Chapter 57
That was how assassins worked.
Assassins were not well-versed in head-on clashes. As such, there was always only one single opportunity for them to do what they do. They were capable of stalking their quarry for ten days and nights just to exploit that momentary opening.
On the contrary, if they were to miss, it was unthinkable for them to just stay where they were.
That translucent silhouette in the air let go of his dagger decisively in an instant, backing away and ran.
“Hahahaha, Luo Yongnian, is that really your trump card? Boy, you’ve really underestimated me!”
Lu Xuan laughed out heartily. Despite being very well hidden, there was no way the assassin’s senses could have compared to Lu Xuan’s.
When it came to Mental Strength, he was actually far more formidable than that guy in traditional Chinese garb.
If Lu Xuan was right, that man might have awakened some sort of supernatural abilities that had to do with invisibility. Common folks, or even martial arts legends, would have only been able to discover someone like that when they had gotten close enough.
However, it was usually too late for those people if such an Awakened was to be able to get so near.
As such, assassins like that were natural enemies of warriors. But then again, common Awakened ones would have had an even harder time dealing with them. If the assassins were to be able to get to such distances, they would not have been able to resist at all.
Warriors had reflexes formidable enough to allow them to retaliate, but there was no way common Awakened ones would have possessed such reactions that would have taken years to train. As such, they would have easily died after encountering one such assassin.
Lu Xuan threw that dagger back right away.
Pffttt!
The dagger lodged straight into that hazy silhouette in the air.
A shriek was heard, and that silhouette fell to the ground immediately, dying right away without even flinching.
Such poisons were so potent that one touch was all it took to kill.
Skin that came into contact with the poison would have rotted away, enabling the poison to seep into the bloodstream. It was especially so in the case of powerful Cultivators, as their hearts, which were far more powerful than common folk, enabled blood to travel throughout their whole body in mere moments.
As such, when they were poisoned, they, ironically, died faster than common folk. Common folk would have been able to struggle for a bit before they went down, yet in the case of powerful Cultivators, death was almost instant.
Lu Xuan was actually only able to prevent the poison from seeping into his skin on his hand because he had covered his entire hand with qi when he clamped down on the blade.
At that moment, the downed silhouette was finally fully seen. It was a middle-aged man who wore black stalker garb from top to toe. His entire body looked purplish, which was a sign of the extent of poisoning throughout his body.
He never expected that he would have died from the poison he tried to inflict on others. If he did, he probably would not have died right away, even with the dagger lodged in his body, given that he was still a level six, after all.
“What?” The remaining man in traditional Chinese garb and Luo Yongnian both looked shocked. Lu Xuan had no idea who that dead man was, but both of them knew.
That man had been one of the most powerful killers available for hire on the dark web, ranking within the top 20.
Despite being ranked only among the top 20, he was, nonetheless, one of the best killers to be found in the entire world.
Killers were rampant in the dark web, and many had been trained since they were young to take up these professions. Being able to rack up enough kills under such circumstances and climbing to become one of the widely acknowledged top 20 killers in the dark web was quite a highlight in their career.
Those people killed untold numbers of formidable people throughout their careers. Important political figures in various nations and rich people were also on their kill list as well. Every single attempt they made would come along with an exorbitant price tag.
In comparison, the likes of Higashigawa Taro would have hardly been worth mentioning, as both parties were not even at the same level, to begin with.
Killers of such level could either operate solo or form an organization of their own, carving out their own territory among their peers.
Yet, such an assassin was killed by Lu Xuan in one single move.
Even though assassins were not all that adept at head-on clashes, but Lu Xuan had, nonetheless, been a little too frightening when it came to his abilities in full frontal confrontation.
“Luo Yongnian, is that really all you’ve got?” Lu Xuan continued coldly, “You really thought that I wouldn’t have had the slightest idea of what you were up to? I was only indulging you just to see what else was up your sleeve, dumb*ss. It’s a pity, indeed. That’s all you’re only capable of. It seems hardly different from how you’ve ever been.”
“What do you mean?” Luo Yongnian looked at Lu Xuan, feeling rather surprised, as he had no idea what the young man was getting at.
“Both of you, come at me at once. You’ll last longer like that!” Lu Xuan said coldly as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.
“I’ll let you two know one thing—despite being fellow martial arts legends, you two aren’t even fit to lick my boots.”
That man in traditional Chinese garb attacked right after Lu Xuan said that. His eyes glittered with a harrowing sheen. It seemed as if thunder rumbled as he moved.
In the very next instant, a bolt of terrifying lightning struck Lu Xuan.
That was not a true bolt of lightning, but a form of power mimicking that of lightning. It manifested through his Mental Strength.
But then again, the attack was every bit comparable to true lightning. If one were to actually fail to resist that strike, the end result would have been like getting struck by lightning.
That was something that truly surprised Lu Xuan. The background and lineage of that middle-aged man in traditional Chinese garb were unknown, yet his use of Mental Strength was admittedly formidable and was not something he had just fashioned on his own out of a whim.
If he were to take such training to the extreme, it would have been like someone that Lu Xuan had once witnessed, who was capable of manifesting just about all phenomena under the heavens using their own Mental Strength and nothing else. That someone would have been almost like a god in the world.
It was a feat of being able to interfere with the physical world through the use of Mental Strength alone, after all.
It was a very, very high-level feat accessible only to those of very, very advanced training.
However, when compared to that pinnacle master that Lu Xuan had once witnessed, what that man pulled moments ago was utterly crude in comparison.
historical
Lu Xuan then shouted right away, making it seem as a grenade exploded right before him. That terrifying bolt of lightning was dispersed with that one shout right away, reflecting a burst of Mental Strength back at that man in traditional Chinese garb on the spot.
That man yelled and looked as if he had been rammed by something big and heavy, sending him flying. Blood spilled from all of his orifices. He then crashed onto the ground heavily. He was effectively and severely incapacitated with only a single move.
An extremely frightened expression was seen in his eyes. He seemed to have caught a glimpse of a golden dragon when he launched a mental attack on Lu Xuan prior.
There seemed to be a golden dragon residing in Lu Xuan’s mental world. That golden dragon had effectively crippled him simply by taking a glance at him.
“How could there be someone actually capable of that?” That middle-aged man was almost frightened to death on the spot.
That was because he was not some vagrant who happened to obtain formidable powers. He had a specific lineage to his abilities, after all.
There had been records among his lineage, saying that if a person’s Mental Strength were sufficient enough, that person would have been able to make something out of nothing. What was created would have differed from one person to another, from one circumstance to another.
However, that middle-aged man had never seen someone capable of such feats. Even Luo Yongnian, who was also a martial arts legend, had Mental Strength that looked like a blob of chaos in his perspective; it appeared very dispersed and unfocused.
As such, he never believed what was written in those records one bit, thinking that it was all but metaphors. Such metaphors were aplenty in the world of Cultivators, after all.
He thought all of that was little more than just manifestations of one’s inner world.
He never expected to actually encounter someone capable of truly bring tangible objects to reality, using only their Mental Strength. Furthermore, it was a golden dragon, which had never been documented in those records he read before.
That man began to think if all those writings on the records had been solid truths after all.