The two men in black stared intently at Lu Chong beneath the moonlight, then suddenly scanned their surroundings, extremely wary.
"Relax. No one's going to interfere. I'm the only one here."
Lu Chong knew what they were looking for. They were worried the military camp had sent experts to protect him.
"It's you!" The leader in black came to his senses and fixed his eyes on Lu Chong.
"How did you know about us, and how did you find our hiding place?" the second man in black demanded.
Lu Chong didn't answer. Instead, he asked curiously, "So you really do know me, and you want to kill me."
"I've come right to your door. Why don't you tell me why you're after me?"
The two men in black exchanged a glance. Rather than answer Lu Chong's question, they silently drew the long sabers at their sides.
"Since you came out on your own, you've saved us brothers the trouble."
Before his words had even faded, the leader in black pointed his saber at Lu Chong and charged toward him, covering a zhang with every step.
The second man in black silently held his saber nearby, both to prevent Lu Chong from escaping and to watch for any helpers.
Faced with the leader's bloodthirsty saber, Lu Chong simply let his arms hang at his sides and stood perfectly still, as if he'd been scared witless.
"Die!"
The leader in black spat out the icy word, then leaped into the air and brought his saber slashing down at an angle. It cut through the night like a bolt of lightning, descending toward Lu Chong's head.
Only when the blade was three inches from Lu Chong's head—when the two men in black thought he was about to die—did Lu Chong finally move.
Within three inches, the palm held the world.
At that critical moment, Lu Chong unleashed the military's Three-Inch Palm.
The man in black didn't even see when Lu Chong raised his hand, or how it suddenly appeared in front of his chest.
His move was already committed, and he had no time to change it or defend himself.
That palm was faster than his saber. It landed lightly on the leader's chest, despite its overwhelming force.
Thud! Crack!
The leader in black flew backward, coughing up a large mouthful of blood midair. His entire left chest had caved in.
He could no longer keep hold of his murderous saber. By the time his body hit the ground, his eyes had already gone dull.
When the second man in black finally reacted and rushed over to lift his brother, he realized in horror that his brother was breathing his last.
Not just the second man in black—even Lu Chong was surprised.
"Sorry. I really didn't think he'd be this weak. I was planning to take him alive," Lu Chong said coolly.
The man had been a Martial Artist Second Stage assassin, and his blade had been so vicious. Who would've thought he was all show and no substance? He couldn't even withstand Lu Chong's Human-Grade Mid-Tier Three-Inch Palm.
The second man in black watched his leader quickly breathe his last, then glared at Lu Chong, who was making light of it. He cursed inwardly, Who the hell said this kid was a Martial Disciple...
"Kid, we'll admit defeat today. I'll come back for revenge."
After making his threat, the second man in black abandoned his brother's corpse and turned to run.
As if. He wasn't stupid enough to keep treating Lu Chong like an ordinary Martial Disciple student.
What student could be that fearsome, killing a Martial Artist with one move? He wasn't a match for him either.
Lu Chong had only just calmed himself after his first kill when he watched the other assassin turn and run.
What kind of guys were these? Weren't they taking their jobs a little too lightly?
Pulling himself together, Lu Chong quickly used Gale Step and burst forward at a speed far greater than his opponent's.
"Your leader's dead because of you! Why are you chasing me too?" The second man in black realized Lu Chong was catching up and screamed in panic.
Lu Chong ran after him, trying to reassure him. "Relax. I'll go easy on you this time. I won't kill you."
"Liar!" the assassin shouted. With absolutely no dignity, he pulled a handgun from his clothes and fired several shots behind him.
But a common handgun of that caliber posed no threat to Lu Chong now.
He could even predict the bullets' trajectories and dodge them, or take them head-on with the Golden Cicada Robe.
Lu Chong leaped two zhang forward and kicked the second man in black in the back while still in midair, sending him sprawling face-first into the dirt.
It was only a Human-Grade Low-Tier Heart-Piercing Kick. Lu Chong had mainly worried he might kick the man to death.
When he sparred with the soldiers, he always held back, suppressing his cultivation and strength to match theirs.
He really hadn't expected to be this powerful when he went all out.
Even more surprising was how frail a full-fledged assassin could be.
By the time the second man in black scrambled to his feet, Lu Chong had already reached him. He kicked the man's saber away, then slammed a palm into the back of his head, knocking the assassin unconscious.
"What a disappointment. He didn't even get a chance to use an Earth-Rank Martial Skill," Lu Chong sighed to himself.
He'd thought he'd found two worthy opponents, but it turned out they were useless.
At that moment, a burly figure dropped from the tree overhead. It was Principal Fang, who had been hiding in the dark all along.
"Your instincts were right. Someone really was trying to assassinate you during training," Principal Fang said with a click of his tongue.
Lu Chong replied sheepishly, "You know, I've been cultivating Principal Wei's Golden Cicada Robe, so my senses are pretty sharp."
In truth, the Golden Cicada Robe hadn't made his senses that sharp. Otherwise, Lu Chong should have noticed them much earlier.
He had actually sensed someone watching him when he entered the Wilderness, after the Golden Cicada Robe evolved into the Golden Bell Shield and he trained it to the Microscopic level.
The Golden Bell Shield had made his senses several times sharper than the Golden Cicada Robe ever had.
No one liked being watched with such malice from the shadows.
So Lu Chong had quietly told Principal Fang and asked him to take him deeper into the Wilderness that night to look for the enemy's tracks.
With Principal Fang's cultivation, finding the two men's hiding place from a few clues hadn't been difficult.
Once they confirmed the newcomers were assassins, Lu Chong had gone along with the situation and asked Principal Fang to wait in hiding, giving him a chance to face the assassins alone.
He was already used to killing Exotic Beasts, and it didn't weigh on his conscience.
But he had never faced an enemy from his own race before. This was a good opportunity.
Principal Fang had agreed.
Neither of them had expected the newcomers to be Martial Artist Second Stage experts and yet so helpless that they couldn't last even one move against Lu Chong.
Lu Chong had planned to take one of them alive, but he'd ended up killing him with a single palm strike.
"When you're dealing with enemies harboring evil intentions, you don't need to show mercy, and you don't need to feel guilty."
Seeing Lu Chong lost in thought, Principal Fang assumed this was his first time killing someone and that he was struggling to adjust. He continued, "Killing someone is really that simple. As long as they deserve to die, it's no different from killing an Exotic Beast."
At that moment, Lu Chong sensed a thick aura of bloodshed from the Old Principal.
There was no need to guess. The Old Principal must have been through battles and killed plenty of people.
Still, now that Lu Chong thought about it, he didn't feel uncomfortable.
"Remember, sometimes people's hearts are more frightening than Exotic Beasts," Principal Fang said with a sigh, then looked at the second man in black, who was unconscious.
They'd dared to assassinate his student right under his nose. Did they really think a tiger wouldn't show its claws?
This was serious. Principal Fang couldn't even bear to imagine what would have happened if the two men had succeeded.
...Provided by Yunyou Shuhai, author of Global Catastrophe: My Martial Arts Cultivate Automatically
Before you continue