The five assassins were all experts from the four great Golden Clans behind Titan Academy. Lord Hongyuan, in particular, was a prominent member of the Fubo Clan. He belonged to its younger generation and was still in the prime of his life, yet he had already risen to the ranks of the clan elders.
One had to understand that elders could already be considered high-ranking members of a Golden Clan. Though they differed in seniority and rank, becoming an elder meant reaching a higher level and entering the clan's inner circle.
The leader of this five-person assassin team was an elder of a Golden Clan. That alone showed how high his standing was.
An elder of a Golden Clan would never rank below a scholar from one of the three great academies. If anything, they might even be half a step above one.
After all, there could be a hundred or more scholars, while a Golden Clan would have no more than twenty or thirty elders at most. They were certainly not a common lot.
Who ranked above whom depended on ability. Only someone with an exceptionally powerful patron could defy that rule. Even then, if their status outstripped their virtue and their strength failed to measure up, they wouldn't be able to hold their position for long—even if nobody else said a word.
As an elder of the Fubo Clan, Lord Hongyuan was clearly in a class of his own among the five.
The other four were also geniuses from Golden Clans. They might not belong to the very top tier, but they were certainly in the tier just below it.
In other words, none of the five assassins was a pushover. Each of them was strong enough to take on Tong Ye. They might be slightly weaker than