Chapter Eighty-One: Slaying the Opponent

The Dragon Lord burst into laughter. “What, are you all already afraid of me? If you are, then kneel and beg forgiveness. If I am in a good mood, I might even let you keep your corpse whole.”

Moyou was even more deranged than Ye Zihan and Chen Yiyan. He simply did not know what fear was. From childhood to adulthood, he had truly never been afraid of anything, because even if he could not defeat an enemy, his skill at running away was unmatched.

“You are all full of empty threats. I never expected the lot of you to be cut from the same cloth. Pity, though, because tonight I will kill every last one of you.”

After saying this, the man in black called out to the others at the perimeter, then pointed again at Ye Zihan’s sword and struck once more. Sword energy surged forth, fierce and razor-sharp.

“Leave these little brats to me, Dragon Lord. The old fellow can be yours, big brother. I’m going to have some fun with these youngsters,” Moyou said, then swiftly attacked the black-clad men flying toward them. At this point the black-clad side had the upper hand, while Yanchen and Chen Yiyan were being suppressed and beaten back.

Most of these assassins were experts of the Five Elements level, though there were also experts of a higher realm among them. It seemed that the leader was one such expert, so Chen Yiyan and Yanchen were in utter disarray now, even more battered and disheveled than Ye Zihan, because they were facing far too many assassins at once.

Soon, Moyou swung his dragon claws and engaged the two black-clad men who had rushed at him. For these black-clad killers, tonight was destined to be a night of dread, because their opponents were far stronger than they had imagined.

Although Yanchen’s cultivation was only at the Four Symbols level, he was still able to fight the black-clad men to a standstill. Those who had come to kill him were for the moment helpless, because Yanchen truly possessed considerable strength. Moreover, all of the higher-level experts among the black-clad group had gone to deal with Ye Zihan and Chen Yiyan, so Yanchen was under no great pressure at present.

Chen Yiyan wielded his battle-axe and was locked in fierce combat with the black-clad men, fighting them to an impasse. He had already taken a minor wound from a thrust, yet he still fought like a man drenched in blood, as if those injuries were not his own, desperately slaughtering his foes all the same.

There were ten black-clad men in total, with two experts of the higher realm among them, while the other eight assassins were all Five Elements experts. Ye Zihan and the others had no choice but to fight to the death, because if they retreated, they would surely be slain here in Black Tortoise City.

“I’ll fight you to the end!”

At that moment, Chen Yiyan brought down his battle-axe and killed the Five Elements expert who had closed in on him. The black-clad man beside the fallen one roared in rage, for the slain man had been his brother. With his brother killed before his eyes, he was naturally consumed by fury, and he charged forward recklessly.

“Good. Today I, Chen Yiyan, will carve a path of slaughter here, so that all of you will remember me,” Chen Yiyan shouted. He then swiftly swung the axe that could sever heads, meeting the enemy in brutal close combat. Meanwhile, some of the black-clad men who had been besieging Chen Yiyan had already moved to attack Ye Zihan.

Clang! Clang!

The clash of steel shattered the calm of the night. Even those who had been exhausted were startled awake, and soon the area around the small inn in Black Tortoise City was crowded with onlookers who had come to watch the commotion.

Four battle groups moved continuously through the yard of the inn, flickering like four small fireballs, brilliant and blinding. Sparks flew endlessly from the collision of blades, making the battlefield plain to everyone’s eyes.

“Who are you people? Stop at once! This is Black Tortoise City, not a place for you to massacre one another!” At that moment, the city guards on duty quickly arrived at the inn and shouted at the black-clad men. Such things rarely happened, and for someone to openly draw weapons and fight in Black Tortoise City tonight was, in their view, an outrageous insult to the city itself.

Ye Zihan glanced casually at the guards. They were nothing more than ordinary martial cultivators and were no match at all for these black-clad men. Coming here was little different from throwing away their lives. Still, Ye Zihan believed that Black Tortoise City must surely have a formidable expert keeping order, otherwise it could not have enjoyed such flourishing prosperity.

“We came for them tonight. If you have any objections, take them up with them. Until they are dead, we will not rest,” said the black-clad leader, showing not the least bit of respect to the people of Black Tortoise City. He was an assassin who struck without regard for rules. Assassins did not reason with people; if an answer was demanded, then let their swords and blades answer instead.

“How arrogant! Go and inform our city lord. All of you, attack!” The guard who had brought the others abruptly began issuing orders, preparing to strike at the black-clad men before him.

“Report! We already informed the city lord long ago, but His Lordship has not emerged yet. I think we should first capture these troublemaking black-clad men in front of us and speak later,” another Black Tortoise City guard quickly replied, then prepared to attack.

Of the ten masked black-clad men, only nine remained. One had already been killed by Chen Yiyan. Even so, Ye Zihan and the others were still in danger, because the enemy was simply too powerful.

Among the assassins targeting Ye Zihan and the others, there were two experts of the higher realm, so even for Five Elements experts like Ye Zihan and Chen Yiyan, the pressure was immense.

Black Tortoise Marsh was itself a vast region within the Beast Domain, and Black Tortoise City was its capital. Thus there were still quite a few cultivators here, though none dared stop the black-clad men from killing Ye Zihan and Chen Yiyan, because they assumed the black-clad group were Chen Yiyan’s enemies.

Chen Yiyan certainly had many enemies, because he had slain far too many experts. More importantly, every expert was backed by a force of one size or another, perhaps a sect, perhaps a clan. Of course, the hidden aristocratic clans would disdain to spar with someone like Chen Yiyan, because their family discipline was strict and they would not dare violate their clan’s rules.

Chen Yiyan, however, was the opposite of those clan disciples. Dissatisfied with the restraints of his family, he had fled to wander the Land of Illusions and Gods. That was Chen Yiyan’s nature, and he had long since grown used to such a life.

“Kill them!”

At that moment, the guards of Black Tortoise City charged swiftly at the black-clad men. They were no different from ordinary people, yet their actions moved many of the bystanders, for these guards were the loveliest of people: knowing full well they were no match, they still dared to raise their blades against the strong!

“You fools who are courting death, all of you can die!” One of the black-clad experts suddenly struck at the city guards. His bloodstained sword was slick with sweat and blood, though the blood had been left by the wounds Chen Yiyan had inflicted on him.

Then, in a flash, the black-clad man swept through the guards of Black Tortoise City. One by one, blood pillars burst skyward, blossoming into flowers of gore.

Thud, thud...

Soon, the heads that had been hurled into the air came crashing back down one after another, smashing hard into the ground. The dozen or so Black Tortoise City guards who had rushed forward were killed in an instant, and the black-clad man did it with chilling precision, displaying the killing skill of an assassin to the fullest.

Bang, bang.

The bodies that had only moments ago been alive lost all balance one after another and slowly fell to the ground. In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen guard corpses lay strewn about, blood-soaked and horribly gruesome.

“You truly are ruthless, slaughtering all those martial cultivators without mercy. You will pay for this today!” Ye Zihan quickly struck at the Five Elements expert on his left. He was already prepared to kill that man, and the higher-realm expert had been wounded by Moyou, so his strength was now scarcely different from Ye Zihan’s.

Ye Zihan continued to wield his Red Lotus Dagger against the black-clad men. Today he intended to kill several Five Elements-level opponents; as for the higher-realm black-clad man, Ye Zihan could do nothing against him, because the man stood a whole realm above him.

At present, Ye Zihan had to face the attacks of three black-clad men, while Yanchen and Chen Yiyan each had to contend with two. Even so, the enemy still could not instantly destroy Ye Zihan’s group, because they were all prodigies in their own right.

Among them, the weakest was Yanchen, yet even he, facing two Five Elements experts, was only at a disadvantage; it was not easy at all for those black-clad men to kill him. What was more, Yanchen was an expert with rich combat experience, and his techniques were scarcely inferior to Ye Zihan’s and the others’.

“Die! You dared oppose your Dragon Lord, and this is your fate!”

Moyou suddenly roared and swung his impervious dragon claws, bringing down lethal blows upon the black-clad man who had closed in on him. At long range he might have been helpless, but the Blood Mirage Dragon was at its most ferocious in close-quarters combat. This time, the opponent was finished.

“Aaah!”

One miserable scream erupted from the black-clad man fighting Moyou, and then his entire head was smashed apart by a single dragon-claw strike, like a great watermelon exploding. The scene was horrifying, a level of gore beyond the imagination of ordinary men.

Bang.

Soon, the black-clad man who had not been killed in aerial combat crashed to the ground, striking with a heavy boom. The arrogant fool had already met King Yama. Since he had run into a monstrous expert like Moyou today, it was simply his bad luck.

“You are dead for sure.”

Another black-clad man still fighting Moyou bellowed in fury. His brother had also been killed now, and his desire for vengeance was burning with unmatched intensity. Alas, the formidable Moyou was by no means someone he could casually kill.