"A snake?" I said incredulously. "After all that big talk about the differences between our strength, you attempt to intimidate me with…a snake?"
"It's not just any snake!" The assassin yelled. "Spirit Slayer, devour him!"
The qi-made serpent surged toward me with its jaws wide open, but I responded by swinging Abyssal Edge and unleashing Shadow Dragon. The black dragon leaped from my black blade and collided against the massive serpent, white and black qi roiling together before exploding violently. Inn guests and royal guard alike were buffeted by the shockwaves.
Fortunately, Lan Bei Er was used to such stuff, so she was able to quickly take cover. In contrast, Huang Wan Hai was knocked off her feet and sent flying several meters away, bruised and battered.
"Can't you be gentler?!" she wailed. What was she, spoilt? Why don't you nag at the assassin to stop going after your life instead?
The assassin glared at me, unable to believe that I had just countered his secret technique with a more powerful variant. Especially when I was at a lower cultivation realm than him – there was no way I should theoretically be able to nullify his attack. Even though we were just a level apart, it wasn't just a simple level – we were also separated by a major cultivation realm.
That was why he was so shocked.
However, I wasn't going to give him a chance to get over his surprise.
Using Shadow Steps, I closed the distance and struck from what I hoped was a blind spot. Unfortunately, the assassin was too skilled for me to take him out by surprise. He could sense where I was emerging from and respond accordingly. Whirling around, he slashed at me, forcing me to parry the blow with Abyssal Edge.
"Hah!"
With a yell, he unleashed another one of those white qi serpents at pointblank range. I countered it with my own Shadow Dragon and the both of us were flung apart in a black and white explosion. Skidding across the ground, I stabbed the rock to force my momentum to a halt. Blood dripped down my face and arms as I raised my head, heaving.
The assassin didn't look as hurt as I was, though his cloak and hood was covered in soot. He seemed more annoyed than injured, dusting his black robes irritably before rising to his feet and pointing his sword at me.
"Slay, Spirit Slayer!"
His sword extended once more even before he fully came to a halt, the blade shrieking toward me. I deflected it with my Abyssal Edge, but the blow smashed me against a wall, destroying the stone and burying me under debris.
"Ugh!"
The difference in strength was a bit too much. I was barely holding my own against him, but he clearly held the overwhelming advantage. If only I could lure him to the room where I had set up a formation…
No, it was better to set up another formation altogether. Now that I was aware of my opponent's strength, I could set up a spirit array that might be more suited against him. The problem, of course, was how to set up the damned array while the bloody assassin was attacking me relentlessly.
"Huff…"
I was about to climb out of the debris, only to see the swaying, super-long blade hurtle toward me. I parried it with Abyssal Edge once more, but Spirit Slayer held enough force to hurl me out of the pile of rubble and back into the open. Blood dripped from my mouth as I crashed onto the ground and skidded across it, gouging a trench into it.
"Argh…"
Heaving and coughing, I tried to stagger to my feet, but I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to make it in time this time, not when the assassin was about to deliver the finshing blow with Spirit Slayer.
"It's over!" he crowed triumphantly and flicked his sword.
To my surprise, Spirit Slayer never hit me. Instead, the six royal guard – having been fully healed by Lan Bei Er – intervened. Drawing their swords, they managed to block the serpentine blade. Though they were individually outmatched, the six of them working together were able to somehow halt the blade before it reached me.
"You…!" The assassin's eyes widened.
"Hah, you may have caught us off guard earlier," one of the royal guard said. "But now that we've seen your trick several times, we know how to prepare for it."
"We might be weaker than you, but if we work together, we should be able to fend off your blows for a while!" A second royal guard agreed.
"Irritating insects!" The assassin roared and flicked his Spirit Slayer once more. The six royal guard immediately scattered. Knowing that they couldn't bear the brunt of his assault head-on, they instead chose to rely on their agility to evade the strikes and their numbers to confuse the assssin. He raged and slashed, but with six different targets moving in different directions, he was momentarily stuck on who to pursue.
Eventually he chose the closest one, but the other five would converge and attack him, forcing him to retract Spirit Slayer to defend himself. Powerful he might be, but he wasn't exactly immune to damage even from weaker opponents – especially when they were combining their strengths.
"Husband, are you all right?"
Lan Bei Er was rushing toward me, getting ready to heal my wounds. As much as I appreciated her concern and intent, I shook my head and raised a hand to gesture for her to stay where she was. Instead, I began setting up a formation with talismans and artifacts from my spatial pouch.
"Yeah, I am. But we don't have enough time, so I've to hurry. I don't know how long the royal guard can hold out for."
The six of them were dancing about, and to my surprise, Huang Wan Hai had joined in. She had picked up her spear and was harassing the dude from the flank, forcing his attention away from her bodyguards. She was the assassin's primary target, though, which made this move very risky. The assassin was more than happy to switch his attention to her, but her royal guard swiftly intervened, hitting him hard before he could do anything deadlier than glare at her.
For all of their efforts, they were still unable to withstand a grueling attrition against a Saint Realm assassin. His qi exploded, turning into multiple white snakes. Despite their best efforts, the royal guard were all but swatted away. At least one of them succeeded in shielding a stunned Huang Wan Hai before the both of them vanished beneath debris.
"Bugs!" The assassin roared, his sword still snaking about and his qi manifesting in the form of many serpents. He then froze when he realized something, slowly turning to stare at me. "What is this qi?"
I had finished setting up my spirit array and all the qi in the surroundings were flowng toward me. The assassin growled, realizing that something was amiss, and he attacked quickly, whipping his Spirit Slayer toward me. At the same time, the six snakes snarled and hissed silently as they darted forward, intent on devouring me.
Instead of using Shadow Dragon or Abyssal Edge, I had swapped it for Hou Yi bow now. Taking aim, I infused my black qi into it and fired six arrows that obliterated the six white snakes, dissipating them into qi. Then I vanished from sight, using incredible speed to dodge the lashing Spirit Slayer. It smashed a ravine into the ground and dug out chunks of stone as it extended and distended, but was unable to locate its target.
Then I fired an arrow at the assassin. He spun about and blocked it with his Spirit Slayer, shrinking the blade back defensively to parry the shot. He huffed and shook his head, watching as I landed.
Azure qi was being drawn from all over, sucked into a wing-like aura of qi that sprouted from my right shoulder. Despite being at Saint Realm, the assassin couldn't help but shudder.
"What is that form? What is with this amount of qi? Who the hell are you!?"
"Perhaps you should have asked that question before you attacked me," I replied with a sneer. Then I fired an arrow at him. The assassin, realizing that he wouldn't be able to block this shot, quickly ducked backward, bending over to allow the arrow to fly past above him.
"Fast!" He muttered. "But if it's at this speed, I can still…"
His eyes widened when he spotted me already above him, a second arrow notched into my Hou Yi bow.
Before he could react, I fired. This time, he couldn't evade in time. Even as he drew his Spirit Slayer to parry the arrow, the power behind the shot was far too powerful. It smashed through his defenses, shattering his sword and blowing off half of his body. He screamed as he was engulfed in the explosion.
I landed a few paces away, still drawing more qi from my surroundings thanks to the formation.
"I've never seen an array like this before," Lan Bei Er whispered, staring at the esoteric runes that I had sketched onto the ground in what resembled a Zeichen. A pentagon with five points, each sporting a glowing flag. Some might call it a (Quincy, cough) cross.
I simply called it the spiritual absorption array.
"Tell us who sent you to kill her highness the seventh princess," I ordered the bleeding, mortally wounded assassin. His left side was missing, his arm blown off by my shot. Blood splashed out in huge gouts, and he staggered unsteadily, almost on the verge of collapse. His eyes bulged and he wheezed in agony. Feeling no sympathy for him, I continued mercilessly. "If you don't, the next shot will be three times more powerful."
"A mere Innate Realm scum dares to talk to me like this…!" The assassin bellowed furiously, not paying much attention to his wounds. Coughing, he glared at me before curling his lips into a sneer. "Very well. I'll respond with the appropriate force."
He raised his half-broken sword and snarled. "Heaven and Man as One!"
"What…?"
My eyes widened and I watched as his Spirit Slayer morphed and transformed before our very eyes. The next instant, it had transformed into a gigantic white snake. It wasn't just the qi apparitions that the assassin had conjured before – it was a physical gargantuan serpent that existed in reality and was several times more powerful. At least ten times stronger than the six qi snakes from before combined.
"Spirit Slayer Saint Serpent!"
"Impossible!" Huang Wan Hai shouted from the distance, helping up the royal guard who had shielded her earlier. "That treasure weapon was already released! How did you release it again?!"
The assassin burst out laughing. "Do you really not know, your highness? Every treasure weapon has two stages of release. My Spirit Slayer is but the first stage, Man and Sword as One. But there's a stage higher than that…the second and final stage, Heaven and Man as One. It allows a cultivator to unseal the true power of his or her treasure weapon, infusing it with the power of the heavens and turning it into a literal god! Though it varies from cultivator to cultivator, the difference between Man and Sword as One and Heaven and Man as One can normally range between five to ten times more powerful!"
"What is this, Bleach?" I asked, rolling my eyes. Obviously no one paid any attention to me, mostly because nobody caught the reference.
"You've forced my hand! All of you will die here today!"
Laughing manically, the assassin set his Heaven and Man as One treasure weapon on me.
"Go, Spirit Slayer Saint Serpent! Obliterate everything in your path!"
Watching the gargantuan white serpent barrel down upon me, I simply took aim with an arrow, raising my Hou Yi bow and keeping an eye on my enemy. Azure qi continued to be sucked into the singular wing that sprouted from my right shoulder, and I pulled the bowstring as far back as I could. My fingers sizzled as excessive heat burned through them, a result of the enormous amount of qi that I was channeling into my arrow.
An arrow that was blazing as black as the void.
The gargantuan white serpent lunged at me, its jaws wide open to swallow me whole. Just the damned head alone was as big as a building. I could see nothing past its forked tongue, which was as long as a car, a yawning abyss that led into its gut.
Undaunted, I narrowed my eyes, held my breath and released the arrow at my incoming enemy.