Shao Yi frowned.
"He isn't home?"
He'd been waiting for quite some time now, yet there were no movements from inside. Someone would've answered the door by now if there was actually someone home.
Being woken up in the middle of the night like that, anyone would have at least been irritable enough to check who was at the door.
He looked at the barrier wrapping the wooden door. It was entirely impossible to break through it with sheer force alone, and doing so would definitely cause some noise.
But then again, dawn would soon come. He couldn't just keep waiting.
"Whatever," he thought. "Just do it, then."
He drew his short swords from his sleeve and was about to attack when another hand pressed his hands down.
Feng Kong's voice pierced right through the barrier.
"Xiao Qixiu of the Spiritual Law Division here."
"Open the door."
On the other side of the door.
Xu Xiaoshou was immediately alarmed and wanted nothing more than to just run, but he stopped himself nonetheless.
The man mimicked Xiao Qixiu's voice so well that if his [Sense] hadn't told him what the two outside looked like, he would have actually opened the door right then and there.
At the moment, the man knocking on the door was holding two short swords.
If at this moment Xu Xiaoshou still hadn't been able to guess what these two outside were up to, he'd be better off dead.
"What the h*ll is happening?"
"Why are there people here to kill me?"
He was flustered and broke out in a cold sweat. He wracked his brains, yet was unable to find a way out.
He extended [Sense] to its greatest range, yet the two at the door still looked like they were common folk and seemed to have no powers at all.
However, he was able to tell that these two were at least at [Innate Level], and they were anything but common, even among those at [Innate Level].
Being at Spiritual Cultivation Level meant that he was able to detect a specific Mystical Aura signature unique to those at [Innate Level], making it easy to tell them apart.
These two were well-guarded that it was obvious they were trained in some kind of powers for concealing their powers.
It was entirely possible that these two were professional killers.
Dread was written all over his face.
The spirit place was protected by a massive array, which made it impossible for those outside to get in without permission unless they were exceptionally and unbelievably powerful.
He was able to immediately rule that out, judging from the age of those two.
As such, there was the question of where such powerful [Innate Level Fighters] could be from.
There was only one answer to that question.
The Inner Yard.
He immediately shuddered all over, wondering why the h*ll someone from the Inner Yard would want to kill him.
He wracked his brains looking for a solution, but his neurons felt as if they were dying en masse at the moment, as his brain simply refused to come up with a possible reason behind this.
But he knew that if he didn't make it through the night, this place would be his grave.
The harder he wracked his brains, the more afraid he became.
According to what he knew, the only one from the last batch who'd joined the Inner Yard was Su Qianqian, and no one else had joined the batch before hers. He knew next to nothing about the batches before that.
Yet, that information was more than enough.
If those people were truly from the Inner Yard, then they would have already reached [Innate Level] two to three years ago.
"What the f**k?" he thought.
"What kind of a joke is this?
"What have I done to warrant the two of you coming after my head?
"And since when have I done anything to offend the two of you?"
He was so terrified that he almost fell to his knees. He extended his [Sense] at those two after developing some early speculations.
"The one nearest to the door seems to have some bit of [Innate Presence], yet the one behind him…
"Sh**!
"At the very least, one is at the peak of Origin Court level, and the other is at Voidness Level or maybe even higher."
His heart sank right then and there.
Even at early and middle sub-levels after breaking into the [Innate Stage], there would still be such a large gap between them that even someone at Spiritual Cultivation Level 10 wouldn't stand a chance at fighting them.
Worse still, the two outsides' cultivation level was far higher than those early and middle sub-levels.
The way he saw it, the two standing outside weren't just Inner Yard fighters; they were reapers coming to claim his life.
He wasn't arrogant enough to think that just because he'd managed to draw two [Innate Level Passive Skills] and had acquired [Infernal Heavens] that he was capable enough to fight against those at [Innate Levels].
He certainly wasn't about to think that he could fight two of such beings.
If he were to do such a thing, it'd be the same as handing his head over on a silver platter.
"How should I go about this?
"Running is impossible. No way I could escape from these two.
"But if I just stay around…"
He gulped, feeling very frustrated. The chances of him dying were so staggeringly high that he felt that he'd reached the end of his journey.
…
On the other side of the door.
The two looked at each other. They basically knew what was going on.
Either no one was inside, or their target knew who they were.
Although the latter was unlikely, it was nonetheless a possibility.
According to intelligence, the champion of the Wind and Cloud Contest from the Outer Yard, despite being known to only be of Spiritual Cultivation Level Eight, had [Innate Level Physique] and [Innate Sword Will], so there was no telling what else their target was capable of.
"Let's move!"
Feng Kong tilted his head, and Shao Yi's aura burst right then and there, coalescing raging Spiritual Source on his short swords. He looked like he was about ready to cleave a mountain.
Creak.
The barrier parted, and the wooden door opened.
"Sh**!"
Shao Yi immediately pulled his aura back, but the attack had such a massive amount of energy in it that cutting it off in the middle almost caused him to spit blood.
The two of them looked at each other and saw the cautious look in each other's eyes. Each immediately put his guard up.
Something was definitely wrong!
They were professional killers, and Feng Kong had almost been able to get the red hunter token of "three joss sticks," which meant he was naturally sensitive to danger. He knew full well that one had to give one's all, even if one only had to kill an ant.
Feng Kong wouldn't have tagged along on this mission otherwise.
"Get inside."
Both of them cautiously headed into the compound, and the next second, they were stunned by what they saw.
The ground…
Why were there so many craters inside?
Had a war been going on in here?
While having one's own compound among those of the Outer Yard was considered quite an achievement, the quality of such establishments was nonetheless far below that in the Inner Yard. They looked around and felt the place to be rather empty.
It seemed that the place was even larger than their own.
"No, hold on.
"It feels like… Something is missing in here?" Shao Yi thought.
He took a look in the adjacent wooden shack to the side and found the place to be rather shabby.
"Why live in such a broken hut? Are you telling me that Xu Xiaoshou could afford a compound, yet not a house?
"No, that's not it.
"This is probably the guest room!"
Shao Yi seemed to recall something as he looked at the side of the shack and found only a huge, empty space.
"Shouldn't there be a main house over here? What happened to it?"
It turned out that the empty, vast feeling they'd sensed before was basically due to private compounds found within the spirit palace that basically consisted of a main house and a guest house.
Yet, this place, which should have had a main house on it, was vacant.
"What's the meaning of this?
"What the h*ll just happened here!?"
Shao Yi was frightened.
Checking out terrain was a necessary skill for any killer, and surveying the terrain was something that they could almost finish in less than a second.
Furthermore, Shao Yi seemed to immediately realize something after seeing the odd way things were placed and all the craters on the ground.
He wondered if there had been a huge battle fought in the compound.
"Who goes there!?" Feng Kong, who was right beside him, shouted. Shao Yi was startled, and he turned around, finding a lean figure standing on top of that fake mountain in the hazy rain in the night.
Xu Xiaoshou?
No!
Not necessarily him. Maybe the other guy from that huge battle.
Shao Yi wasn't the only one speculating this. Feng Kong's speculation was basically the same. Both of them thought that there was more going on here than what they'd expected.
The assassination attempt, which they'd initially thought would be an easy job that they could finish as soon as Xu Xiaoshou opened the door, had become something of an enigma instead. Even after entering this place, they felt that a lot was at play here.
That figure on the fake mountain never turned around. He simply hung his head low and sighed eerily. A croaky voice was then heard.
"You've finally found me, huh? That's rather unexpected…"
"You're being slow."
The pupils of the two assassins contracted. They wondered what he meant.
"What the h*ll…: they thought.