The Softest Spot

What was going on?

For an instant, the gaunt young man's mind went blank. He could no longer tell which of them was the assassin.

But the immense force pressing against his throat brought him to his senses, and he stared in terror at the little boy before him.

What kind of monster is this? He isn't even seven, yet he has such terrifying strength. Even with a perfected tenth layer of the Power Through Realm and that marquis's Divine Blood awakened, it shouldn't be this outrageous, should it?

"Who sent you to assassinate me?" Li Hao asked, fixing his gaze on him. At the same time, various pieces of information surfaced in his mind. Playing chess had been a means of getting close to him, which meant the man's purpose in entering the Divine General Residence had been simple-to assassinate him.

The gaunt young man fell silent. Neither the strength nor the intelligence this child displayed resembled that of an ordinary six-year-old.

He had thought he was here to dispose of a useless little brat, only to uncover something this terrifying.

"You aren't a Martial Dao cripple. Was hiding your strength your idea, or your father's arrangement?" the gaunt young man asked, narrowing his eyes.

His assassination attempt had failed. Feeling the immense force at his throat, ready to erupt at any moment, he knew he had no way out alive. Instead, he grew calm.

Assassinating a direct descendant in the Divine General Residence had always been a task with nine chances of death and one of survival. It was just a pity he could not complete his mission.

"You know my father?" Li Hao's eyes shifted slightly.

"You must be joking."

The gaunt young man said coldly, "Who under heaven hasn't heard of Marquis Xingwu? He's guarding the frontier now. A few months ago, he even summoned martial artists from across Northern Yan to help suppress the demons. Hundreds answered his call. His prestige is immense."

Help suppress the demons? Li Hao frowned. Has the situation in Northern Yan become so dire that they need to draw on the strength of wandering martial artists?

"Did my Second Madam send you?" Li Hao asked.

The gaunt young man paused, then understood. A trace of mockery flashed through his eyes. "You've been targeted before? To think even the iron-blooded Divine General Residence has rot like this within it. No wonder you pretend to be a cripple. But come to think of it, I really haven't seen you cultivate. How many hours do you practice each day?"

I've been practicing with you all along... Li Hao looked steadily into his eyes. "Answer my question first, and then I'll answer yours. That's called an exchange."

The gaunt young man raised his brows slightly, then laughed despite himself. This child really was interesting.

"I'm dead either way. You've made me fail my mission and doomed my family. Why should I tell you?" the gaunt young man scoffed softly.

"Because I can tell you don't want to die," Li Hao said. "You're afraid of death, too. And there are many ways to die. I can give you a quick one."

The gaunt young man's smile vanished. After a brief silence, he slowly began, "The one who sent me was..."

Suddenly, his arm jerked, and he swung a fist at Li Hao's head.

Li Hao tilted his head slightly and dodged with ease. He did not strike back, merely watching him coldly.

Under that gaze, the gaunt young man's heart plunged into an abyss, and a chill crept through him. Was the gap really this vast? He was a mighty Circulation Realm practitioner, yet it was as if he and this child had switched places. Before him, he was like a child himself, utterly seen through.

The boy's contempt made him withdraw his hand dejectedly. "You really are a monster."

"Talk," Li Hao said coldly. "You should know that our Li Family is a military aristocratic clan. We've captured countless prisoners and interrogated countless criminals. Our methods of torture are beyond your imagination. You could beg for death and never get it. If possible, I can give you a quick end."

The corners of the gaunt young man's eyes twitched. Naturally, he knew the child before him was not lying, and fear began to stir in his heart.

"If I tell you, can you let me go?" the gaunt young man asked with a hint of hope, pinning his hopes on the child still possessing an innocent heart.

"Yes," Li Hao answered.

Pfft... The gaunt young man nearly spat blood. Do you have to answer so readily? That couldn't sound any faker. Are you treating me like a child?

He smiled bitterly. "Actually, there's no harm in telling you. The assassination failed, so my family won't survive anyway. I came from Northern Yan. The one who sent me to kill you was the White God Lord."

"The White God Lord?"

"That's right. One of the Three Demon Gods of Northern Yan. Terrifyingly powerful, and an old enemy of your father."

The gaunt young man's gaze was complicated. "Your father commands troops like a god, and the Li Family Army fights without fear of death. Northern Yan would have fallen long ago otherwise. Now the main battlefield has reached a stalemate. The White God Lord sent me to assassinate you so news of your death would spread out of the Divine General Residence and reach the Northern Yan frontier, throwing your father's forces into turmoil. If he left the battlefield to come home, Northern Yan could be conquered."

At this point, he stared at Li Hao.

No one knew that this child was a crucial weight on the scales determining the lives and deaths of the people in dozens of Northern Yan's cities.

Li Hao froze. So it was because of Northern Yan.

The war there had actually reached the Divine General Residence, tens of thousands of miles away.

"Your father holds Northern Yan. Your parents are veterans of countless battles, without a single opening to exploit. They're impregnable. But you are their only weakness, their softest spot."

The gaunt young man said, "Only by targeting you can they defeat your parents, break through Northern Yan's frontier, and let the demon army march straight in."

Li Hao remained silent, digesting his words. Only after a while did he slowly ask, "You're human. Why are you working for demons?"

The gaunt young man faltered. After a pause, he looked at Li Hao darkly, his eyes filled with envy and hatred. "Not everyone is as lucky as you. You wouldn't understand even if I told you."

"Is that so?"

Li Hao looked at him calmly. "My parents left my side when I was born, my own relatives plotted against me, and now I'm being assassinated because of my parents. Would you call me lucky?"

The gaunt young man's lips parted slightly. He froze, wanting to speak, yet unable to utter another word.

Li Hao said nothing more on the matter. "I promised you I'd give you a quick death."

"Heh. You're awfully kind, aren't you?" Coming to his senses, the gaunt young man forced a faintly mocking smile.

No matter how many words were exchanged, death was unavoidable in the end. Fear lurked in his eyes. He did not want to die, and he feared death. Otherwise, how could he have fallen so low as to sell his life to demons?

As if he could not hear the sarcasm, Li Hao said, "Actually, I don't want to kill you."

"Oh?" A cold sneer appeared in the gaunt young man's eyes. He clearly did not believe him.

"Because you're good at chess," Li Hao said earnestly.

The gaunt young man froze.

Only after a long while did he recover, a bitter smile appearing on his face. "But unfortunately, I've never beaten you."

"In your next life, then."

Li Hao began tightening his grip. "Don't practice martial arts in your next life. Just play chess honestly. At least you'll live a little longer and have an easier time."

The gaunt young man wanted to struggle, but when he saw Li Hao's cold, composed gaze, only despair remained in his heart. He said bitterly, "You really are a strange child."

In the end, Li Hao still crushed his throat and killed him.

As he began to suffocate, the gaunt young man fought fiercely once more, but it made no difference.

Only after dealing with the assassin did Li Hao remember that he still did not know the man's real name.

The servant's name he had used to infiltrate the residence had also been bestowed by the Li Family.

But...

So be it.

With the assassin dead, Li Hao called over a servant, frightening the man half to death.

That night, the entire Divine General Residence was shaken.

Lights came on in every courtyard. The madams who had already gone to bed hastily threw on clothes and hurried over. When they saw the assassin's corpse slumped over the chess table, they were all utterly shocked.

What kind of place was the Divine General Residence? How could an assassin have infiltrated it?

He Jianlan's usual dignified composure had vanished as well. She hugged Li Hao anxiously, feeling him over and examining him from head to toe. "Are you all right?"

"First Madam, I'm fine," Li Hao reassured her.

Only after checking that Li Hao truly had no injuries did He Jianlan relax. She then questioned him carefully, and Li Hao gave the account he had already prepared.

The assassin had launched a sneak attack, and at the critical moment, an old man had intervened and killed him.

Then the old man had disappeared.

Li Hao thought that since an assassin could sneak into the Divine General Residence, inventing an old man should not be a problem either.

You didn't even know about the assassin, so it's perfectly normal that you wouldn't know about some other expert, right?

After hearing Li Hao's account, He Jianlan's heart jolted, and several possibilities immediately surfaced in her mind. Could it have been an expert from the army secretly sent by Marquis Xingwu?

Or perhaps... that clan elder?

She suppressed her conjectures and never doubted Li Hao's words.

After all, however precocious Li Hao might be, he was still a child not yet seven.

And he had not even embarked on the Martial Dao. Without an expert secretly protecting him, he would undoubtedly have died.

Then He Jianlan had Xue Jian take Li Hao and little Bian Ruxue to the Evergreen Courtyard to rest and soothe the children's fright.

She, meanwhile, sat in the main hall of the Mountains and Rivers Courtyard. She summoned the servants who had previously accompanied Li Hao while he played chess, along with the first servant alerted by his call, and questioned them thoroughly there.

At the same time, she summoned the residence's experts to examine the assassin's corpse.

Before long, she learned the full course of events from the servants.

When the assassin had entered the residence, how he had displayed his talent for chess before the servants of the Mountains and Rivers Courtyard, how he had ingratiated himself, and so on.

Clearly, he had investigated Li Hao and deliberately used chess to get close to him. Every step could be traced.

In the latter half of the night, the examination results came back as well. The assassin had actually been in the Circulation Realm, somewhere around the third or fourth layer.

Outside, such cultivation would have made him a reasonably capable wandering warrior, able to champion justice in the martial world and earn a little fame. But in the Divine General Residence, where experts gathered like clouds, he was an utterly ordinary presence.

Still, that cultivation was more than enough to kill a six-year-old child. It was practically slaughtering a mosquito with an ox-cleaving knife-absurdly excessive.

Moreover, he had taken some special pill that sealed off the detectable aura of his cultivation, which was why no one had noticed him.

Hearing these results, the madams from every courtyard felt waves of lingering dread. If today's target had been their own child rather than Li Hao, death would have been certain!

A Circulation Realm assassin suddenly erupting into violence beside a child was simply too terrifying.

When Liu Yuerong heard the results of the examination, the wild suspicions in her heart slowly subsided.

Even if Li Hao's Divine Blood had not been crippled, he could not possibly have killed this assassin himself.

It seemed that although the couple were at the frontier, they had made thorough preparations for their child.

At that thought, fear stirred secretly in her heart. Surely no one had noticed that she had drugged him. After all, she had brought him into the Water Flower Courtyard before acting, and her courtyard had powerful experts as well.

(End of chapter)