final outco.
Before long, a shrill, furious scream echoed through the air.
A nearby two-story black stone building was snapped in half, collapsing in a cloud of dust and rubble.
The object that had shattered the building was Zhu Chengqiu’s corpse.
His eyes were wide with rage and unwillingness. Only his upper body remained; from the waist down, he had been completely pulverized by Huang Niu’s palm strikes, his remains indistinguishable from the stone dust.
From a distance, Lin Hui saw Fox and Huang Niu slap palms in a brief celebration before turning to withdraw.
Two tall, white-robed figures appeared, blocking their path.
"Zhu Chengqiu colluded with foreign enemies and embezzled the Governnt Office’s assets. He deserved death, but that doesn’t give you the right to assassinate him."
Both wore golden masks and were shrouded in loose white robes. Beneath the fabric, the faint outline of full golden armor could be seen.
As the two appeared, the Void Power and Internal Strength at their feet interwove, spreading out to form white, snake-like tendrils that slithered slowly across the surrounding ground.
Watching from a distance, Lin Hui felt a growing sense of unease. ’It seems Xingdiao’s Inner City deliberately let Zhu Chengqiu die, only showing up to clean up the ss afterward.’
’Zhu Chengqiu has already drained a significant amount of Fox and Huang Niu’s Heart and Spirit. Attacking them now will be much easier for these two.’
Before he could observe any further, the fight erupted once more.
This ti, it was two against two. The air bood with the sound of muffled thunder as they clashed. Stray blasts of Void Power and Internal Strength shot out in all directions, indiscriminately punching holes through everything nearby.
This ti, the fight seed evenly matched.
Lin Hui narrowed his eyes, observing. His own speed was incredible, and his ability to track high-speed movent was just as good, so he had no trouble following the four-way battle.
’Those two were looking for an easy kill,’ Lin Hui thought, ’but they didn’t expect Huang Niu and Fox to have so much fight left in them. They’re not gaining any ground at all.’
In fact, as ti wore on, Huang Niu seed to grow even fiercer, his blows becoming heavier and more powerful. He seed to be using a Cultivation Technique that allowed him to sustain himself through combat, drawing strength from his opponent’s attacks to replenish his own.
’Looks like they’ll be fine,’ Lin Hui thought, nodding to himself.
’The Good Heart Sect is truly formidable. They must have been fully prepared to send these two on this mission.’
He ntally compared their strength to that of his sworn brother, Liu Wu Jun, wondering who was stronger.
But he couldn’t reach a conclusion. He had never seen Liu Wu Jun fight all-out.
At the very least, they were all experts of the sa caliber.
Just as it looked like the pair was about to drive back the n from the Rain Palace, Lin Hui leaped lightly, landing atop the ruins of a house to get a better vantage point.
Suddenly, his keen eyes spotted sothing unusual in the distance.
The battlefield spanned a radius of hundreds of ters, and the fighting had already reduced the entire neighborhood to rubble.
Yet, at this very mont, two figures were calmly walking toward the center of the battlefield, their expressions completely unfazed by the chaos.
They were dressed as a young master and his attendant. The young master in the lead wore a moon-white robe, his long hair draped over his shoulders. His hair wasn’t black, brown, or gray, but a strange, almost translucent white.
His face was flawlessly handso, without a single blemish. His eyes held the faint glimr of a teal-green hue.
"Python Clan People?" Lin Hui recognized his race.
He noticed that all the stray blasts of Void Power and Internal Strength would bizarrely deflect and disperse upon nearing the pair, unable to touch them within a one-ter radius.
Just then, as if feeling his gaze, the white-haired young master paused and looked up directly at him.
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