A piercing whistle suddenly tore through the air!
Alerted by Xu Luo's warning, Huangfu Chongzhi and the others snapped to their senses, drawing their weapons to defend themselves.
Little Fatty reacted a fraction of a second too slow and took a crossbow arrow to the arm. He let out a muffled grunt, his eyes flashing with fury!
"You dare ambush Master Fatty?" Little Fatty roared and charged straight at the group of assailants.
Xu Jie and Sui Yan, rather than retreating, also pushed forward, charging the enemy group with Huangfu Chongzhi providing cover!
POW! POW!
Xu Luo's first punch failed to shatter the middle-aged man's Protective True Essence, so he immediately followed up with two more.
Fearing they might hit the middle-aged man, the archers didn't aim their crossbows at Xu Luo. This gave him an opening to unleash a barrage of attacks from his Breaking Army Seven Kills.
"Broken Tendons and Bones!"
"Severed Meridians!"
"Severing the Primordial Spirit!"
"Great Mountain Collapse!"
Xu Luo's attacks were like a raging storm. In the blink of an eye, he completely shattered the man's Protective True Essence and followed up with a vicious slap across his face.
The middle-aged man hadn't expected Xu Luo to be so aggressive. The information he had received about Xu Luo only stated that his strength was somewhat peculiar. Although he was only at the level of a Tier Two or Three Great Sword Master, he apparently held his own even against a Tier Seven or Eight Great Sword Master.
This had been confirmed on the day Xu Luo forced his way into the Wei Family estate.
But this middle-aged man was a true expert with the power of a Tier One Sword Venerable!
Previously, he had been grumbling to himself, thinking Prime Minister Wei had grossly overestimated Xu Luo by sending him on this assassination mission. 'If the target were Xu Su,' he'd thought, 'now *that* would be worth my time.'
But now he understood. This wasn't a case of Prime Minister Wei overestimating Xu Luo at all; it was a severe underestimation of the National Guardian General's second son!
"Angry Dragon Ascending to Heaven!"
His Protective True Essence shattered, the man roared furiously as he instantly condensed a new layer of it.
His Long Sword shot out a brilliant, chilling beam of Sword Qi. It surged upward like a savage, ascending dragon, slashing at Xu Luo!
"Divine Dragon Rain!"
The man bellowed again, immediately following up. His blade became a blur of sword light, striking at Xu Luo's vital points with incredible speed!
Using the Shaking Light Step, Xu Luo dodged left and right while his blade, Azure, flared with blue light, continuously striking at the man's Long Sword.
The man clearly knew a thing or two about Xu Luo. He brandished his Long Sword, continuously dodging Xu Luo's Azure blade while taunting coldly, "Is that sword all you've got? I could take on dozens of trash like you!"
"You can't even handle me alone, and you're talking about dozens? Do you have no shame?" Xu Luo retorted with a sneer, pushing his Shaking Light Step to its absolute limit. He left a trail of afterimages so realistic they were nearly indistinguishable from his true self.
"Your footwork is bizarre, but you can't fool me!" As he spoke, he aimed a precise thrust at Xu Luo's throat.
PFFT!
The sword struck its target. Just as a look of triumph appeared on the man's face, he felt the resistance on his blade vanish. The figure he had stabbed dissipated into nothingness.
"Haha!" A soft chuckle suddenly sounded by the man's ear. Horrified, he scrambled backward, roaring, "Fire at Xu Luo! Ignore me!"
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!
Instantly, dozens of men aimed their crossbows and unleashed a volley at Xu Luo.
With a shrill whistle, a volley of crossbow arrows blotted out the sky, about to engulf both the middle-aged man and Xu Luo!
CLANG! CLANG! CLINK!
The man deflected a few arrows aimed at him with his sword, then roared, "Fire! Kill him!"
Xu Luo sneered and stuck to the man like a shadow, using clever angles to redirect the arrows meant for him toward his opponent.
As for the arrows he couldn't dodge, Xu Luo simply used Azure to swat them toward the man.
For a moment, Xu Luo was completely fine, while the middle-aged man was thrown into a frantic mess, roaring with rage.
"You cunning little brat!" A powerful aura suddenly erupted from the man, pressing down on Xu Luo.
"Oh? Getting desperate, old man?" Xu Luo sneered. With a sudden flash, he charged toward the group of assassins engaged in a fierce battle with Huangfu Chongzhi and the others.
"Look out, he's coming for us!" A cry of alarm instantly rose from the enemy ranks.
But Xu Luo was simply too fast, and his Shaking Light Step was too unpredictable. The crossbowmen couldn't get a lock on him, and in an instant, he had charged into their ranks.
Blue light flared, and the razor-sharp Azure immediately inflicted massive casualties.
The middle-aged man roared in fury, "Ten thousand taels of silver and a noble title for whoever kills Xu Luo!"
A great reward makes for brave men. At the man's cry, the assassins went berserk, swarming toward Xu Luo like a tidal wave.
Then, a thousand more men charged out from the darkness.
This new group of a thousand men was vastly different from the first. They all wore matching uniforms and carried identical weapons, their blades glinting with a cold, sharp light. Though they moved quickly, their formation was perfectly orderly, without a hint of chaos.
They were clearly a unit of well-trained elite soldiers!
"Damn, that old bastard Wei Feng really rates us, huh? He even sent out these elites!" Over in the main fray, Little Fatty was startled by the sudden appearance of the thousand elite soldiers and cursed angrily.
Xu Jie and Sui Yan's gazes were icy as they relentlessly reaped the lives of their enemies, showing no intention of backing down.
After running through a fearless enemy, Huangfu Chongzhi moved closer to Xu Luo and said in a low, serious voice, "Third Brother, we should retreat. There's no way we can kill all one thousand of these elite soldiers!"
Xu Luo narrowed his eyes. "Wait a little longer."
"You have another plan?" Huangfu Chongzhi asked anxiously. "Otherwise, our brothers won't be able to hold them off!"
Just then, a thunder of urgent hoofbeats echoed from the distance. On the horizon, a large cavalry force was galloping toward their position.
"Don't you worry, Young Master! Boss Tang is here to help!"
"Don't fret, Young Master, Li Yu has arrived!"
"Yuan Ren is here!"
"Yuan Yi is here!"
Several hundred cavalrymen, swift as the wind, charged toward the thousand elite soldiers attacking Xu Luo and his friends.
CLANG! CLANG!
The clash of heavy weapons, the sickening thuds of warhorses smashing into bodies, the cries of shock from the ambushed soldiersā¦ a cacophony of sounds erupted across the battlefield.
The Sword Venerable's expression changed drastically. He had never imagined that his supposedly foolproof ambush would devolve into such chaos.
To this moment, he still couldn't figure out where those hundreds of cavalrymen had come from.
Although he had looked down on Xu Luo, he believed in the principle that even a lion should use its full strength to hunt a rabbit. He had conducted a thorough investigation before coming, confirming that Xu Luo had no allies or power base in the area. Only then did he confidently lay his trap.
But he never expected that his actual confrontation with Xu Luo would be filled with one surprise after another.
First, the strength of Xu Luo's group was far greater than the intelligence reports had indicated.
According to the reports, Huangfu Chongzhi was merely a mid-tier Sword Master. But seeing him in person, he realized that was a lie. He was clearly an early-stage Great Sword Master!
Although the titles only differed by a single word, the chasm in power between the two was immense!
The most outrageous part was Xu Luo himself. Facing a Tier One Sword Venerable, he showed no signs of pressure. And while the Sword Venerable couldn't be defeated by him for the moment, it was clear that he couldn't defeat Xu Luo either!
'And now several hundred cavalrymen have charged in, fighting like wolves and tigers. Those thousand elite soldiers might look strong, but against a cavalry charge, they have no chance of victoryā¦ Most importantly, these elites are the true core of the Wei Family's power!'
'Every one of them is staunchly loyal. The Wei Family would mourn the loss of each and every one for a long time.'
'It seemsā¦ this operationā¦ is going to be another failure!' The man's face was livid. His gaze fell upon Huangfu Chongzhi and the others. Gritting his teeth, he came to a ruthless decision. 'Since I can't kill you, Xu Luo, I'll kill them instead!'
The man knew exactly who Xu Luo's companions were. The most distinguished among them, the handsome young man who maintained an elegant and graceful bearing even in the heat of battle, was none other than the Eldest Prince of the Cangqiong Empire!
'As long as he's dead, we can erase all traces and pin the blame on bandits. Xu Luo will still face unbearable consequences!'
With this thought, the man made his decision. His figure flashed as he charged directly at Huangfu Chongzhi.
Xu Luo let out a furious roar and charged after the man. In that instant, he pushed his Shaking Light Step to the absolute peak of what he could achieve at his current realm, leaving more than a dozen afterimages in his wake!
But the man was just as fast, and he was closer to Huangfu Chongzhi. His sword was just about to pierce the Eldest Prince, who was pinned in place by the Sword Venerable's oppressive aura and unable to move.
A flash of light seemed to fly in from out of nowhere.
With a soft *thud*, it pierced straight through the center of the man's brow!
TINK.
A phoenix head hairpinā¦ stained with a trace of bloodā¦ fell to the ground.
The weapon that had killed the Sword Venerableā¦ was a phoenix head hairpin!
Immediately after, a figure in white drifted down gracefully, and a terrifying aura instantly spread in all directions.
Seeing the slightly stunned Huangfu Chongzhi, the white-robed woman nodded at him. "Be careful," she said. Then, like a celestial maiden, her white figure drifted away.
"Holy crapā¦ a goddess!" Little Fatty muttered as he stared at the woman's departing figure. He then cupped his hands and shouted after her, "Goddessā¦ since you're helping, why not go all the way? Help my big bro finish these guys off!"
The woman in white didn't even pause, vanishing from sight in the blink of an eye.
Xu Luo went to Huangfu Chongzhi's side. "Big Brother, are you alright?"
Huangfu Chongzhi, looking completely entranced, nodded and murmured, "I'm fine."
"He's a goner. Big Brother is completely smittenā¦" Little Fatty sighed theatrically before kicking away an enemy trying to launch a sneak attack.
Xu Luo narrowed his eyes, looking down at the middle-aged man on the ground, whose eyes remained open in death. He let out a cold laugh. "Prime Minister Wei's reachā¦ is truly long. To think he has so many men even here in the north!"