Just as Lu Zhen and Jiang Xue finished their conversation, a loud sound was heard from where the battle between Yu Bai and the assassin leader had taken place. They both hurriedly rushed towards the site of the fight.
The location of the battle was quite far from where Lu Zhen had fought the assassins. As they ran towards the source of the sound, Lu Zhen noticed broken debris, with houses almost half destroyed and everything in disarray.
A sense of unease washed over Lu Zhen. This secluded street was usually ignored and rarely visited, but even so, with so much commotion, there should have been at least a few people around. The complete absence of any witnesses made Lu Zhen feel like something was wrong.
Not only did lu zhen feel that something was wrong Jiang Xue also felt that something was wrong however they still continued to walk.
Just as they reached the scene, they heard a cold voice.
"Old man, why are you blocking our way? We are not even here for your young master," the assassin leader said in misery. The remnants of his assassin mask hung loosely, revealing a face marred with swelling and bruises. Blood trickled from a cut on his forehead, mixing with the dirt on his face.
His body, too, bore the scars of a fierce battle. Dark marks covered his exposed skin, indicating the impact of powerful strikes. His clothes were torn and stained with blood, a testament to the ferocity of the attack he had endured.
"Hmph, how dare you try to court death by attacking the young master of the Lu family? If you wanted to assassinate the young miss of the Jiang family, you could have done it at any other time. Besides, the young Miss Jiang is going to be engaged to the young master soon, so how dare you even try to assassinate her?"
When the assassin heard this, he felt somewhat wronged.
"Bastard, I would have tried it already, but she never leaves the Jiang state, and even when she does, she is always accompanied by her father. Wouldn't I be counting death in front of the patriarch of the Jiang family if I attempted to assassinate his daughter in front of him? After all, he is a half-stage second-stage martial artist. When we finally got the chance, I met this monster," the assassin leader thought, clearly aware that he was no match for the old man from their earlier fight.
Realising that escape was the best option, the assassin quickly turned and ran, leaving the old man stunned.
As he ran, the assassin taunted, "Hmph, your effort is futile, old man. My subordinate should have already finished them." He let out a sinister laugh as he blended into the shadows, disappearing from sight.
Although the old man wanted to chase after the assassin, he didn't. Even though he was stronger than him, killing him won't be easy; after all, they were both at the peak of the third stage martial realm. It was not easy to kill people of the same realm. Moreover, he was more worried about the young master, so he swiftly went to find him.
However, to his astonishment, he heard the familiar voice.
"Old Bai, we should leave. I am not in the mood for eating now," Lu Zhen signaled towards Jiang Xue and made a gesture.
"Young master, I wonder what happened to the assassins who were after you?" Old Bai asked, with a doubtful expression on his face.
After all, Lu Zhen has just started practising martial arts and has just entered the martial trainee realm, and Jiang Xue is also in the martial trainee stage. There was no possibility of them defeating five martial trainees all at once. Although the mob technique doesn't work when you reach the higher stage of martial arts, in the early state (martial trainee), no matter how powerful you are, a hundred ordinary people can shred you to pieces. So old bai was doubtful about how could they come here safe and sound.
"Oh, a mysterious person came to our rescue and killed all the assassins in a single slash," Lu Zhen winked at Jiang Xue. Although Jiang Xue knew that the mysterious person was Lu Zhen himself, since she promised to protect Lu Zhen's secret, she nodded.
"That mysterious person was terrifyingly powerful; he effortlessly killed all the assassins. He should be a third-stage martial artist," Jiang Xue chimed in.
Old Bai nodded in agreement, still somewhat sceptical, but he trusted his young master's judgement. "I'm glad you both are safe. Let's return to the estate and inform the family about what happened."
With that said, they all quickly departed to where the carriage was. Little Lily had been hiding when Lu Zhen and she left. Lu Zhen placed Little Lily in the carriage and then went to help Jiang Xue. After all, Lu Zhen was a stubborn man; how could he watch a woman whom he found interesting die? Though that was a small part of the reason, the real motive was to test his own strength. Lu Zhen's drive for strength was greater than anything.
The results were quite satisfactory as well. Not only did he test his strength, but he also gained his third skill, Adaptability. From the name of the skill, it might sound simple, but if you look at it from a broader perspective, it was a god-like skill. After all, adaptation is the driving force of evolution.
For example, if he stayed in fire for too long, he would adapt to fire, making him resistant. If he got poisoned and endured, he could potentially adapt to it. If he got punched repeatedly, he would eventually adapt to it, making him resistant to such attacks. The same applied to cuts, giving him resistance to sharp objects. All in all, this was a god-like skill that could potentially make Lu Zhen nearly invincible, but he knew there was no such thing as invincibility in the real world.
"Let's go, Old Bai," Lu Zhen said as they got on the carriage. However, after travelling for five miles, they encountered a strange thing.
A black barrier covered the outside world entirely.
"Hmm, so this must be the reason that no one could come even after this much commotion, huh?" Lu Zhen thought as he frowned.
Lu Zhen picked up a stone and threw it at the barrier. With a swoosh sound, the stone hit the barrier and created a slight ripple, as if disturbing the surface of water the barrier rippled. However, the stone quickly lost its momentum and fell back to the ground.