Chapter 191: Chapter 170: Assassination in Broad Daylight

In the bustling crowd, there was a short man with a bundle, munching on a skewer of candied hawthorn, looking extremely inconspicuous.

The stream of people moved back and forth, and no one thought there was anything odd about the man. Although the bundle was a bit conspicuous, people merely considered him a vendor setting up a stall—their eyes couldn’t penetrate the cloth bag, so they couldn’t see the steel round shield wrapped beneath the coarse fabric, with traces of old blood grime.

This was exactly the effect the short man wanted. Since it was an assassination, he needed to hide within the crowd.

But the problem was, could he really do it?

Thinking of the target of this assassination gave the short man a headache. After all, this wasn’t his first encounter with the target—the last time was in Yizhou City. That old man Qian Yu wanted to avenge his son’s death and quash the rebellion in Yizhou. The process of quashing the rebellion wasn’t complicated; it didn’t require a large army, just needed to eliminate the two Evil Qi users among the rebels.

Of course, killing them head-on was not a good strategy. If the two Evil Qi users were prepared, it was actually very difficult to achieve a clean kill without injury. The reason being, of course, that if someone can’t win, they will escape, and if they can’t escape, they will fight desperately. An Evil Qi user willing to fight desperately could severely wound another Evil Qi user. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

So Qian Yu stepped in. The old man claimed to have inherited a Secret Technique from the Great Yu of the past, knowing how to turn those two Evil Qi users into easy-to-kill useless beings.

And then it was all over.

They weren’t able to kill the Evil Qi user named Du Chengfeng. Instead, their benefactor, Prime Minister Jia Wen, was killed by Du Chengfeng, who galloped over to Jinluan Hall on his first day in power.

Nobody knew why this man named Du Chengfeng did such a thing. His thousand-mile charge seemed as if he had gone mad—but regardless, this madman did kill Prime Minister Jia Wen.

"With Jia Wen dead, we remnant followers would naturally be purged, so whether for revenge or to intimidate those enemies, we must kill Du Chengfeng."

The short man still remembered that this was what the old man Qian Yu said.

The reasoning was sound, but carrying it out was another matter. At least from the short man’s perspective, the forces at their disposal might not be enough to take down Du Chengfeng—but who knows where Qian Yu got reinforcements, and very powerful ones at that.

"So... it should work, right?"

The short man thought to himself.

But immediately, he stood up.

In the distance, Du Chengfeng began to move, his steps noticeably quicker than before. Clearly, this master of Evil Qi had sensed something—this was why the short man felt the assassination was unreliable. In the eyes of an Evil Qi master, another Evil Qi user, even hiding their whereabouts, was as conspicuous as a guiding beacon.

The murderous aura, and the faint Evil Qi surrounding him—these were things that couldn’t be hidden.

So since it was going to be an open confrontation, let it be one.

As the short man stepped forward, the crowd around him gradually thinned, and when the people completely retreated, those hidden predators revealed their true forms.

There was a lunatic monk with a large frame hefting a soul-slaying long staff, a Swordsman with an evil aura in his expression wielding a scimitar, and a burly peasant-like man holding a flail—all three, like the short man, were once martial arts experts gathered in the Prime Minister’s Mansion.

Alongside them stood four other burly guards, holding packages of varying lengths. At a glance, beneath their round-collared robes, the glint of iron subtly revealed they were armored.

Including the short man, they numbered eight in total.

In front of them, in the empty alley, there was only one man and one horse.

The alley was not wide, with thick brick walls of deep courtyards on both sides. Although it posed no problem for pedestrians, fighting inside would be cramped with just two people side by side.

"He found himself a good spot."

The lunatic monk, Jing’an, carrying the soul-slaying long staff, couldn’t help but laugh.

"So, which one of us should go first?"

"Don’t act foolishly, everyone go together."

The man with the flail swung his weapon, shattering the bricks on both alley walls.

For ordinary people, using terrain to fend off pursuers might be effective.

But for masters of Evil Qi, a slight geographical advantage was insignificant.

"Attack!"

The man with the flail was the first to charge, the wind from his flail whipping up ruthlessly.

Following him, the Swordsman unsheathed his scimitar, the dark purple blade far more sinister than the Swordsman’s appearance. Jing’an, the lunatic monk, dismantled his long staff into a nine-section whip with a larger attack range.

Meanwhile, the short man uncovered the bundle, revealing the blood-stained steel round shield.

"Wait?"

The short man ready to join the fray suddenly felt something was off.

Although they charged, why weren’t the reinforcements moving? They agreed to act together, so why were they the only ones charging?

"You guys..."

The short man instinctively turned his head.

Immediately after, his voice caught in his throat.

The four seemingly ordinary yet formidable family guards were all lying on the ground. The two battle knives, a long-handled saber, and a long iron staff, which should have been used to kill Du Chengfeng, were instead embedded in the chests of those guards.

A Burly Man, standing nearly seven feet tall, crouched, crushing the last family guard’s head.

It was as easy as crushing a walnut.

"Shh."

As the short man was about to shout, the Burly Man crouched on the ground suddenly looked up, gesturing for silence.

"Don’t make a sound, you should be fighting him over there."

"You..."

In shock, how could the short man remain silent?

Especially when just moments ago, all eight of them were battle-ready, yet none noticed when this mysterious Burly Man appeared behind them!

A master! A master far superior to them!

"Ha!"

The short man’s reaction was lightning quick. He immediately raised his shield. Under the thick Evil Qi, it swiftly formed an impregnable barrier of despair!

Even a master of Evil Qi couldn’t shatter his defense; the short man had such confidence.

But in his view, that fan-sized hand still broke his shield, slit his throat, and smashed his head into the ground with his own weapon.

"Ah! Too quick!"

Glancing at the corpse, the Burly Man couldn’t help but shake his head and sigh.

"Doesn’t this mean I killed five?"