Huo Chen's assassination
After leaving Xue Feng's office, unaware of the beating he indirectly gave his father, Xue Bai returned to his courtyard.
There he found Xiao'er to be gone, but since the girl had an adventurous spirit to begin with, he didn't care much and instead took her spot by the pond.
Now alone and in a scenic spot, Xue Bai began questioning what he should do next.
He could either cultivate here in his courtyard, go to the practice field and practice with the sword, or practice different applications with his space element. Each was a reasonable action to take, but eventually, he decided to stay here and cultivate.
His cultivation base was the source of his power. The higher his cultivation base became, the stronger his space element and the better his comprehension would become as well. So as long as his cultivation base advanced, the other two would soon follow.
And since he was still far behind in reaching his goal, Xue Bai decided that he would double the amount of time he spent cultivating. So after taking his feet out of the pond, he quickly sat in a lotus position and started to cultivate.
There wasn't a difference between cultivating in his bedroom or the garden, so it didn't matter where he sat as long as he was in the courtyard itself.
Currently, he is at the 9th stage of the Blood Exchange realm. Though most cultivators would call the 9th stage the peak, Xue Bai planned to cultivate the Purification Stages, so he didn't say he was at the peak of the Blood Exchange realm. For him, the 13th stage was the true peak.
The next stage Xue Bai was planning to advance to was known as the Small Success Stage. In simple terms, it was just another way to call it the 10th stage of the Blood Exchange realm, as in order to advance to the Small Success Stage, Xue Bai still needed to remove the impurities from his blood.
So after swallowing more Blood Ignition and Blood Replenishing Pills, Xue Bai started to cultivate.
Soon, hours went by, but Xue Bai was deeply engrossed in the process of getting stronger. He had long lost track of time and only knew that he had consumed all of his Blood Ignition and Blood Replenishing Pills.
Standing up, Xue Bai soon realized his skin was covered by a faint layer of impurities, but since it was nowhere near the amount that was expelled when reaching the Small Succes Stage, Xue Bai knew he was still in the 9th stage, just a lot deeper into the stage than he was before.
If he had to estimate, Xue Bai could say he was in the middle of the 9th stage.
However, his joy didn't last very long as the smell of the layer of impurities that covered his skin forced him to go take a quick bath to rinse it off.
A quick rinse later, Xue Bai stepped out of his courtyard, ready to get some more pills from his parents.
As the only son of the continent's best alchemist, Xue Bai was born with a silver spoon, and he had no qualms about abusing it. However, just as he stepped out of his courtyard, he remembered the date.
'Sh*! Huo Chen is leaving today!' Cursing inwardly for his forgetfulness, Xue Bai jumped up from his lotus position before imbuing Spiritual Qi into his legs and quickly rushing to his father's office.
Though the plot had yet to begin, the small events that led to it were just starting to go into motion. And tonight, Huo Chen was supposed to leave the estate and go back to his home in the Huo Clan.
Like Xue Bai, Huo Chen had long heard of Huo Long's accident, but as he was busy with work and far away from the territory, he hadn't gone to visit his nephew.
He would be back tomorrow, and he would then ask Xue Feng for permission to go back home and visit the protagonist. It was just that he would never meet his nephew, as on the way back home, he would be assassinated by the Huo Clan's enemies, the Huang and Xia Clans.
Wanting to convey this to Xue Feng, Xue Bai rushed to his father's office first, but sadly, his father wasn't home yet as he was still in Snowy Wind City conversing with Li Huo.
Thankfully, his mother was nearby, and he quickly flagged her down.
Slightly confused about why her son looked so panicked, Li Ruo became rather curious, so rather than let her son continue to run, she took a step and instantly traversed the few hundred-meter distances that previously separated them.
"Bai'er, what happened? Why do you look so panicked?" Li Rou asked as she stopped her son, who was about to crash into her. She may have been too fast and left Xue Bai unable to react.
"Mother, has Commander Huo returned to the estate yet?" Xue Bai asked as he quickly got to the point.
Still confused, Li Rou hesitated for a moment to recall, but she eventually got her answer.
"He is. I saw him just a little bit ago. He was exiting your father's office with a rather sad face. I don't know where he was going, though." Li Rou answered.
"Why do you ask?"
"Sh*t!" Xue Bai cursed, shocking his mother.
However, just before she could admonish him for using foul language, he spoke up again.
"Mother, forget about my words. Quickly chase after Huo Chen! He's in danger." Xue Bai shouted out, interrupting his mother's lecture.
Even angrier now, Li Rou was about to double down on her lecture, but Xue Bai simply repeated his words. The second time was more serious, though. And this made Li Rou finally start to believe him.
The look in Xue Bai's eyes and how much panic was in his voice were too much to be faked.
So after waving her hand, she created a hand of wind that held Xue Bai and flew off in the direction of Snowy Wind City.
In the air, Xue Bai also explained to his mother what was happening to Huo Chen, along with where his mother should fly.
"Bai'er, are these also from your memories?" Li Rou asked.
Xue Bai nodded to her words and continued, "Though I don't know the strengths of the assailants, they can't be in the Domain Lord realm. The Huang and Xia Clans don't have clansmen of that strength. Moreover, the assassination happened very close to Snowy Wind City, so it would be easy for you to go and clean them up before any opposing forces notice your disappearance."
"But Bai'er, how are we going to know where it takes place?" Li Rou asked.
"Find Huo Chen. He's the target. Wherever he is, is where the assassination is going to take place." Xue Bai replied simply.
Nodding, Li Rou quickly flew over the forest that surrounded Snowy Wind City instead of the city itself and then started to spread out her spiritual sense in hopes of some inkling of Huo Chen.
And luckily enough, she eventually did. The only problem was that the person she was looking for was in the middle of a clash. Hearing clashes and shouts from Huo Chen, Li Rou picked up her speed and, within a few seconds, reached the scene.
With Li Rou's speed, it only took just under 10 minutes for Li Rou to fly all the way from the core region of the estate to where Huo Chen was fighting, and now, just a few kilometers away, Xue Bai could already hear Huo Chen's cries.
"I asked who you three are!" Huo Chen yelled out as he spun his spear around, defending himself against the conjoined attack of four masked men.
However, his cries received no answers. To make matters worse, after his shout, Xue Bai could distinctly hear the sounds of the fight becoming more and more intense.
Thankfully, before Huo Chen fell under the blades of the assassins, Li Rou arrived.
"Lord Duchess? Why are you here?" Huo Chen exclaimed in shock as he noticed Li Rou's arrival.
Currently, Huo Chen's appearance could be described as miserable. His commander's armor had more chips in it than whole parts. His left leg was almost severed at the knee, and blood dripped down his head from a massive slash that went across his forehead.
Overall, it was a miracle that the man was even still alive, but at the sight of Li Rou, a smile appeared on his face, and he quickly regained his composure, knowing that the assassins would finally die.
The assassins who almost killed Huo Chen were four assassins who were each dressed in a matte black cloak that was so dark it almost managed to reflect the light. Coupled with a hood that covered their entire heads and hid every single physical feature, Li Rou couldn't even tell what gender was under the cloak, let alone any other detail.
Once Li Rou and Xue Bai arrived, the four assassins were certainly shocked, but as they were highly trained before Li Rou made a move, the four gave each other a signal.
Taking out a blood-red pill from their spatial rings, the assassins all consumed their pills before charging off in separate directions, not even bothering to attack Li Rou or the weak Xue Bai.
The four assassins were all at the 7th stage of the Law Manifestation Realm, which was more than enough to quickly kill Huo Chen, who was only at the 6th stage of the Law Manifestation Realm. But after the appearance of Li Rou, they knew that doing any future damage to Huo Chen was impossible.
Li Rou was a Domain Lord realm cultivator. It wouldn't even take a full-force blow from her to kill the four of them.
So the group chose the last remaining option and ran off to escape.
However, Li Rou simply laughed in disdain at their futile attempts at escape. And following a snort of annoyance, she unleashed her domain.
At the beginning of the Domain Lord realm, the range of a cultivator's domain would vary depending on their comprehension of their law, but usually, it would be very short, varying anywhere from 10 to 100 meters.
However, domains grew exponentially in size the deeper you advanced into the Domain Lord realm. And now that Li Rou was at the 9th stage of the Domain Lord realm, at full power, her domain could expand out to almost 5 kilometers from her body.
Of course, expanding a domain this much would greatly reduce its strength and efficiency, but its power still made jaws drop in awe. That was why so many people strived to reach the Domain Lord realm and why there was such a huge power gap between it and the Law Manifestation realm.
From Li Rou's feet, a fiery hellscape appeared, with red flames engulfing the surrounding shrubbery. The environment instantly changed from a destroyed forest to a scene right out of hell with just one thought from Li Rou.
And the four assailants were also stopped from escaping any further as a huge tidal wave of fire appeared at each edge of the fiery domain, effectively creating a cage of flames that trapped everyone inside.
Xue Bai and Li Huo were safe, though, as Li Rou had more than enough control over her domain to make a few safe spots.
"Now that you've turned into turtles trapped in a jar, will you give up who hired you, or do I need to force it out of you?" Li Rou spoke menacingly as she willed the firewalls to close in on the assassins, forcing them closer to her.
Unlike normal flames, Li Rou's flames were thousands of degrees hot. Forget about running through the wall to escape. It would be a miracle if they could even withstand the wall's heat from their current positions.
Sensing the change in momentum and their demise, the assassins looked at each other simultaneously.
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