Chapter 168: The Mysterious Assassin

The two of them stood motionlessly, staring intently at that patch of overgrown weeds. I hurried over, just as I was about to ask what was going on, a figure suddenly leaped out from the thicket. Wielding a long sword without a word, the person thrust it straight at me. I threw myself backward in a clumsy maneuver to dodge the fierce strike. Before I could even get up from the ground, the attacker shifted the angle and lunged at me again.

Failing to evade in time, the blade pierced directly into my chest, yet remarkably, it failed to break my skin. At that very moment, Shiliu and Qin Tian lunged forward almost simultaneously, wrapping their arms around the shadowy figure.

"Who are you?" Shiliu's cold, questioning voice cut through the darkness. The shadow remained silent. I quickly scrambled to my feet, gripping the Ice Sword tightly in my hand. Damn it, I had almost been impaled! Fortunately, my three-and-a-half-star cultivation level was strong enough, or else that thrust would have killed me for sure! I strode quickly up to the shadow and drove the Ice Sword fiercely into its body—an eye for an eye. Whoever this shadow was, today he was dead for sure!

The Ice Sword struck true right into the shadow's chest, but I felt virtually no resistance in my hand, as if I had merely stabbed into thin air. I swiftly withdrew the blade, sensing that this shadowy entity would not be so easily dealt with.

Just as I anticipated, the moment I pulled out the Ice Sword, the shadow gradually dissolved into nothingness, followed immediately by a miserable scream as Qin Tian's body crashed heavily to the ground. My fault! I had been too careless. I should have realized that the shadow wouldn't have dared to launch a surprise attack on us without any real strength to back it up! Shiliu and I rushed to Qin Tian's side almost simultaneously. Shiliu knelt down to check on his condition while I kept a vigilant watch on our surroundings. It was nighttime, and the pitch-black environment rendered everything invisible, so I activated my Heavenly Eyes. I scanned all directions, but there was no sign of the mysterious assassin anywhere.

"Are you alright?" Shiliu asked as she propped Qin Tian up. Blood was trickling from the corner of Qin Tian's mouth, clearly the result of the blow from that mysterious figure earlier. Who on earth was that person? Why did they ambush us? And where had they vanished to so suddenly?

It suddenly crossed my mind that I had been ambushed once before, even before heading to the World Alliance. Back when we were catching wild boars, a mysterious figure had used a tree leaf to slash my face—a one-inch scar that still remained on my cheek to this day. Could it be the same person? If it was, and I ever caught him, I would definitely ruin his face! Damn it, I relied entirely on this face to get by. Although I wasn't any kind of celebrity, this face gave me a sliver of confidence, yet this scar on my cheek refused to fade no matter what I tried, keeping me awake for several nights in a row!

"I'm fine, just sustained some internal injuries. Where is that bastard? How dare he ambush me from behind! Damn his hide! I'm going to skin him alive!" Qin Tian cursed angrily, holding his chest with one hand.

Seeing that Qin Tian was alright, the rock suspended in my chest finally settled. Fortunately, neither of us were ordinary people; otherwise, that single blow would have been enough to kill us several times over!

I kept sizing up every blade of grass and tree around us. The terrain here wasn't particularly complicated, save for the overwhelming abundance of weeds. Being autumn, these dense wild grasses had already withered. For some reason, these weeds grew extraordinarily tall, reaching at least two meters at their lowest points, and were densely packed. We were standing on a narrow path carved right through the middle of these withered grasses, flanked by towering dead weeds on both sides. I wondered why this path was clear of vegetation, though it didn't look like it was frequently traveled.

"You two stay right here and do not move. Keep your guard up," I instructed Qin Tian and Shiliu. Hearing the gravity in my tone, they seemed to realize the seriousness of the situation. They stood back-to-back, and I lifted off into the air. What met my eyes was a vast, sprawling grassland, but the grass was simply too tall; if someone were to hide in here, finding them would genuinely be a difficult task.

An idea flashed through my mind, and I cast a protective barrier around Qin Tian and Shiliu. A ball of flame materialized in the palm of my right hand—Nether Fire. The principle of Nether Fire was to channel the inner qi within one's body and convert it into flame. Using the seventh stage of the Nether Fire technique, the flame in my palm steadily grew from a tiny candle-sized spark to a basketball-sized fireball, and finally expanded to the size of a millstone. Having utilized Nether Fire numerous times, I was now fully capable of mastering it with complete ease, summoning and dismissing it at will.

Using my body as the center, the flames rapidly expanded outward. This fire functioned much like a standard gas stove used in twenty-first-century households, with my body acting as the vessel. The flames billowed outward for dozens of meters, instantly igniting all the withered grass.

The blazing fire lit up the pitch-black night, sending waves of intense heat rolling across the plains. Inside the protective barrier, Shiliu and Qin Tian watched the surrounding movements with heightened vigilance. Although I was the one who cast the Nether Fire and naturally had nothing to fear from it, the scorching heat radiating from the burning weeds felt overwhelmingly intense, forcing me to conjure another protective barrier around myself. Bathed in the fiery glow, I scanned the upper airspace for any trace of the mysterious assassin.

The fire spread at an astonishing speed, and within a short while, the vast grassland was completely engulfed, with the flames continuing to surge a kilometer ahead. Fortunately, this was taking place in another realm; had this happened in the twenty-first-century world, such a massive blaze would undoubtedly have triggered a catastrophic forest fire. Then again, there didn't seem to be any forests nearby—at least none that I had spotted.

After patrolling the skies for a long time, the withered grass within a hundred-meter radius centered on the three of us had been completely burned to ashes. A pungent odor filled the air, and wisps of smoke drifted through the sky, yet the mysterious figure seemed never to have existed at all, leaving no trace to be found.

I called down to the two below, "No target found. I think we should get moving." I had no idea why that shadow had ambushed us, nor why he chose to hide immediately afterward. Judging by the lingering afterimage he left behind, he was exceedingly powerful—at least, I lacked the certainty to defeat him. Perhaps he backed off because he saw we had more numbers? Regardless, if he dared to show up again, I would definitely capture him and teach him a harsh lesson. What I despised most were scum who hid in the shadows to launch sneak attacks!

Shiliu looked up and said to me, "I think he's already gone. We should hurry to the World Alliance."

"Wait." Just as I dispelled my protective barrier and landed on the ground, preparing to help Qin Tian and Shiliu leave the area—the ground was completely impassable now with the raging fire all around—Qin Tian suddenly shouted for me to wait. Did he spot something unusual? I quickly drew the Ice Sword and scanned my surroundings.

"Put the fire out before we leave! What if this fire spreads to ordinary people's homes? That would be a terrible sin!" Qin Tian said with utmost seriousness. I had half a mind to kick him for startling me, but upon reflection, he made a valid point. It would indeed be disastrous if the fire accidentally consumed someone's dwelling.

Consequently, I once again took to the sky and cast the Frost Condensation technique. The Ice Sword was coated in a pale blue layer of frost, and with a sweep of my blade, a pale blue wave of sword qi rapidly expanded. The shockwave radiated outward like the luminous ring of an atomic explosion, extinguishing the flames instantly wherever it passed. The fire had spread quite far, and it took a considerable amount of time before it was finally extinguished entirely. I turned and flew back toward Qin Tian and Shiliu. Mid-flight, I caught a glimpse of a faint, flickering speck of light gleaming amidst the charred, burned grass below.