A Warning

With one strike, Chu Qing had landed a hit, but he didn't stop.

Something was wrong!

Chu Qing was an assassin. He had never intended to interrogate the man before him.

He had joined the Sin Mirror Platform, so he knew these people well.

Getting information out of them was harder than climbing to the heavens.

Unless he had a martial art like the Life and Death Talisman, he might have a chance of torturing information out of them. Otherwise, he could forget about it.

What's more, Chu Qing knew who was backing him.

So he had no need for information.

That was why he had never planned to hold back with that sword strike... He only wanted the other man dead!

Chu Qing used the Swift Flying Sword, and had mastered its three essentials: speed, precision, and ruthlessness.

By all rights, after that sword strike... the man should have died!

And yet he was still alive.

He had lost an arm, but he was still alive.

If the man had been prepared, could he have dodged Chu Qing's sword?

Who was he?

These questions barely lingered in Chu Qing's mind. The instant he realized his opponent was no ordinary man, the next thing he did was simple...

He struck!

The assassin, with one arm severed, didn't fall when his feet touched the ground.

His body didn't even waver from the pain.

His feet scraped along the ground as he used the momentum of his landing to slide backward. At the same time, he flicked his sword-bearing left hand behind him. The sword slipped from his grip, and just as his palm lined up with the hilt, he reached out to grab it.

"Since you've cut off one of my arms, you'll pay for it with your life!"

Calm was an assassin's most basic quality.

So even though everything had happened in a flash, he had analyzed the situation in an instant.

Someone had been lying in wait, and that person's sword was incredibly fast.

But having severed his arm, the attacker would surely have let his guard down... This was the perfect chance to strike back!

Compared to that, who had ambushed him, and why they had done it here, were unimportant.

He could think about those questions after killing the man.

It all happened in the blink of an eye. Just as the Sin Mirror Platform assassin was about to seize his sword and thought he had the upper hand, a blade's edge came hurtling toward him.

The sound hadn't arrived; the sword had!

Shhk!

The sword pierced his throat. Then the blade turned and sliced across... cutting through half his neck. Blood sprayed everywhere like rain.

The masked head drooped to one side, shock still shining in his eyes.

Had he misjudged?

Why hadn't the other man let his guard down at all?

And though he had clearly dropped from above, how had he managed to gather his strength in midair and strike again?

Those questions were destined to follow him to the underworld.

Clang! Only then did the assassin's sword hit the ground, ringing out sharply.

It was all over.

In a fight to the death, a moment's delay meant the difference between life and death.

Only after Chu Qing saw that the man had stopped breathing did he let out a quiet breath.

The Golden Goose Skill wasn't some art for fleeing or vaulting over walls. Its usefulness in a fight was astonishing.

If he hadn't used the Golden Goose Skill to gather his strength just now, that sword strike couldn't have been so fast.

"After all, this was an assassination attempt against someone like Chu Yunfei. The man assigned here was no ordinary opponent."

Chu Qing sheathed his sword and glanced at the corpse on the ground.

He wasn't pleased...

The room he had cleaned so thoroughly had been dirtied.

The Sin Mirror Platform really was damned.

He went over to the body and searched it, but found nothing.

That was only natural.

Assassinating Chu Yunfei was no easy task. How could an assassin sent here leave anything on his person?

As for why Chu Qing had found that letter and the silver on the other assassins at first... all he could say was that they hadn't taken him seriously. They had thought the job was a sure thing and Chu Qing was as good as dead.

At the thought, a vein throbbed on Chu Qing's forehead, and he grew even more annoyed.

After finishing this, Chu Qing didn't dispose of the body.

One of his reasons for coming here was to warn Chu Yunfei that the Sin Mirror Platform was sending people to kill him.

The assassin's arrival had given him other plans, but that didn't change the fact that he still had to warn Chu Yunfei.

What better warning could there be than showing him the corpse of a Sin Mirror Platform assassin?

Of course, he still had to make a little noise first. Otherwise, on a day like this, Chu Yunfei might not discover the corpse until it was too late.

Chu Qing stepped out of the room and leaped onto the roof.

He lifted several roof tiles and tossed them into the courtyard.

Only after he was done did the thought occur to him:

"Does this count as tearing up the roof?"

The sound of breaking tiles was loud. It soon caught the attention of the Chu Family. A servant pushed open the courtyard gate. The first thing he saw was the broken tiles on the ground, then the assassin's corpse, half-hidden behind the door.

His face changed at once.

"Something's happened!"

He didn't dare go in to investigate and hurried off to call for help.

Before long, a crowd of servants who had heard the news gathered there.

The martial arts instructors also searched the area, but by the time they leaped onto the roof, Chu Qing had long since moved elsewhere.

Just then, a handsome young man with an elegant bearing parted the crowd and entered the courtyard.

The servants and guards around him bowed as soon as they saw him.

"First Young Master."

When Chu Tian saw the corpse in the room and the scene around it, his expression turned grim.

But he didn't lose his temper. Instead, he carefully inspected the area.

A moment later, he furrowed his brow.

"What a fast sword..."

He stood where the Sin Mirror Platform assassin should have been, then looked up. There was Chu Qing's desk.

The blood scattered beside the desk caught his eye.

He raised his head sharply and looked toward the rafters.

"The attack came from above... One strike severed the assassin's arm.

"Then the attacker leaped down and, without hesitation, struck again, piercing his throat and cutting off half his head in the same motion.

"How ruthless, how decisive!

"Such a fierce strike!"

At that thought, he suddenly turned to look at the assassin's sword.

"The position is wrong... He tried to counterattack, but failed.

"What formidable men. One was decisive, with a sword both fast and ruthless; the other stayed calm and plotted a counterattack even after losing an arm.

"Their ability to adapt in the heat of battle is admirable... But why did they make trouble in my Third Brother's room?

"And the way these two acted seems a little..."

He turned and leaped onto the roof.

There was nothing in sight. His thoughts shifted as he looked over the people in the courtyard. Then his eyes went distant for a moment, and he murmured:

"Who could it have been?"

"Big Brother!"

Chu Fan's voice suddenly rang out.

Chu Tian came back to himself and sighed. He leaped down from the roof and saw Chu Fan approaching with Junior Sister Wen.

But one thing left Chu Tian a little bewildered: why was Junior Sister Wen carrying a carrying pole over her shoulder?

"Miss Wen, where did you get that?"

Chu Tian asked without thinking.

Junior Sister Wen seemed to wear the same expression toward everyone. Without a trace of emotion, she uttered two words:

"Found it."