"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" A ten-man squad of the City Guard Army marched straight down the middle of the street, torches in hand, patrolling!
Outside the city, the land belonged to bandits and river pirates. Each village had to defend itself.
But within the city, the City Guard Army did its duty fairly well.
However.
The three black-clad figures wore specially made nightwear that let them blend easily into the darkness. They moved without making the slightest sound.
And the night rain covered their tracks!
They easily evaded the patrol squad.
The three continued onward. Rain ran off the black garments wrapped around them and slid straight to the ground.
At last, they reached the entrance to the Wu household's street.
"Target!" The tall, lean figure at the front raised both hands and changed his gestures. "The thirty-sixth household ahead, in the west wing."
"The target's only a Martial Master!"
"But there's a chance a Hengyun Sect expert is guarding him. If we run into trouble, retreat immediately!" The tall, lean figure's hands kept moving. "We're only the first wave. This is both an assassination and a probe."
"Also, remember: avoid harming anyone else if possible."
"Understood." The short, stocky figure and the muscular figure behind him each let out a faint chirp, like raindrops hitting the ground.
All three had undergone special training. They communicated with hand signs, and could imitate birdsong, raindrops, wind, and other sounds with simple, familiar signals.
They were true assassins!
"Go!" The tall, lean figure at the front waved them onward and stepped into the Wu household's street first. The other two followed three paces behind.
The three kept six paces apart, entering in a triangular formation, still without a sound.
Though everything was shrouded in darkness,
with their skills, they could still make out the scene ten or twenty meters ahead, and roughly tell their bearings by the sound of the wind.
On the roof of an unoccupied courtyard in the Wu household's street,
Wu Yuan sat in meditation!
Raindrops fell, soaking his clothes, but a faint mist seemed to rise around him. He made no sound at all, blending completely into his surroundings.
Ever since his physical attributes had rapidly risen to their current limit, Wu Yuan had focused on "nurturing" his body. He no longer pushed himself relentlessly with Strength Training.
Every day,
he trained to keep his body in peak condition.
He devoted the rest of his training time to studying combat techniques!
"The foundation is controlling your own strength and concentrating your mind. Force Extreme is the repeated burst of power that comes when the body's muscles and bones unite as one. Hard and Soft is the pinnacle of human technique: controlling yourself at will." Wu Yuan pondered in silence. "Perfect Hard and Soft is the limit of the human body's explosive power."
"Unless your mind reaches an inconceivable level, letting you sense the particles of flesh and blood and integrate your strength on a higher level, it's hard to surpass that."
"Human strength has its limits, but heaven and earth are boundless!"
Wu Yuan closed his eyes. He sensed the falling raindrops and the water streaming down the eaves, listened to the faint sounds of rain striking the ground... and felt the vast darkness around him!
Everything within dozens of meters was clear in Wu Yuan's mind.
His eyes were closed, leaving only darkness!
Yet his mind's eye "saw" everything clearly.
"In a life-or-death battle, a martial artist must do more than control and unleash his own strength. He must also adapt to his surroundings." Wu Yuan considered this quietly. "The falcon rules the sky, the tiger reigns over the forest, and the crocodile favors ambushes in shallow water. Through the evolution of life, each has adapted to a part of its environment."
Once they leave familiar terrain, these beasts' strength drops sharply.
The same principle applied to martial artists.
Some excelled at fighting on open ground, others in the mountains, and still others in the water. Different environments could strengthen or weaken them.
"What the greatest martial arts experts pursue is not adapting to one part of the environment, but mastering any environment."
"Flow with the circumstances, and turn every disadvantage into an advantage!"
"This is what martial artists pursue after perfecting Hard and Soft, after the body reaches its limit—Environment Control!" Wu Yuan murmured.
Environment Control!
The ability to master one's surroundings!
In his previous life, Wu Yuan had reached this level at his peak. It was this combat skill that had let him overpower countless Martial Dao Grandmasters in the "Battle Network Infinite Fighting Tournament" and claim first place!
He had become famous throughout the Human Federation.
In this life, with a new body that continued to evolve, Wu Yuan was learning its limits all over again—and had resolved to explore them anew.
"The Wu household's street on a rainy night is different from the same street on a clear day." Wu Yuan carefully took in his surroundings.
The foundation of Environment Control was actively sensing different environments and settings!
Open ground, forests, deserts, shallows, cliffs, rivers, deep water... martial arts training wasn't about imagining things out of thin air. It meant experiencing and understanding them firsthand.
One had to observe the subtle changes across many environments as time passed, while also altering the conditions within the same environment!
For example,
the same stretch of forest would change under drizzle, heavy rain, downpours, cloudy skies, clear skies, and all kinds of weather. The four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter would bring even greater differences.
Only by experiencing, understanding, and mastering things step by step could one succeed!
In the end,
once one had experienced and mastered enough distinct environments, quantitative change would give rise to qualitative change, revealing what they all had in common.
That was Wu Yuan's understanding of "perfect Environment Control"!
Once he reached that level,
even if he were plunged into a completely unfamiliar battlefield, he could instantly master every subtle detail of his surroundings.
Wu Yuan was still far from "perfect Environment Control."
"Hmm?" Wu Yuan suddenly sensed something amiss.
He didn't open his eyes.
But because he was constantly attuned to his surroundings, he could tell that the sound of raindrops striking the flagstones in the street fifty meters away had changed ever so slightly!
"Three people!"
"Moving fast... They're forty meters away! Experts!" Wu Yuan could "see" them clearly in his mind.
Only because he was concentrating all his senses could he perceive them so distinctly.
Whoosh! Wu Yuan opened his eyes. By sensing the changes in the rain and wind, he immediately pinpointed the three figures.
"Rainy night, nightwear, coming to the Wu household's street? Here to assassinate me?" Wu Yuan felt no ripple of emotion.
He stood up.
A face covering concealed his features.
At the same time, his body trembled slightly, silently lowering his height by ten centimeters.
Whoosh! As light as nothing, Wu Yuan drifted down from the roof. Hardly a raindrop landed on him.
Environment Control!
It meant not only mastering the surroundings, but also moving without altering or disturbing them, so an opponent couldn't detect you through the slightest change in the environment.
As the three black-clad figures neared the Wu family's courtyard, they gradually slowed until they were just ten meters from the gate.
All three stopped.
Suddenly,
"Three friends, what brings you here?" A calm voice sounded from the darkness behind them.
The two at the rear felt their scalps nearly explode!
Because
the voice had sounded right beside their ears. It was so close—and yet, despite moving at speed, they hadn't sensed a thing.
Without hesitation,
Whoosh! Whoosh! Two sleeve darts shot out like lightning from the sleeves of the short, stocky figure and the muscular figure, streaking behind them.
At the same time,
two streaks of cold, bluish light cut through the night, each stabbing toward a different patch of darkness.
The two assassins had no idea exactly where the speaker was.
Crack! Crack! Two faint sounds rang out at once.
They were quiet, all but lost in the rainy night, but the tall, lean figure who had just turned around felt his heart turn to ice.
The sound of neck bones breaking!
The two men who had been full of life a moment earlier lay fallen, their breaths gone. Their attacks had missed.
From clash to death, it had taken only an instant!
But the tall, lean figure had no mind left to spare for the two corpses.
"You?" He swallowed and stared at the black-robed figure standing just a meter away, only his eyes visible!
His eyes were already filled with terror.
He had been an assassin for years, yet had never encountered an expert this terrifying.
A top expert? Perhaps even an Earth Ranking Grandmaster? In that moment, Wu Yuan's strength soared without limit in his mind!
A meter was close—very close!
The tall, lean figure could strike with his dagger in an instant. He believed that more than ninety-nine percent of First-class Experts would struggle to evade his attack.
But his hands and feet had gone ice-cold. He didn't dare move!
Because
his two companions, the ones who had attacked, were already dead!
"Answer me and you might live. Don't, and you'll certainly die!" Wu Yuan's voice was soft, his eyes the only part of him visible. "Remember, I have little patience."
"Did you come here to assassinate Wu Yuan?"
The tall, lean figure hesitated for an instant.
A flash of cold light! The tall, lean figure felt a sharp pain in his arm, followed by a wave of weakness.
The tendon in his right hand had been severed!
"Next time, it'll be your throat." Wu Yuan's voice held not a trace of emotion. "Tell me: did you come here to assassinate Wu Yuan?"
"Yes," the tall, lean figure gritted out in a low voice.
"Who sent you?" Wu Yuan asked again.
"No one ordered me. We were just carrying out orders," the tall, lean figure replied in a low voice.
Whoosh! Another flash of cold light. The tall, lean figure was terrified.
The tendon in his left hand had been severed too!
"If no one ordered you, how could you be carrying out orders?" Wu Yuan said coldly. "Don't try to fool me."
"I'm an assassin from Nine Dragon Mountain. I took the job and came to assassinate Wu Yuan!" The tall, lean figure was terrified. He hurriedly continued, "But I don't know who placed the job."
"When was it posted?" Wu Yuan asked again.
"I don't know the exact time. Going by the usual pattern, it should've been posted sometime between yesterday and the day before." The tall, lean figure was frightened into answering nearly everything.
"Does your organization have a hideout in the city?"
"Yes!"
"Take me there." Wu Yuan's voice was cold.
"Senior, please spare me. If I take you to the branch, not only will I die, my whole family will be doomed." The tall, lean figure was terrified.
Crack~
Wu Yuan's hand swept across his throat, instantly crushing his neck bones. At the same time, an invisible force passed through his fingertips, wreaking havoc inside his brain!
Death!
"I told you, I have no patience," Wu Yuan murmured to himself.
"Nine Dragon Mountain? What kind of assassin organization is that?" Wu Yuan frowned slightly. He had only heard of Seven Stars Tower and Nine Kill Mansion.
Other assassin organizations? He knew nothing about them.
"First, I need to get rid of the bodies." Wu Yuan put the assassin's identity aside for the moment.
He quickly stacked the three corpses, then gathered the missed sleeve darts and fallen daggers, checking that he'd left nothing behind.
He hoisted the bodies onto his shoulder.
Like a wisp of smoke, he vanished into the darkness of the rainy night.
Before you continue