"The world is unpredictable, and fate toys with us... Looking back, I always feel we're worthy opponents, generals perfectly matched. Truly, a pair of smiling tigers, two black-horned sharks!"
Feng Jiu sighed.
One lured his victim into the trap, the other outsourced the killing... One genius against another!
Had either of them faced anyone else, things would never have become this ridiculous.
But reality had no room for what-ifs.
The assassin organization Hell was the one that suffered. A whole slew of Great Powers had died, and even Dao-Slaying Kings had fallen in battle. The Sacred Body they had hunted slipped away beneath everyone's gaze, slapping the organization's face until it swelled.
Hell had lost so badly it was numb.
Of course, the Sacred Body was hardly better off. He had fled for his life under relentless pursuit, all because, at someone's instigation, Hell had shown the resolve of a lion hunting a rabbit.
"Smiling tigers... Black-horned sharks... I don't quite understand, but neither sounds like a compliment."
The young Sacred Body drew a deep breath. His golden blood and vital energy surged as he did everything he could to restore his condition, preparing to face the most terrifying opponent of his cultivation level he had encountered since entering the world.
"What? Don't like them?" Feng Jiu smiled. "Then we could call each other 'Sleeping Dragon' and 'Young Phoenix' instead."
"Dragon? Phoenix?" the Sacred Body said quietly. "Both are legendary immortal spirits, so describing us that way seems fair... It's just that your tone makes me uneasy. I suspect those aren't compliments either."
"Ah, why go blurting out the truth?" Feng Jiu said solemnly. "Cultivation isn't all fighting and killing. There's also the art of dealing with people... With a tongue that sharp, I'm afraid society will beat you black and blue!"
"Look, just like it's doing right now."
At those words, the young Sacred Body clenched his fists.
-Beat me black and blue?
-Wasn't that what you fucking outsourced?
"If I'd known that man was him, I would've brought the Emperor Tower crashing down on him..."
The young Sacred Body sighed inwardly, wishing only that he could turn back time.
If heaven gave him another chance, the instant he stepped into that Assassin Heavenly Court contact point, the Western Emperor Pagoda would come crashing down too!
He prided himself on a physique unrivaled in the world and talent that shook past and present. If ninety-nine percent of all those who had attained the Dao throughout history had lived in his age and competed against him, he could have beaten their heads crooked.
His Emperor Road should have blazed with boundless glory. Sweep everything aside! Invincible!
Calm and unhurried, with room to spare.
How had it ended up like this?
Frantic and rushed, scrambling and crawling!
His expression tightened, until finally he could no longer hold it in.
"Compared to me, with your poisonous mouth and all your crooked ways, I think you're the one who most deserves to be beaten black and blue by... society!"
The Sacred Body shot back.
"Hey! That's where you're wrong!" Feng Jiu shook his head repeatedly. "You're a Sacred Body. Don't you understand?"
"In this world, good people die young, while scourges live a hundred thousand years!"
"Back then, the nine great Sacred Bodies battled the heavens, holding up the sky for all living beings. What valor! What heroes!"
"And in the end? Dead, dead, dead, dead... crippled."
He said "dead" eight times, only adding "crippled" at the very end.
Eight dead, one crippled, and the crippled one was still clinging to life in the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land.
"And your physique has a sworn enemy out among the stars, the Heavenly Tyrant Body... Whether you call that lineage pragmatic or selfish, they almost never fight the Life Forbidden Zones to the death, yet they live quite comfortably. At least three Great Accomplished Tyrant Bodies remain in the world."
Feng Jiu spoke with amusement. "If you ever venture out among the stars, who knows how the Tyrant Body Lineage might bully you!"
"Oh, I doubt you'll live to see that day... After all, I'm here."
"Now that I'm here, your path ends."
He said leisurely, "Of course, you do have a second option."
"For instance, give me the remaining immortal tear green gold you owe me. Buy your life."
"As long as you pay enough, I won't kill you this time."
"After all, although a young Sacred Body like you has some crooked tricks of his own, harboring ill intentions and scheming against my Assassin Heavenly Court... in light of the achievements of past Sacred Bodies, I wouldn't mind letting it slide."
"Though I'm no good man, and have no intention of becoming one, I still rather hope there'll be more good people in this world. That way, I can really let loose and do evil!"
At that moment, the young Sacred Body did not know whether to be angry or laugh. His feelings were complicated.
Did Feng Jiu think so little of him?
"Your Assassin Heavenly Court took the job, and you can just decide not to do it? Did you feed your reputation to the dogs?" He sneered. "And buy my life? More likely I'd lose both my money and my life!"
"Hey, you're wrong again..." Feng Jiu argued confidently. "My Assassin Heavenly Court's reputation is naturally reliable... But I never reported this job!"
"It's a bit of private work!"
"If you don't tell and I don't tell, who'll know this job ever existed?"
"Give me the immortal gold, and I could simply turn around and leave!"
At that moment, the young Sacred Body's powerful frame shuddered, then shuddered again.
What had he just heard?
"Didn't you say your loyalty to the Heavenly Court could be witnessed by the sun and moon?"
The Sacred Body vaguely remembered how solemnly the man before him had sworn back then, declaring his loyalty to the Heavenly Court, saying he would sooner sell out Hell and the Human World than betray the Heavenly Court and expose its headquarters!
And now... this was how he showed his loyalty?!
Well, damn!
He had seen how Feng Jiu screwed over Hell.
Now he had seen how Feng Jiu stayed "loyal" to the Heavenly Court too.
It was utterly shocking.
"Who can say I'm not loyal?" Feng Jiu said calmly. "Of course I'm loyal to my own Heavenly Court... But I haven't become the Lord of the Heavenly Court yet, have I? So I'll have to be loyal gradually, slowly, in measured stages..."
"..." The young Sacred Body felt his entire worldview crumble, the bottom line of his life pierced clean through in one stroke.
"So, what's your answer?"
Feng Jiu asked with a smile.
The Sacred Body fell silent for a moment.
At last, he said quietly, "Actually..."
"I only ever had one fist-sized piece of immortal tear green gold, and I already gave it to you."
"The piece I gave you was real. All the rest was fake..."
In an instant.
Feng Jiu's eyes widened.
Brimming with righteous indignation, he demanded, "You're trying to welch on your debt?!"
Feng Jiu thought his outsourcing scheme was already pretty damn unscrupulous.
He had never expected the Sacred Body before him to be every bit his equal in another respect!
One took the money without doing the job; the other had the job done without paying.
What was this?
Are you that Ye fellow from more than a hundred thousand years in the future, born early into this
era to cash out the Sacred Body Lineage's credit?
"Only if you can kill me is there a final payment..." the Sacred Body said as though it were perfectly natural. "If you can't kill me, what final payment is there to discuss?"
"If you kill me, why would I pay you anything?"
"Anyone else, fine. But a scoundrel like you, lining your own pockets and abusing your position for private gain-what right do you have to criticize me?"
His reasoning was sound and well supported.
At that moment, the two stared at each other, once again gaining a profound understanding of their opponent, each rendered speechless by what the other had done.
-This fellow is no decent bird!
"Looks like I have no choice but to act, cover the heavens with one hand, and snuff out a prodigy."
Feng Jiu sighed softly, his gaze growing unfathomable. "You've more or less recovered too. We can call this a fair fight."