Assassin's Blade

After completing Zhu Zhuqing's enrollment procedures, Xia Tianling brought her to his private training ground.

This was the advantage of being a top-tier student. There was no need to share with others; someone had specially built the most suitable training ground for him.

Thinking of the Agility Attack path Zhu Zhuqing took in the Original Work, Xia Tianling found it utterly ridiculous.

Agility Attack? Control? Defense? Strength? Were they useful? Among all the Titled Douluo on the continent, weren't every single one who could fight part of the Assault System?

People kept saying the Control System had an advantage in one-on-one fights and countered Agility Attack types, but Old Poison, the unit of measurement for Combat Power, would have something to say about that. Other than playing support, the Control System was basically irrelevant.

The most ridiculous was the Agility Attack System. Counting every Titled Douluo on the continent, Ghost Douluo was the only Agility Attack type.

Was that useful?

What should an Agility Attack type be like? They should be assassins!

Hide oneself, possess high attack and high agility, kill the target in a single burst, then flee far away.

Kill one man in ten steps, leave no trace across a thousand miles.

Brush off one's sleeves when the deed was done, hiding one's achievements and fame.

So what were the Agility Attack types of the Douluo Continent doing?

They had the agility, sure, but where was the attack? Where was the burst? They clanged away with a whole flashy set of skills, only for a Defense System Soul Master to remain completely unharmed? What was the point of Agility Attack, then?

Their understanding of games—no, their understanding of cultivation—had gone seriously wrong.

After all these years, the Soul Masters of the Douluo Continent had never understood the role of Agility Attack System Soul Masters.

Every one of them insisted on facing opponents head-on like Assault System Soul Masters. That was pure insanity.

Therefore, Xia Tianling decided that he had to teach Kitten how to become a qualified assassin.

"Can I become as strong as them?" Zhu Zhuqing bit her lip.

When she had met the others earlier, she had sensed an exceptionally heavy aura from them. It was one thing for those older than her to be stronger, but even Ma Hongjun, who looked to be around her age, possessed cultivation no weaker than that of a Soul Elder.

Zhu Zhuqing felt faintly expectant, but also afraid.

His companions were all so powerful. Could she catch up to them?

And how was she supposed to repay the kindness he had shown her?

Compared to these young geniuses before her, Dai Mubai was simply trash.

"You'll become even stronger than them." Xia Tianling did not waste words and went straight to the point. "Hold this dagger, drip a drop of blood onto it, and feel it carefully."

Zhu Zhuqing did as instructed, using the sharp blade to cut a small opening on her finger.

Crimson blood seeped out and fell onto the dagger, only to be absorbed directly by its blade as waves of blackish-red light radiated from it.

At the same time, the dagger's physical form gradually turned ethereal and merged into Zhu Zhuqing's body.

This was a dagger named [Assassin's Blade], originating from a Western Fantasy Plane.

This dagger was both a weapon and an Inherited Divine Artifact left behind by Assassin, the God of Assassins in that world. After systematic deconstruction, cracking the inheritance left behind by a mere god from another world was effortless.

After filtering out its original divine power, all that remained were cultivation insights into the assassin profession and a small amount of Origin Power. These residual powers would greatly help Zhu Zhuqing get started quickly, while also improving her body.

This weapon had no fixed physical form. The dagger was merely one form it could take. In truth, if Zhu Zhuqing wished, she could even condense a massive broadsword without any problem.

In a sense, Kitten had gained a Second Martial Soul that could not be fitted with Soul Rings.

The brilliance of this weapon lay in the fact that no matter how strong your defense was, it would ignore it completely. The only things capable of resisting its damage were the target's own physical toughness and attacks used to clash against it.

For example, if you used this weapon to attack a mage wearing top-tier divine artifact armor and protected by seven or eight forbidden-spell shields, then sorry, it ignored defense and could kill him with one slash. But if you used it to hack at a stone man with an incomparably tough body, its effect would be greatly reduced. At that point, it was at most an indestructible, sharp weapon.

Among the many techniques left behind by the God of Assassins, aside from cultivation methods, the most precious was a movement technique called [Void Walking].

This was the God of Assassins' signature ability. It could allow the user's body to become ethereal and enter the void, escaping all detection and attacks. Once cultivated to the highest level, it could even easily pass through the barriers between worlds.

Put simply, it made you untargetable in reality.

At this moment, Zhu Zhuqing, with her eyes closed, felt as though she were a small boat upon a stormy sea.

A violent, razor-sharp aura continuously battered her inner will.

What Xia Tianling did not know was that although the system had removed the hidden dangers within this inherited weapon and severed it from its original world, it was still, in essence, a "divine artifact."

A divine artifact was not called a divine artifact because it was powerful or excellent.

It was called a divine artifact because it was a tool used by a god.

Even though Assassin's Blade was now in the severely weakened world of Douluo, the killing intent accumulated upon it over countless years, along with the divine power of the God of Assassins that had soaked into it for who knew how long, still contained an immense amount of energy.

Even if the God of Assassins was merely a mid-level deity with ordinary divine power, the essence of his strength far surpassed that of the Soul Master profession.

This immense power could not be used as an offensive method, but it would batter the inheritor's willpower like a raging storm.

Once one's willpower collapsed, the result would be becoming a Walking Corpse controlled by killing intent, just like those who had drunk too much Bloody Mary in the City of Slaughter.

Could it be that I can't even withstand the willpower assault of a weapon? No, I have to become stronger. I have to take revenge. I have to prove that my family's twisted inheritance system is wrong. I have to...

Zhu Zhuqing desperately endured within the illusion of will created by Assassin's Blade. In reality, her delicate face had already twisted in pain.

Something was wrong with her condition!

Xia Tianling quickly noticed the problem, and the system provided the above explanation.

"How can I save her?" He directly spent a large amount of Fate Power to make the system provide a solution.

"Ding. The Great Dao Longevity Scripture cultivated by the host is the existence most attuned to nature and embraces all things. Simply use your aura and Spiritual Sense to guide her."

Upon hearing the system's words, Xia Tianling hurriedly did as instructed, releasing Soul Power and Spiritual Power to envelop Zhu Zhuqing.

It worked. Zhu Zhuqing's complexion was gradually becoming calmer.

Zhu Zhuqing, who had nearly fallen into darkness, felt as if a beam of light had appeared in this dark space of will. It radiated a warm and familiar aura, making her mind, which had been thrown into chaos by the assault, clear up somewhat.

Is it you?

Are you helping me?

No one had expected this contest of wills to last a little longer than expected.

On the very night Xia Tianling brought Zhu Zhuqing into the training ground, Hu Liena sensed that something was off. It was only the cultivation of a technique—why had they been inside for so long?

I feel that the name Assassin probably has a fairly high chance of overlapping with other names—it is, after all, the literal Chinese translation of the word "assassin." There might genuinely be a character with that name in some novel or other work. Fellow readers, please do not apply settings from other works to this one. It was just a name I came up with on a whim.