Though Ji Tang's villa was located at the far end of the town, it was still only half an hour's ride whenever Ji Min took his grandfather's carriage.
Normally, even when outside the family borders, no one would even dream of assaulting this carriage because it was the family head's carriage which was manned by a 5 Star Qi Sea stage expert.
Furthermore, they could see the character, Ji and South on it which told them the exact person they were about to mess with and how much power his name carried.
Most people would even think twice before attacking their trade caravans, not to talk of a carriage carrying a core family member or even worse the family head himself.
But today, the carriage wasn't even going out of the family borders but to the training area, and they had just turned towards the main road that led to the training grounds when the carriage abruptly stopped.
Noticing the rare occurrence, Ji Min stepped out to check what was going on, and the moment he did so, he was greeted by total silence.
The normally bustling alley that usually ushered people from the market, library, training area, and the like, had suddenly become devoid of even a single fly.
Then moments later, he began to hear the sound of someone as his mind spun to full gear, sending an alarm bell flaring about a possible danger.
But the curiosity of the kid in him couldn't be contained, and thus, he walked over to check on his guard serving as a make-shift driver, and on seeing him, Ji Min's eyes nearly popped out of his sockets, as he saw his driver lying in his own pool of blood whilst clutching his throat as he gasped for air.
Then he saw a masked man appear from the side of the carriage with a blood-stained dagger in hand, and because he couldn't sense the man's cultivation, he knew that his assailant must have already formed his core, and Ji Min didn't need to be a geek to understand that his life was in danger.
The masked man in front of him was far stronger than him; after all, he was standing in front of his grandpa's carriage without fear, and that was even when he clearly understood that he was within the southern family territory.
Ji Min began to wonder how the masked man managed to slip past their territory's defenses, arrive within such a restricted area and effortlessly take down his guard without causing any commotion.
It was a trap designed specifically for him, and in this one, he had no way out or alternative route; he also knew that his guard was mere collateral in the assassination attempt.
Then with the minutest amount of movement he could make, Ji Min held his hand behind his back where an emergency jade was, and he crushed it.
Naturally, emergency jades were extremely expensive, even for the Southern Family, but Ji Tang still bought four in case Ji Min found himself in an emergency, and he only allowed him to use them whenever he felt something threatened his life.
The remaining three jade pieces were with Ji Tang, and his two sworn brothers, and all four of them were connected, which means, when one crumbles, the remaining three would crumble as well, alerting the other holders of the kind of danger he was in.
When giving it to Ji Min, Ji Tang had made him promise to use it when he caught the slightest whiff of danger.
"Now that you have crushed the jade, do you feel any safer?" The assassin asked with a ridiculing smirk.
His eyes were glinting with amusement at the scene playing out in front of him.
"Who are you?" Ji Min tried to put up a brave front as he asked.
Though he knew it was not only stupid to ask the identity of an assassin, as they would not tell, it could also lead to death, because it was an unspoken rule that anyone who saw the face of an assassin, must not live to tell the tale.
However, asking the same stupid question was Ji Min's fastest way of thinking about what to use to delay the assassin so that his grandpa could come to save him.
"You're trying hard un... I know it would take your grandfather only three minutes to get here, but that is enough time for me to kill you ten times over." The masked figure said as his smirk turned into a grin.
Ji Min ignored the evil grin as he began to wonder how the masked figure had known he possessed a jade and how it worked, but all these thoughts were secondary because he had just realized that his only survival option had just been exposed, mercilessly.
He knew this was one of those moments in life where everything you have become or will ever become hinged on, and since it would take his grandpa about three minutes to get here, that means he would need to somehow survive a fight with an assassin who was in the core formation realm.
Ji Min deduced that the assassin had probably formed two cores because his guard was at the 5 Star Qi Sea stage, and killing him so easily without any form of struggle was a feat only a person who was an entire level higher than his driver could achieve.
"Why are you trying to kill me?" Ji Min asked a different question.
"You think a core formation expert like me would be 'trying' to kill you?" The assassin oozed with sarcasm.
"Boy, it would take your grandfather and his two sidekicks to make me *try* to kill you; but with just you, I could do it whilst snoring." The assassin chuckled as Ji Min frowned at the utterly derogatory statement.
Whilst he was well aware that he was no match for the assassin, that didn't mean he would fall so easily as well.
"Since you're so confident, then can you at least do me the favor of letting me know the person who ensured I don't live past the next minute?" Ji Min said as he tried his best to stall for more time.