Assassination

On the way back to camp, an extremely faint tremor suddenly traveled through the air.

[Three unknown heat sources detected]

The alert from the Chip made Green's expression turn solemn, but he showed no abnormality and continued steadily toward the camp.

[Thermal vision synchronized. Biological Field Scan activated. Analyzing enemy life signs.]

Under the Chip's influence, Green's right eye had already transformed into something resembling infrared vision. The enemies' situation was laid bare before him. In Green's eyes, the group was hiding beneath the sand. Combined with the cover of night, they would indeed have been difficult to detect. Unfortunately, against Green, who could detect heat sources, such camouflage was meaningless. On the blue ground, several enormous red heat sources stood out clearly.

[Thermal vision synchronization complete. Biological Field Scan concluded. Evaluating current enemy status]

[Unknown heat source one]

[Strength: 3.2]

[Speed: 3.1]

[Constitution: 3.3]

...

[Final assessment: All three are Knight Level. Probability of posing a threat to the subject is extremely low.]

Only this much? They don't even qualify to make me test my strength.

Three people had ambushed Green on the road back to camp. His expression grew even more solemn. The other side had clearly come prepared. Only Old Green knew that he had left the camp. Unless they had been watching Green all along, there was no way they could have known which direction he had taken and arranged such a precise ambush.

[There is a traitor in the camp.] Green had already reached his conclusion. It was highly unlikely that anyone from the original caravan had betrayed him. The only possibility was Baron Candia's newly joined caravan. Even if Baron Candia himself was not involved, he was probably connected to someone in his caravan.

Slowly mobilizing the energy within his body, Green stepped into the encirclement the three had prepared in advance.

"Swish!"

The three attackers were extremely decisive. The instant Green entered the encirclement, they launched their assault from directly ahead and from both sides. The person in front even kicked up a large amount of gravel and dust, aiming straight for Green's eyes and trying to block his vision. The three worked together with remarkable coordination. If an ordinary Knight Level had fallen into such a trap, it would have been a situation of certain death.

Too bad they're facing me!

In Green's eyes, the movements of the three attackers seemed to unfold in slow motion, posing no threat whatsoever. After glancing at the assassins closing in from both sides, Green extended his left and right hands and casually slapped at the daggers thrust toward him.

With nothing more than a casual strike from Green, the hands gripping the daggers burst apart as if struck by iron hammers. The tremendous force sent their bodies crashing violently into the ground. After dealing with the two at his sides, Green turned his body slightly and struck the assassin directly ahead with a whip kick to the chest.

"Crack!"

A crisp sound rang out. The bones of the assassin in front had been crushed into pieces as if several heavy trucks had run them over. By the time he landed on the ground, he had become a puddle of mangled flesh.

"Ah!"

A heart-rending scream rang out. The two assassins whose hands had been blown apart by Green's casual slap had fallen to the ground and cried out in agony. The wounds Green had inflicted on them were clearly more than simple impact damage. Green had infused energy into his hands, and when he attacked the two, he had sent a thread of energy into their bodies.

Given the destructive nature of the energy, their insides should have felt as if a giant iron hammer were smashing all their organs to pieces.

Looking at the two assassins dressed in black, Green reached out and tore off their face coverings. Both men were around forty or fifty years old, one large and one small.

"Talk. Who sent you?" Green lifted the two men and placed them together, temporarily suppressing the energy he had injected into their bodies.

With the destructive energy in their bodies temporarily stilled, the two assassins breathed deeply as if they had survived a catastrophe. Looking at Green standing beside them, their eyes filled with terror. They looked at him as though he were a monster.

In the blink of an eye, the three of them had been defeated. Two were gravely wounded, while one had died outright. As for how they had realized that one was dead, the man lying on the ground had his chest and back pressed together. The monster before them had kicked him into a sheet of paper.

[Chip, activate Microexpression Capture]

"We'll talk, we'll talk." Assassins like these were nothing like the ones shown in movies, with unwavering faith and the resolve to never betray their organization even unto death. Assassins who lived by the blade and worked only for money would sell out the organization behind them the moment they were captured. If they refused to talk, they would suffer torture, and their organization might not even avenge them. If they confessed, perhaps the person before them would be in a good mood and spare their lives. As for whether they would be pursued afterward—if they died now, there would be no afterward.

"We're assassins from the Shadow Organization. We specialize in taking all kinds of assassination missions. Your contract was issued by the Saladin Kingdom. The Saladin Kingdom didn't have the manpower to hunt you down, so they entrusted the Shadow Organization with sending assassins to kill you." The assassin answered exceptionally clearly, selling out both the organization behind him and the client who had hired them.

The Saladin Kingdom? That makes sense. Five Knight Level people died at my hands, and one of them had a chance of breaking through to Grand Knight. It was only natural for them to place such a bounty. After learning who his enemy was, Green continued questioning the assassin.

"How did you know I had left the camp?" Green pressed on.

"It was Baron Candia. You stayed in the caravan the whole time, so we had no opportunity to assassinate you. We bribed Baron Candia and deliberately joined your group, asking him to keep an eye on your movements. When you left the camp, he came to us and told us which direction you had gone. That's why we set up this ambush."

As Green listened to the two men, a dangerous glint appeared in his eyes. According to the Chip's analysis, the men's microexpressions had not changed at all. In other words, everything they had said was true. They had not deceived Green.

The two men also sensed the killing intent radiating from Green. The killing intent released by Green's powerful Life Essence was like a biting cold wind. The two men lying on the ground began to tremble uncontrollably. This was the suppression of a higher life-form's rank over ordinary life-forms.

Green quickly withdrew his killing intent. Looking at the puddle the two men had already wet themselves into, he could not help showing a look of disgust.

Green crouched before the two men and patted their cheeks. "Do you want to die or live?"

"We want to live, we want to live. What do you need us to do, sir?" Hearing that Green was willing to spare them, the two men's somewhat pallid faces, drained of blood, unexpectedly flushed with color. Their bodies, which had been sprawled on the ground, hurriedly crawled up, and they knelt before Green and began kowtowing.

"What are your names?"

"Sir, my name is Wade. The one beside me is Dila." The smaller of the two hurriedly answered Green.

"This Shadow Organization of yours—what kind of structure does it have? After this assassination fails, will it continue causing me trouble?" Green asked the crucial question. If the Shadow Organization kept harassing him in the days ahead, he would have to consider how to wipe it out.

"No, no, sir. The Shadow Organization is merely a platform. It only posts bounties, while the assassins choose their own missions. Once a mission succeeds, the Shadow Organization takes a portion as an introduction fee. If it fails, the Shadow Organization posts the bounty again. An assassination carried out by three Knight Level assassins like us is already top-tier. Anything above that would only mean more Knight Level assassins. Even a Grand Knight would be a minor problem for you, sir!" Wade immediately answered Green's question, a flattering smile on his face as he praised Green's strength.

Listening to Wade's explanation, Green nodded. Since the other side was unlikely to continue sending assassins, there was no need to deal with it for the moment. Besides, the Shadow Organization was merely a loosely structured platform. Even if he destroyed it, a new Shadow Organization would appear, and once the bounty was posted, he would still face assassins. To solve the problem at its root, he still had to make the Saladin Kingdom withdraw the assassination order.

"I have a task for you. When you return to the camp, identify Baron Candia for me. Once you complete the task, you can leave."

"Yes, yes, yes, sir." After seeing the two men agree, Green turned and continued toward the camp.

Watching Green expose his back, Wade and Dila exchanged a glance before silently taking medicinal powder from their clothes and sprinkling it over their wounds. They did not choose to attack merely because Green had exposed such a glaring weakness.

Green was simply too terrifying. The two men had completely lost the courage to resist. Now they only wanted to complete Green's task so they could leave this terrifying place and get away from him.

Of course, Green would never casually expose his back. With the Chip, he could scan the surrounding environment in every direction. The moment the two men made a move, death would be their only outcome.