Chapter 212: Total Annihilation

“I’m not going to waste my breath arguing this with you. Handle it however you see fit.” With an impatient flick of her wrist, Bu Feiyan let the matter drop, her expression hardening as a flicker of rage returned to her face. Her voice sharpened. “Where is that bastard Wang Haoran?”

That scumbag—now that he had her Seventh Sister, he dared to lay eyes on her Sixth Sister too? He must be tired of living. She had half a mind to cut him down herself, just to keep him from spreading his poison any further.

Hiding deep within the dense underbrush, Wang Haoran watched Bu Feiyan’s sudden arrival with a grimace. “Why is this woman here again, stirring up trouble…”

The last time, it had been Qiu Qianwei. Now it was Ji Shuiyao. He was planning to use the old “bitten by a snake” excuse to fake an emergency—pretend he was about to die and make a final request that Ji Shuiyao couldn’t refuse. Based on her reaction to the earlier drowning incident, it was almost certain she’d fall into the trap.

But Bu Feiyan had shown up out of nowhere and thrown the whole plan into chaos.

“Now what?” he muttered to himself, brain churning for alternatives.

Suddenly, a faint rustling brushed past his ears—something moving through the grass.

His breath caught. “Don’t tell me it’s some kind of beast…”

Heart thumping, Wang Haoran activated his X-ray Vision without hesitation.

Meanwhile, Ji Shuiyao eyed Bu Feiyan with cautious suspicion. Seeing her elder sister’s hostile expression, she couldn’t help but ask, “Fourth Sister… why are you looking for Wang Haoran?”

“That’s none of your concern,” Bu Feiyan snapped. “Just tell me where he—”

Before she could finish, her sharp hearing picked up the same subtle rustling. Her body tensed like a drawn bowstring. Without warning, she lunged forward.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

She tackled Ji Shuiyao to the ground just as a volley of razor-sharp arrows embedded themselves into the exact spot where the two had been standing moments before.

“Assassins!”

The hair on the back of Bu Feiyan’s neck stood on end. Ever since she was ambushed last time, her nerves had been on a hair-trigger. Now, faced with this sudden onslaught, her instincts screamed danger.

Another wave of arrows came whistling through the air.

Bu Feiyan didn’t hesitate. She clutched her Sixth Sister tightly and rolled across the forest floor, dodging with every ounce of precision and strength she possessed. One arrow shaved past her head, close enough to slice a strand of her jet-black hair. If it had flown half an inch lower, she’d be dead.

The barrage ended, and for one brief heartbeat, the forest fell silent—no sound except the ringing in her ears.

They were reloading.

Bu Feiyan’s mind spun like a storm. She analyzed the odds, her hands tightening protectively around Ji Shuiyao. There was no way out. The killers had come prepared, in numbers, with tactics. Even if she was alone, escaping would be near impossible. But she wasn’t alone. Ji Shuiyao had no cultivation. A single arrow could kill her.

She couldn’t abandon her. That was out of the question.

But staying meant death for both of them.

Still, clinging to the slimmest sliver of hope, she raised her voice and called out, her tone steady and cold. “You’re here for me, aren’t you? There’s no need to harm the innocent. I’ll surrender willingly. But push me too far, and I swear—I’ll drag a few of you down with me.”

The moment her voice faded, the arrows stopped. Silence returned.

Figures began to emerge from the forest shadows.

Ji Shuiyao trembled, her face ghostly pale. “Fourth Sister…”

Bu Feiyan wrapped her arm tighter around her and whispered, “Don’t be afraid. I won’t let anything happen to you.” Without another word, she tore a strip from her own sleeve and gently tied it over Ji Shuiyao’s eyes.

She’d walked this path before. She knew the cruelty of her peers in the assassin world. If Ji Shuiyao didn’t see their faces, maybe… just maybe there was a shred of hope left for her survival.

Even if it was microscopic, Bu Feiyan had no other options left to grasp.

From all directions, eight black-clad figures emerged—each one armed with crossbows, surrounding them like a tightening noose.

When they were ten steps away, they stopped.

These were the eight core killers of the Black Mamba Assassination Group. Each was formidable on their own, and even they wouldn’t dare face the famed “Lady Arbiter” head-on. They had numbers now, but that didn’t ease the fear gnawing at their hearts.

Within ten steps, the Arbiter could kill all eight in the blink of an eye.

Bu Feiyan could read it in their eyes—their caution, their fear. If only she were truly at her peak, maybe… just maybe, she could’ve broken through.

She gently turned Ji Shuiyao’s body and nudged her in a single direction. Her voice was firm but quiet. “Go forward. Twenty steps straight ahead. When you’re out of range, tear off the blindfold and don’t look back. There’ll be a speedboat. Get on and leave. No matter what, do not turn around.”

Ji Shuiyao’s throat tightened. “Fourth Sister, I—I can’t…”

“Do you want me to die with regrets?!” Bu Feiyan cut her off, voice rising in a rare flash of desperation.

Ji Shuiyao trembled, her fists clenched at her sides. But finally, she obeyed.

She stepped forward. Slowly. Then passed one of the killers—and instantly froze as the cold tip of an arrow pressed against the side of her neck.

“Don’t move,” came the low, venomous hiss.

Her body locked up.

Bu Feiyan’s fury exploded. “You liars! You gave your word!”

She had been ready to die—but she’d wanted at least to win her sister a chance at life. Clearly, that too had been a fool’s hope.

The lead assassin let out a cold chuckle, his voice like a snake slithering across stone. “The first rule of assassination—any sacrifice is worth the target’s death. We’re colleagues, Feiyan. Don’t tell me you actually believe in honor?”

Before he could finish the word “alive”—a leaf embedded itself between his brows.

A single, ordinary leaf.

Half of it was sunk deep into his skull.

The man’s eyes widened in frozen disbelief before his massive body collapsed like a felled tree.

Leaf kill.

Bu Feiyan stood stunned.

She cultivated Internal Energy. She knew what it meant to kill someone with a leaf. How impossible it was.

The seven remaining assassins paled, eyes darting like startled prey, scanning the shadows for an unseen god of death.

But they didn’t even have time to react.

More leaves flew.

Each one as silent as falling petals—each one fatal.

The assassins fell like harvested wheat.

In the span of barely three breaths, all eight killers were dead.

Ji Shuiyao, hearing the eerie sounds of motion and collapse, ripped the cloth from her eyes and gasped at the sight before her.

Bodies.

She screamed, stumbling back toward Bu Feiyan in shock. “F-Fourth Sister! That was incredible!”

“If I had that kind of power,” Bu Feiyan said quietly, “I wouldn’t have been dragging you around like a lunatic just now.”

Her eyes lit up—not with fear, but reverence.

This power… this method…

It was just like the mysterious senior who had saved her once before.

Could it be the same person?

Ever since that day, she had searched relentlessly for her mysterious savior. But there had been no clues, no trace. And now, at the very moment her life hung by a thread, that person appeared again—like a ghost in the mist.

Her heart surged with joy, with awe, with something deeper and more unnameable.