Assassination

The pockmarked man stood with his blade, grinning eerily at the dilapidated door.

"Why put so much effort into a kid who hasn't even grown his first beard? The vice-leader insists on sending us to this godforsaken place for an assassination. If you ask me, we should have just cut his head off during the day and tossed it to the dogs in the back alley!"

Behind him, the man in black looked around cautiously. "Shh, do you have a death wish, talking about the vice-leader like that?"

"What's there to fear? The vice-leader can't hear us anyway!"

After saying this, the pockmarked man stepped forward, his boots making a "clack-clack" sound, before prying the broken door open with his broadsword and stepping into the cramped, stifling room.

Two curtains hung inside the room, separating the "rooms" of Chen Lan and Chen Mo.

Though they were called curtains, they were really just two slightly larger pieces of tattered cloth.

The pockmarked man walked toward the eastern curtain, raised his broadsword, spat on the blade, and then a sinister smile appeared on his lips.

The next moment, he lunged forward, his broadsword instantly slicing through the curtain and plunging into the room behind it.

However, the scene of blood splattering everywhere that he had imagined did not occur. After he furiously tore the curtain aside, the space inside was completely empty; aside from a hard wooden board just long enough for a person to lie on, there was nothing else.

At the same time, he suddenly felt a chill behind him and spun around abruptly.

Before he had even finished turning, a figure used nimble footwork to dodge the man in black and threw a punch toward the pockmarked man's throat.

The pockmarked man reacted with lightning speed, immediately raising his blade to block.

"Clang!"

The force of the punch slammed into the broadsword, the sheer power making the blade tremble uncontrollably.

On the other side, the man in black drew a short blade, leaped forward to close in behind Chen Mo, and thrust his weapon.

Chen Mo had no weapon on him. Facing one mid-stage Ming Jin and one late-stage Ming Jin, both armed, the difficulty of a counter-kill was immense.

He knew this well, so he could only rely on the movement advantage of the Flowing Cloud Attack to find an opportunity to strike.

Thinking of this, Chen Mo immediately executed the Flowing Cloud Attack, spinning to dodge the short blade before following up with a flying punch that struck the opponent's shoulder blade.

"Bang!"

The man in black was knocked back two steps by the punch.

A flicker of cowardice crossed his eyes. During the night raid on the caravan not long ago, Chen Mo had been on par with him, but in this brief encounter today, Chen Mo was clearly much stronger than before.

"Don't you dare show weakness, you bastard! Get up there and finish him!"

The pockmarked man roared, raising his blade to swing horizontally from behind Chen Mo, bringing with it a gust of wind.

Chen Mo saw the broadsword behind him in the reflection of the man in black's short blade and immediately arched his back, the broadsword grazing past his hair.

In the blink of an eye, Chen Mo spun up and threw a punch toward the opponent's armpit.

"Bang!"

The punch landed true. The pockmarked man's face twisted instantly; the excruciating pain from his armpit nearly made him drop his blade, but he reacted quickly, switching to a two-handed grip and sweeping the blade across Chen Mo's legs.

At that moment, Chen Mo leaped backward, landing lightly on the dining table as the broadsword swung through empty air.

The pockmarked man, caught up in the frenzy of the attack, raised his blade and slashed wildly, the steel reflecting cold, icy light in the moonlight.

By the time he hacked the dining table to pieces, Chen Mo had already leaped from the table, his left foot stomping onto the wrist of the hand holding the blade, pressing down hard.

Clang! Clang!

The broadsword slipped from his hand and hit the floor.

Chen Mo seized the moment, quickly condensing the Stone-Crushing Strike in his hand and driving it toward the pockmarked man's chest.

A swordsman without a sword is no different from a fish on a chopping block when facing a martial artist skilled in fist techniques.

But at the same time, the man in black attacked from behind Chen Mo with his short blade. He had chosen the most secure moment to strike: when Chen Mo was fully committed to attacking the pockmarked man.

Even so, Chen Mo's fist did not pause for even a second.

The pockmarked man's expression changed drastically, and he immediately raised his fist to block.

The Stone-Crushing Strike slammed down!

As the two fists collided, the pockmarked man's seemingly massive fist proved fragile before the Stone-Crushing Strike and was instantly knocked aside.

The Stone-Crushing Strike continued forward, landing on the opponent's chest. Chen Mo could feel the sickening, soft sensation of his fist crushing ribs and sinking into the chest cavity.

"Pfft!"

The pockmarked man spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with organ fragments, splattering half of Chen Mo's body.

At this moment, the man in black's short blade had reached Chen Mo's back. Chen Mo immediately tilted his body, causing the blade to miss by a few inches, though it still carved a deep wound into his arm, and blood quickly stained half his shirt red.

But he didn't care about the wound; he rolled backward and picked up the broadsword that had rolled to the side.

With the broadsword in hand, his heart steadied, and a surge of killing intent welled up within him.

The pockmarked man, who was struggling to get up, saw this and shouted in a voice so hoarse it was barely recognizable: "He's injured... hurry and kill him... kill him..."

The man in black nodded, but his legs didn't dare to step forward, and the hand holding the blade was trembling slightly.

If the opponent was this sharp using only his fists and feet, now that he held a broadsword, how was he any different from a professional assassin?

Thinking of this, the man in black not only failed to move forward but even took a step back to the side.

Seeing this, a look of disappointment and terror appeared on Mazi's face.

Having killed many people himself, he was now terrified for his own life.

Chen Mo's gaze was sharp; spotting the gap left by the man in black's movement, he stomped his foot, leaped over the man's head like a fish, and brought his blade down toward Mazi's throat.

A cold, chilling blade-light flashed before Mazi's eyes, and the reflection of the blade in his pupils expanded in an instant.

"Puchi!"

Half of Mazi's head was severed, held on only by a few neck bones, and blood gushed out immediately.

His terrified eyes remained wide open, his eyeballs bulging outward, the vitality in his pupils already dissipating.

"Noisy."

Chen Mo said calmly, as if he had just killed a stray dog on the side of the road.

He turned to face the man in black, who retreated in fear until he reached a corner with nowhere left to go.

In the eyes of the man in black at this moment, Chen Mo seemed to be the true assassin of the night.

But his remaining will to survive drove him to raise his blade and unleash every technique he had learned in his life, even creating a faint afterimage.

Chen Mo held his blade in hand; as the saying goes, an extra inch of length is an extra inch of power, and the destructive force of a broadsword is incomparable to the short blades used by assassins for lightness and portability.

The broadsword swept forward, carrying a gust of wind, and within a few breaths, the two weapons collided dozens of times, occasionally sparking with flashes of fire.

Clang! Clang! Bang! Bang!

At a certain moment, Chen Mo gave the hilt a sharp twist, and the opponent's short blade was knocked from his hand, flying into the corner.

"Hoo!"

The broadsword was instantly pressed against the man in black's neck.

The man in black trembled all over, raising his hands to beg for mercy involuntarily, his crotch already soaked.

"Spare... spare my life..."

Chen Mo's gaze turned cold. "I ask, you answer. If you answer poorly, you lose your life."

The man nodded like a chicken pecking at rice. "Yes, yes, yes! If I answer well..."

"If you answer well, I'll spare you. First, did you assassinate me for revenge?"

The man both nodded and shook his head. "It's not entirely for revenge. The vice-leader said that after killing you, we should search your body to see if you have any mysterious cultivation techniques."

"Hmm?" Chen Mo tightened his grip on the blade.

"Ahhh... I'm not lying to you, that's really what he said."

Chen Mo's expression darkened. "To what extent is the relationship between the Hansha Gang and the Zhao Family?"

The man thought for a moment. "I only know the relationship is very good. Our vice-leader seems to... take orders from the head of the Zhao Family."

"Then have you ever seen your leader?"

The man immediately shook his head. "Our leader is very mysterious; I have never seen him..."

Chen Mo nodded slightly. "You answered very well."

"Then..."

Before the man could finish his sentence, the broadsword suddenly descended.

"Bang!"

The broadsword hit the ground, and to the side, a head rolled away.