...…
A few more hours passed by as Azmodeus continued his hunt for Spiritual Beasts.
So far, he had slain hundreds of beasts who were in the Strength Refining and Flesh Refining Stages. Moreover, there were dozens in the Viscera Training Small Success and Large Success Stages, and nearly ten beasts from the Altering Muscle Stage.
On the other hand, he had only encountered one Spiritual Beast in the Bone Forging Stage. It was a massive bear towering over five meters tall. Yet, its enormous size didn't stop Azmodeus from slamming a sword and a rock across its head!
Through all these beast sacrifices he had made, Azmodeus obtained hundreds of points of Evolution Essence.
"???"
It was at this moment that he sensed a few presences not belonging to those of the beasts.
Bzzzt…
His Stealth Trait activated immediately and he swiftly hid atop a tree branch, just a few dozen meters off the ground.
The moment he settled down, a group of a few figures draped in black cloaks emerged from a nearby shrubbery.
There were a total of four of these cloaked figures, with all of them having relatively large frames. Clearly, they were not your typical assassins.
'I mean, these guys are assassins, right? Just one look at their outfit and that much is obvious…'
Although Azmodeus had never seen an assassin in person, after the constant hounding of Elder Chong to allow him access to the lowest levels of the Sect's Library, he was permitted to read a few books that mentioned them.
However, there was something that confused him about this situation. These 'Assassins' were clearly looking for him, and all their cultivation bases were somewhere around the Early Pulse Condensation Stages.
'To send four Early Pulse Condensation Assassins after me… Did I really commit such a terrible crime to deserve this…?'
'Well, I did kill a few sect members, but they forced my hand! How can I be blamed for something so trivial??'
Azmodeus felt like he was being unjustly targeted by the sect!
However, his thoughts soon shifted when he noticed the tiger emblems stitched onto the cloaks of these five assassins.
'The Black Tiger Family…? But why would they be searching for me? Oh wait, that Yang Hao guy was a Young Master of that household, wasn't he?'
Azmodeus recalled hearing something about Yang Hao becoming the rising star of his past life, since the fellow had successfully achieved the Bone Forging Realm by the age of 19. And to have such talent in this part of the Fire Nation, one had to either be extremely lucky or have quite an affluent family.
In Yang Hao's case, his family was absolutely loaded!
In all of Spirit River City, the Black Tiger Family was ranked within the top 10!
The number of experts they had at their beck and call likely numbered in the thousands, and of those, at least 10 had already reached the peak of the Body Refinement Realm!
'It seems like I have gotten myself into quite the troublesome predicament…'
Even though Azmodeus was thinking along these lines, a wide grin stretched across his face. He was truly becoming addicted to the rush that came with growing stronger.
And what allowed him to become stronger faster than ever?
'Walking loot bags… That is all they were…'
Following this train of thought, his figure blurred as he activated his Level 2 Stealth Skill, silently sneaking around the four figures scouring the area for any traces of their target.
Fortunately for Azmodeus, all of them were focused on the same general area, which allowed him to get behind them with skillful movements.
He didn't make even the slightest sound as he unsheathed his sword and then darted straight for the throat of the largest and strongest of the assassins!
'Adaptation… To evolve, one must be willing to throw away their humanity… One must become ruthless…'
With these thoughts swirling in his mind, his razor-sharp sword edge kissed the back of the assassin's neck and severed it in a swift, clean motion.
One.
Before the other three could realize that something was amiss, Azmodeus struck preemptively, springing off the ground like a nimble jumping monkey, his sword aiming for the head of the second cloaked figure!
SLICE!
Two.
After making another clean strike to the back of another man's head, he moved on to the next assassin before his eyes.
"!!!" "!!!"
By this point, the two survivors had already noticed the disturbance. They shot their heads around, their eyes wide open in shock.
Azmodeus was nowhere to be seen, however...
"Brother Bo! Brother Ming!" The remaining two assassins shouted in fury, a frenzied expression on their faces as they saw two headless corpses of their comrades sprawled on the cold, hard ground.
Rage bubbled inside them as they swore to find whoever was messing with them and kill them right away!
However, when they looked around, they saw no one… Not a single trace of existence could be discerned about the presence of the assailant who murdered their two brothers.
"Find that slimy bastard! When you find him, make sure to keep him alive so we can give him the most painful death imaginable!"
After one of the two remaining assassins commanded, they split up, dashing off in opposite directions.
And this rash decision of theirs to split up would turn out to be their downfall…
Rustle, Rustle.
A faint sound of rustling from a nearby bush was caught by one of the assassins, who darted in that direction, his dagger in hand!
"I have found him, brother Yao! I will cripple him first!" he hollered with the sharp end of his dagger slicing wildly at the bush.
"!!!"
However, after the bush was shredded into dozens of pieces and the ground was carved into X-shaped marks, he found that there was… nothing.
"How-!?" He tried to speak, but before he could finish, he was interrupted by a gleaming sword striking him from the side!
Spurt!
"Gurg-!!..."
The assassin gurgled on his own blood, his eyes widening as he caught a glimpse of an emotionless face staring at him like he was nothing more than livestock…
Three.
As system notifications chimed in the background, Azmodeus relished the thrill of a well-thought-out ambush and couldn't help but feel that it was just as good as fighting someone head-on!
...…