Li Yan was an assassin who had been around for over a hundred years. While he was only at the Human Limit Realm, meaning he would have been an average disciple at one of the Three Celestial Sects, his cunning, intelligence, and skill made him a far greater threat than other cultivators at the same level. He used his own unique techniques and powerful poisons to kill cultivators at higher cultivation than him.
His first and most used technique was Shadow Cloak. It was an extraordinary ability to blend into shadows and conceal his presence. When activated, he became nearly invisible to the naked eye, making it incredibly challenging for even higher-level cultivators to detect his presence. It was a skill that allowed him to stealthily approach his target. And he was using it even now.
He sat deep within the bowels of the Skylark, in a small compartment located next to the engine room. It was the heart of the airship, containing a large, intricate device that resembled a floating cube surrounded by a strange nexus of sealing arrays. That cube was the power source that sent energy throughout the ship so it could maintain its lift and soar through the skies. Talismans connected the cube to a variety of pipes that fed energy to the various ship functions.
Unlike the other five who were working with him, Li Yan never confronted his targets up close. He didn’t get to the ripe old age of 145 by being stupid. No, his plans always consisted of letting his “partners” attack first. They would weaken his targets, often dying in the process, and he would kill his target when their guard was down, when they thought the danger had passed. This method had served him very well up to now. He suspected it would continue to serve him well into the future.
“Dammit! This woman just killed Yi Han and Muon Jun!”
“She made it look so easy! Did she know about us in advance?! But how?!”
“What do we do, Ling Li?”
“I don’t know, Mei Mei. Should we retreat?”
Li Yan almost sighed as he listened to his “partners” panic. This always happened. The cultivators they targeted were often much stronger than them, so they wound up killing most of the assassins before being taken down, though it sounded like they were struggling more than usual this time. Their mission had only just started and two of them were already gone. That suggested Mei Xilan, their target, had been expecting them.
Did someone tip her off? No. The only people who knew about us is our employer, and he wants this girl dead. Maybe she has some other method of discovering us…?
Shaking his head as he realized his thoughts were getting him nowhere, Li Yan decided to calm down his “partners.”
“Relax. It sounds like there has been a complication with the plan, but don’t worry, I’ll figure out what we should do next. For now, let’s--”
“Found you,” someone said right next to his ear.
Li Yan’s eyes bulged. Where did that voice come from?! This space was barely large enough for him to fit inside of it! How could someone else be in here?!
He barely had time to ponder this further before someone grabbed him by the throat, and the next thing he knew, he was overcome with a sense of vertigo. His world felt like it was being flipped on his head.
All the air was suddenly expelled from his lungs in a loud whoosh as he was slammed back first into the floor. His eyes went crossed and he had trouble breathing, but he was a trained assassin and quickly reacted even before he was able to get his bearings.
[Misdirection]
[Infusion of Fear]
Li Yan used two of his other techniques in quick conjunction. Using Misdirection, he created a loud disturbance that echoed in his opponent’s ear, which was just enough to distract the man. Then he used Infusion of Fear to induce feelings of intense fear by exploiting his opponent’s deepest anxieties and phobias. What made the second technique so powerful was that he didn’t need to know what his opponent feared. It was a technique that used a person’s own chi and past experiences to conjure their fear.
The man’s hand slackened and Li Yan used that moment to slip away, scrambling to his feet and putting some distance between him and his opponent. He studied the person before him. It was a man. That much he could tell. However, they wore a plain mask that hid their face. All he could see were the well-defined arms that emerged from his black martial arts uniform. He could not tell how old this man was, nor could he sense their cultivation, which meant they were much more powerful than him.
This is the person who was with Mei Xilan.
He had been watching Mei Xilan ever since she entered this ship, so he knew of her companion. How had he discovered him? No, that wasn’t important right now. This person was way stronger than him. He could tell without fighting that this man could kill him as easily as breathing. It was paramount that he avoid a confrontation with him at all costs.
“You are Mei Xilan’s companion, right?” He asked. The man said nothing. “I don’t know what she offered you, but I guarantee nothing good will come from siding with her. She is destined for death. That might not be what you want to hear, considering her beauty, but you should realize how hopeless it is to side with her.”
“...”
Still nothing. Li Yan felt a trickle of sweat run down his scalp. He wished this man wasn’t wearing a mask. It would have been much easier to know what this man was thinking if he could see his face. Still, he continued, because that’s all he could do.
“Listen, if you join me, I can pay you--urk?!”
Li Yan’s words were cut off when something plunged into his back and emerged out of his chest. He stared down at the hand that now clutched his heart in a firm grip. When… did that happen? How? He hadn’t sensed anyone coming up behind him!
As his vision began turning dark, he heard a voice echoing as though they were far away.
“I have no interest in joining a weakling who hides in a compartment while his companions are killed.”
Then Li Yan heard nothing at all.
***
“Are they following us?” asked Mei Xilan.
“Yes,” came the answer from her shadow.
“Where are they?”
“Two of them are behind us. The last one is on the ceiling.”
Mei Xilan sucked in a deep breath and blew it out. She wished she could see where that last person was. It must have been the one who looked like a merchant.
She wandered deeper into the Skylark and soon appeared in a deserted hallway--the perfect place for her battle.
Turning, she saw neither the merchant nor the young couple. However, she knew they were still around since Youmei had told her where they were hiding.
[Ice Lotus]
Mei Xilan created several lotus flowers from ice and fired them at where Youmei told her. The merchant who had been following her on the ceiling suddenly appeared and dropped to the floor. Her ice lotuses slammed into the ceiling and froze it over. Meanwhile, a shield sprang to life as a young couple appeared. Her projectiles shattered against the shield.
“Assassins hired by the Undying Sun Sect, did you think I didn’t know where you were hiding?” she asked, though it was less a question and more a statement.
“This woman is quite strong, Ling Li,” said the young woman.
Ling Li nodded. “She is indeed, Mei Mei. I don’t know if we can beat her.”
“Oh, but we have the old man with us. Might he be able to help?”
“Indeed he might. We can at least use him as a meat shield.”
“Oi… don’t even try to use me as a shield, you brats,” said the merchant with a low growl.
Mei Xilan narrowed her eyes. “I do not know who you people are, and I do not care. I will not allow some two-bit assassins to kill me when I still have so much to accomplish.”
[Ice Briars]
Thick branches with sharp thorns burst from behind her back and sought to entangled the assassins, but they were quick. The man dressed as a merchant clapped his hands and released a thick cloud of black smoke. She could not see beyond it, but she could feel her ice briars being sliced apart.
“You’re wide open!”
“Let’s get her, Ling Li!”
[Shadow Dancee]
Mei Mei and Ling Li moved in perfect synchrony as they danced across the floor, multiple illusions appearing around them. Mei Xilan furrowed her brow as she tried to determine which was the real attackers and which were fake. She could not. She tried to block one of them by creating a wall of ice, but another slipped around her guard and attacked her with a poison dagger. Mei Xilan backpedaled, but she moved right into the attack of another figure. She raised a shield to block, but the figure moved right through her.
An illusion!
Ling Li appeared before her. His body spun like he a top as he released a kick that cut through the air. Mei Xilan had no time to dodge. She raised her arms to block, flinching as the bones in her arm creaked. If that was the end of their assault, she would have been fine, but the merchant was dropping down from above, his dagger poised to impale her through the skull.
[Ice Lotus: Shield]
A shield shaped like a lotus sprang into existence between her and the merchant. A loud clanging sound echoed around them as dagger and ice met. The merchant was unable to break through.
[Ice Lotus: Entrapment]
The shield’s petals quickly grew and tried to trap the merchant, but he leapt off the shield, landed on the ceiling, and bounced away as the petals tried to chase him.
While her technique was active, Mei Xilan found herself engaging the young couple in hand-to-hand combat. Their cultivation was not very high, but there were two of them, and they complement one another well. They never let her have a moment to attack. Constantly keeping her on the defensive with a barrage of attacks, they quickly herded her into a corner, where the merchant was waiting.
[Ice Lotus: Shield]
[Ice Lotus: Entrapment]
Mei Xilan created a shield, then the petals folded over, though they did not try to entrap her enemies. They surrounded her instead. The loud clanging of several attacks striking her shield echoed around her. Cracks appeared on the ice’s surface, but the shield held strong.
She took a deep breath and considered her options. Her three enemies were not strong. She could defeat any of them individually, but they were difficult to deal with as a group. To make matters worse, she was unable to bring heer full power to bear because of where they were.
Airships worked through a unique system that used a combination of crystals and chi from the atmosphere to power itself. Cultivators were not supposed to use techniques, lest it disrupt the airship’s functions. The techniques she was using right now were all she could afford to usee.
If only I could use my Phoenix Domain…
“Do you need help?” asked Youmei from within her shadow.
Mei Xilan blinked. She had completely forgotten about Youmei.
“I would appreciate your assistance. If you can kill one of those two younger cultivators, I can take care of the rest.”
“Just leave it to Youmei.”
“Okay…”
Mei Xilan took another deep breath. She held it, released it, then released her shield. The three wouldbe assassins were in the process of getting ready to attack her shield again. From the widening of their eyes, it didn’t look like they were prepared for her to suddenly appear.
A figure leapt out of her shadow--Youmei. There was a time when she had been a giant panther. Now that she looked like a child, the psychological impact of her appearing from within a shadow was lessened, but it still surprised them. Black claws appeared on Youmei’s hands as she slammed into the young woman, Mei Mei. They both went down. Before Mei Mei could do more than squawk, Youmei had shoved her claws into the woman’s throat.
“MEI MEI!”
[Ice Briars]
Mei Xilan acted while Ling Li was shocked, creating ice briars that quickly trapped him. They coiled around his body, the thorns digging into his flesh, causing him to cry out in pain.
[Ice Lotus: Shield]
The merchant tried to attack her while she was distracted, but a shield appeared to block his way.
[Ice Lotus: Burst]
The shield soon exploded into thousands of tiny shards. Screaming in surprise and pain, the merchant stumbled away. Mei Xilan didn’t focus on him yet. She channeled her chi and slammed a foot into the ground.
[Jaws of Retribution]
“What is this?! No! NOOOOOOO!”
The young man only had enough time to scream as a massive set of jaws emerged from the ground, gleaming like crystals in the light. The jaws, formed from ice, clamped down on the young man, whose squeals turned from terror to pain. Mei Xilan took a deep breath, then channeled more chi into her technique. The young man was already quite dead. He bled out quickly. Her technique simply dragged his body into the icy depths of her technique, where he vanished as though ceasing to exist.
Mei Xilan turned to take care of the last enemy… only to find Youmei standing over his bloody corpse.
“You were taking too long, so Youmei finished him for you,” she said.
Mei Xilan blinked. “I can see that. Um, thank you.”
As she watched Youmei lick the blood off her fingers, then grimace and spit it out, Mei Xilan promised herself that she would never pick a fight with this girl. Youmei was terrifying.
Thanks for the chapter!