Feng Jiu excelled at "socializing downward"-at mingling with the weak.
With the mechanics of speed on his side, slaughtering the weak could hardly have been quicker. He swept through one of Hell's important halls, butchered every assassin there, and even recovered the deposit he had paid.
"Hell's incompetence made me kick an iron plate... I can't cut down Wushi right now, but you think I can't cut you down?"
Feng Jiu sighed, feeling refreshed from head to toe.
Sure enough, pressure and worries could be transferred to someone else.
Especially after he pinned the blame on someone else along the way, his mood became even brighter.
"Hmm, Hell's important strongholds... I know a few more."
Feng Jiu's eyes darted about. Learning to be good was difficult, but crooked ideas? Who knew how many he could come up with in a single thought?
"Those in the same trade really are mortal enemies..."
"Just as the Assassin Heavenly Court never feared being encircled by the many holy lands, yet couldn't withstand Hell and Human World suddenly stabbing it in the back..."
"When it comes to understanding Hell and Human World, aside from those two assassin organizations themselves, I doubt anyone knows more than the Heavenly Court..."
Contact stations, assassin training camps, important halls, and even their true lifelines: small worlds opened up by ancient sages and kept as their final reserves...
The three great assassin organizations did not merely target the various holy lands. They also probed one another, their covert battles never ceasing.
As it happened, Feng Jiu, a newly promoted core prospect of the Assassin Heavenly Court, possessed quite a few relevant leads.
"How could destroying one Hell stronghold be enough?"
"Our little brother Wushi, this young Great Emperor destined to sweep aside everything in his path-even if all three great assassin organizations chase him with bloodshot eyes, surely it'll amount to no more than a little wind and frost!"
"Though I looted those strongholds along the way... I still left something behind to give him a tremendous boost in popularity!"
"Ridding the people of a scourge, sweeping through assassin organizations... tsk, he gets the glory, I get the spoils. Everyone wins!"
Feng Jiu clapped his hands, immediately turning desire into action and becoming the sharpest blade thrust at the assassin organizations.
And so.
While the world was still reeling over the young Sacred Body Wushi's "tooth for tooth, eye for eye" destruction of an important Hell stronghold, explosive news arrived one report after another, bombarding everyone's minds into numbness.
For in the days that followed, the Sacred Body randomly spawned across the Northern Region of the Eastern Wilderness... Yet every random appearance came with blood and fire, struggle and battle. Mountains and rivers shattered, the earth sank, and Hell's assassin strongholds were erased one after another, forging Wushi's fearsome reputation!
He fought alone across tens of millions of miles, wiping twelve important Hell strongholds off the map and shaking the world!
People marveled. Assassin organizations were loathed by gods and ghosts alike, yet they had remained alive and kicking for so many years precisely because they excelled at hiding.
But before the Sacred Body's torch-bright discerning eyes, their ability to hide had failed!
Soon, the storm swept onward. Human World and the Assassin Heavenly Court had no time to savor their mockery of Hell's incompetence. Having hunted geese all their lives, they were pecked in the eyes by a goose instead, and suffered alongside Hell. Eighteen of Human World's training camps were erased, leaving behind only fist imprints that stretched between heaven and earth.
The Assassin Heavenly Court suffered even more terribly. One of its important halls was breached and looted clean!
The loss of personnel was secondary. The crucial loss was a sacred object: a fist-sized piece of Dao Tribulation Gold upon which the spirit tablets of generations of assassin patriarchs and sages were enshrined.
"That damnable Sacred Body!"
An ancient Killing Saint of the Heavenly Court, already reduced to skin and bones, descended upon the ruined hall. Smoke seemed to pour from his seven orifices; he looked ready to breathe fire.
"The Sacred Body... the Sacred Body!"
"Does he still think this is the age when the nine great Sacred Bodies held the universe beneath their might?!"
"A young brat whose mother's milk hasn't dried on his lips dares trample the glory of our Heavenly Court?!"
"Has our Heavenly Court been too inactive these past years, letting the holy lands of this world forget the terror we once brought them?!"
The current Lord of the Heavenly Court appeared. He, too, was very old, with few years left to live.
Yet he was powerful. He held a golden scepter in one hand and the Book of Time in the other. The two shone in concert, as though mountains of corpses and seas of blood had appeared there, chilling the hearts of the gathered Heavenly Court assassins.
And not just them.
Even if ninety-nine percent of the world's holy lands came here, they would be erased without any suspense.
After all, those were two artifacts that transcended the Saint realm!
Both came from the hands of the Assassin Heavenly Court's first Lord of the Heavenly Court, a Quasi-Emperor.
One was a supremely powerful Quasi-Emperor Artifact. The other had been forged from that Quasi-Emperor's own flayed skin, bearing the insights into time of a powerhouse who had truly entered its domain.
With the two working together, unless an Emperor Weapon emerged or a Quasi-Emperor appeared, no one could withstand the Assassin Heavenly Court's divine might. They struck terror into the holy lands.
Feng Jiu mingled among the assassins, his burning gaze fixed on the Book of Time in the Lord of the Heavenly Court's hand.
He coveted it, and he was honest about it.
If not for this special Quasi-Emperor Artifact, he would most likely have already defected from the Assassin Heavenly Court.
After all, he had already leaked even the Assassin Heavenly Court's most important core inheritance, trading the Nine Secrets: Xing for the foundation upon which the Jade Lake Holy Land had been established.
Once, he had been utterly loyal to the Assassin Heavenly Court.
That was because all manner of restrictions existed, capable not only of preventing the Nine Secrets: Xing from being leaked, but also of determining life and death.
Ultimately, this was an assassin organization, not a charitable institution!
The inheritance they studied was the Life-Killing Great Art, which required advancing over endless piles of bones... How much brutal training did an assassin have to endure before making his debut, before he could kill his enemies in the cruelest ways without so much as blinking?
Feng Jiu had every right to speak on the matter!
He had truly clawed his way up from here, step by step. Only after slaughtering numerous King Bodies and proving his worth had he finally been taught the Nine Secrets: Xing.
The first lesson in rising through the ranks: loyalty!
But then the system arrived, granting him sudden enlightenment about the second lesson in rising through the ranks-
Forget your roots!
Whatever else might be said of his system, it possessed no shortage of ways to evade heaven's scrutiny and remain untouched by karma. Otherwise, he could not have casually pilfered the Ten Thousand Worlds Reincarnation Lotus and still remained at large.
The Assassin Heavenly Court's restrictions could not, in the end, restrain the wind of freedom.
But Feng Jiu did not particularly want to simply run away.
"This Lord of the Heavenly Court... I don't think the position is beyond me."
His gaze wandered over the Book of Time. "Even if I can't become the Lord of the Heavenly Court, taking the Book of Time would be nice..."
"One piece of Dao Tribulation Gold... isn't enough."
Guard day and night as you might, a thief within your own house was the hardest to guard against.
With Feng Jiu personally taking action, even an important hall of the Assassin Heavenly Court was doomed to fall.
Conveniently, along the way, he could help
Wushi complete the achievement of sweeping through all three great assassin organizations.
"The Eastern Wasteland... ought to descend into chaos."
"The real Wushi should be at Jade Pool right now, shouldn't he?"
"But I've left clues to the false Wushi's whereabouts, leading north all the way..."
Feng Jiu's eyes flickered with anticipation.
He... feared only that the world would not fall into chaos.
If the world was not in chaos, he would throw it into utter turmoil!
Whether the Eastern Wasteland descended into chaos was up to Feng Jiu!