The Killer

"Hmm!?"

Baili Qingfeng's pupils contracted.

A gunshot!

Someone had actually tried to shoot him!?

He was an Outstanding Student with both virtue and intellect, a future successor to the nation who had always upheld pacifism—and someone still wanted to assassinate him and put him to death!?

This was simply madness!

"Whoosh!"

Before the assassin had time to aim at him again, Baili Qingfeng moved. Terrifying energy erupted from his powerful body, equivalent to that of a Level 3 Warrior.

His Qi and Blood surged. As he drove off the ground, the bones throughout his body seemed to fuse into a single line. Like a cheetah suddenly springing to life, lightness and speed were brought to life in him to perfection, sending him shooting forward in an instant, in the direction...

Exactly the same direction from which the bullet had come!

As he turned and charged, Baili Qingfeng's gaze was like a sword, locking onto a figure a hundred and twenty meters away in an instant.

A hundred and twenty meters.

The moment his gaze locked onto the target, the assassin calmly raised the sniper rifle again. With a bullet chambered, a stinging sense of danger once more enveloped the vital area of Baili Qingfeng's heart.

His heart!

The miss of the previous shot had made him take the target before him seriously. Thus, he had shifted his aim from the difficult-to-hit head to the larger target of the chest and heart!

"Whew!"

Baili Qingfeng drew in a deep breath. Just as the assassin was about to lock onto his figure and fire, the Thunder Sovereign Visualization Method began circulating. Behind him, an imposing and domineering Ancient Thunder Beast seemed to materialize. It suddenly raised its head and let out a heaven-shaking roar, causing the winds and clouds between heaven and earth to change violently. Countless thunderbolts gathered overhead and rumbled, jolting the assassin's spirit.

Although the power of a Spirit Refinement Manifestation attack would diminish with distance, its true strength still depended on the intensity of the target's mental focus invested in him.

It was like a hypnotist trying to hypnotize a target: the most important thing was the target's cooperation. If the target resisted in their heart and rallied their spirit, even a master hypnotist would be helpless.

To assassinate Baili Qingfeng, the assassin before him had kept his figure fixed in the high-powered scope. His mental attention was concentrated entirely on him. Now that Baili Qingfeng used the Thunder Sovereign Manifestation technique to intimidate his soul, the effect was naturally extremely pronounced!

The assassin's face instantly went deathly pale. His entire body turned cold and rigid, and for a long while he failed to awaken from that intimidation.

By the time he forcibly steadied his spirit and recovered, Baili Qingfeng had already crossed dozens of meters. The straight-line distance between them was less than thirty meters...

Thirty meters!

For a warrior whose Qi and Blood had boiled to the extreme, what did that amount to?

One had to know that when Wang Gang, a Level 3 Warrior, had once unleashed his full potential, he had displayed the terrifying speed of thirty meters. At present, Baili Qingfeng's use of strength and explosive power might be slightly inferior to Wang Gang's, but...

Thirty meters was still crossed in a few strides!

"Die!"

As a fierce wind rushed into his face, Baili Qingfeng, charging over like a cheetah, suddenly let out a low roar that shook like thunder.

Even though the assassin had been mentally prepared, he still suffered a powerful shock to his mind!

For a master hypnotist to hypnotize a target, the target had to cooperate by relaxing their mind. But the domineering nature of Spirit Refinement Manifestation...

Had already reached the point where it could forcibly influence a target. Even someone on guard would still be affected; the only difference was the strength of the effect.

"Damn it! Spirit Refinement Manifestation!"

The assassin snarled furiously. Without hesitation, he hurled the sniper rifle in his hand at Baili Qingfeng and himself retreated explosively.

Run!

Even though he was a Level 3 Warrior who refined Qi and nurtured his spirit, facing a monster whose physical body was no weaker than his own and whose mental realm had reached Spirit Refinement Manifestation, he could not possibly stand against him!

"Hmm!?"

Baili Qingfeng narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched the assassin retreat.

This assassin...

Was actually a Level 3 Warrior as well?

Then this was just right for testing the mettle of his own Level 3 Warrior strength...

That thought flashed through Baili Qingfeng's mind.

But the very next second, he dispelled it.

"Whoa, he's fast!"

This Level 3 Warrior seemed to have mastered something akin to footwork or body movement. Though they were both Level 3 Warriors, he was clearly a little faster than Baili Qingfeng when sprinting.

At this rate...

He would not catch up.

In the end, he could only watch helplessly as the other man escaped before his eyes.

"Fight me!"

The next moment, Baili Qingfeng's body seemed to break through the shackles of the human body, surging into an unprecedented extreme. His original speed of a little over twenty meters per second nearly doubled. As his feet stepped through the air, his entire person seemed like a sharp arrow shot from a bow, ripping apart the airwaves and cleaving through the void, killing his way to the assassin's back in an instant!

"Holy... the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Art!? Are you insane!?"

Seeing Baili Qingfeng's speed surge as he charged ferociously from behind, the assassin was utterly stunned.

The Heavenly Demon Disintegration Art!

It was a forbidden method used to stake one's life against another's!

This explosive secret art, which broke through one's instinctive limits by overdrawing the body, could grant immense power for a short time once unleashed, but the user himself...

Would effectively be crippled.

If he was lucky, every meridian in his body would be severed, leaving him disabled for the rest of his life. If the technique continued for too long...

He would certainly die!

The target before him had not been killed despite being shot at with a firearm. Yet while chasing him afterward, he had used the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Art and ended up killing himself?

That ferocity left him with something he truly did not know whether he ought to say!

"Bang!"

Carrying a violent surge of air, Baili Qingfeng was like a ferocious tiger brimming with murderous force. As he sprinted, the fist in his hand drew on the power of Qi and Blood within his body, like an unrivaled divine weapon suddenly unsheathed. It pierced straight through the air ahead, producing a deep, muffled boom.

"Madman!"

The assassin roared, the disbelief on his face twisting his features almost out of shape.

As Baili Qingfeng's fist stabbed toward him, his body abruptly twisted and he raised an arm to block...

But...

He had underestimated how completely the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Art liberated Baili Qingfeng's fleshly body.

"Rumble!"

The assassin's arm seemed to have been struck by a cannon shell, producing an ear-splitting boom. The sleeve of the arm blocking in front of him was torn to shreds, turning into scraps of cloth. His ulna and radius bent at irregular angles, broke, and then slammed heavily into his own chest.

That was not the end.

The power in Baili Qingfeng's fist carried penetrating force. It passed through the assassin's arm and slammed into his chest and body, shaking his internal organs until it nearly tore them all apart.

His body, already retreating at full speed and hurriedly twisting, was blasted backward by this force. In an instant, he flew six meters and crashed heavily into a tree as thick as an adult's thigh, snapping it in half.

"Pfft!"

Bright-red blood sprayed from the assassin's mouth. His entire body fell along the broken tree stump and crashed onto the ground, sending fallen leaves flying.

The assassin planted his right hand on the ground and struggled, trying to stand. But how violent was a punch thrown by Baili Qingfeng at full charge and supplemented by the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Art?

Even though the assassin had blocked with his arm, the penetrating force still shattered his internal organs. He struggled once, but could no longer rise, collapsing back down. In his eyes...

There was only despair.

That punch had completely cut off any possibility of him leaving alive.

"I never thought... I, Francolin, would roam the Underground World for years and complete dozens, even hundreds, of missions, only to fall into the hands of a madman in the end... The Heavenly Demon Disintegration Art... If you kill me, you'll die too..."

The assassin gave a bitter laugh.

Baili Qingfeng looked at the assassin who called himself Francolin and withdrew the state of physical liberation brought about by the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Art.

The moment he withdrew the technique...

He indeed felt stabbing pain throughout his body. His muscles and bones seemed to have been forcibly pulled apart and torn by immense force, leaving him quite miserable.

Fortunately, he had not used the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Art for long. The things torn in his body were only small tendons and nerves, minor injuries. Though uncomfortable, they should recover fairly quickly.

As the technique was withdrawn, recovery had already begun.

After holding on for half an hour, he estimated he would be full of vigor again.

"I don't know you. Why did you try to kill me?"

"What? You want revenge on the employer? I'll tell you, then. Su Clan's Jiang Hengshan hired me to make the move. But you'll probably spend your next life in a wheelchair, so even if you know who the employer is, what can you do? Hahaha..."

Francolin laughed somewhat mournfully. After a moment...

His voice weakened.

His breath stopped, and he died.