Shangguan Hong retreated step by step. No matter how carefully he moved, the snow beneath his feet still creaked. His gaze never wavered from the Dragon King's back, watching until it dwindled to a tiny gray shape suspended in the void, nearly indistinguishable from the darkness inside the house.
Shangguan Hong wondered if the Dragon King had already vanished. Perhaps that patch of gray was merely an illusion lingering in his eyes.
He was wrong. The gray shape suddenly swayed, disappearing and reappearing, disappearing and reappearing, disappearing and reappearing—a total of three times. Each time, it seemed to be accompanied by the shuddering sound of a weapon slicing through the air.
He knew the Dragon King's saber technique was peerless, but he had never formed a clear impression of it. This was the first time he had not only caught a fleeting glimpse of the Dragon King's blade, but also grasped some inkling of its subtleties. The result left him even more bewildered.
An assassin was hiding in the house, perfectly blended into the surroundings. Before this, Shangguan Hong hadn't sensed the assassin's presence at all. What surprised him was that the Dragon King had struck first.
The Dragon King had walked in from the moonlit outdoors into the darkened room. His eyes should have needed a moment to adjust, yet he had struck first and hit his target without fail, as though everything were taking place in broad daylight.
The three assassins fell just like that, but they weren't dead. Shangguan Hong could hear them gasping.
Gu Shenwei emerged from the darkness, his right hand still gripping the unsheathed Five Peaks Saber. His figure gradually came into view, then suddenly became whole, like a demon-summoning spell cast by the moonlight.
Reverence, fear, bewilderment—one emotion after another surged through Shangguan