Chapter 361: Targeted
A hundred miles away from the Earth Fire Cave, deep within a hidden mountain ravine, the air was filled with a thick, strange odor of blood mixed with medicinal herbs.
The man in black who had fled in a sorry state outside the Earth Fire Cave was slumped on a damp rock, his mask tossed aside, revealing the pale, sinister, and pain-twisted face of a middle-aged man. The wound on his left shoulder had been crudely treated and slathered with a thick, pungent-smelling black ointment, but the grayish-white necrotic area around the wound was still slowly spreading, as if countless tiny insects were gnawing inside. Every heartbeat brought a wave of excruciating, twisting pain and weakness.
"Cough, cough... Damn it, what kind of hellish energy is this?" The man in black, or rather, the person who was more accustomed to being called "Shadow Three," coughed up blood while cursing under his breath, his eyes filled with shock and malice. He pulled a palm-sized, jet-black, skull-shaped, eerie Magical Artifact from his bosom and struggled to inject a trace of weak spiritual power into it.
Two faint red lights lit up in the empty eye sockets of the skull Magical Artifact, and a hoarse voice that sounded like grinding metal rang directly in his mind: "Shadow Three? Is the mission complete? Where is that brat’s head?"
"Complete my ass!" Shadow Three gritted his teeth, his voice trembling with pain and rage. "Boss, the intelligence is seriously flawed! The target has a Late Nascent Soul Stage Puppet by his side! Its strength is ridiculously high! My’Shadowless Needle’ didn’t even scratch its skin, and it almost blew me to death with one shot! If not for my’Substitute Death Talisman’ blocking it, I would be a corpse by now!"
"A Late Nascent Soul Stage Puppet?" The voice from the skull also carried a hint of shock and doubt. "Are you sure? That brat is only at the Golden Core Peak, how could he possibly have a guard of that level? Did you see wrong?"
"See wrong?" Shadow Three was so angry he almost coughed up another mouthful of blood. "I almost lost my life there! That Puppet took three of my needles directly to the chest, and it only left three white dots that disappeared in the blink of an eye! The counter-attack beam was so fast I couldn’t even see it, and its power definitely reached the Peak of the Late Nascent Soul Stage! This wound on my shoulder is a gift from it. This energy is extremely strange; I couldn’t even suppress it with ’Rotten Life Ointment’!"
The other side was silent for a moment, seemingly digesting this shocking news. "...Understood. How is your injury? Can you make it back on your own?"
"I won’t die for now, but I need to find a safe place to force this energy out, otherwise this arm will be ruined. As for the target..." Shadow Three panted as he asked.
"Since there is a Late Nascent Soul Stage Puppet guard, a direct approach is too risky. I will re-evaluate the mission difficulty. It might be necessary to request the assistance of Lord’Shadow One’ or employ other means. You should retreat first, go to the number three stronghold to recover, and be sure to clear your tracks," the hoarse voice commanded.
"Yes..." Shadow Three replied weakly and cut off the communication. The red light in the eye sockets of the skull Magical Artifact extinguished, returning to dead silence.
He leaned against the cold rock and gasped for a good while before struggling to his feet. He cleaned up the surrounding bloodstains and his own aura, changed into a plain gray outfit, swallowed a few Medicinal Pills to suppress his injuries and aura, and then stumbled out of the ravine, sneaking off in a certain direction. With every step, a tearing pain came from his left shoulder, making his hatred for Fang Hao and that damned Puppet deepen.
Shadow Three belonged to a mysterious assassin organization called the "Shadow Pavilion." This organization operated in secrecy and was not well-known in the Cultivation world, but the assassination missions they accepted had a terrifyingly high success rate. They specialized in "dirty work" such as assassinations, espionage, and treasure hunting targeting mid-to-high-level Cultivators. As long as the price was right, they dared to move against even Nascent Soul Cultivators. Shadow Three was one of the organization’s gold-medal assassins, particularly skilled in lurking, tracking, and one-hit kills. His cultivation had already reached the Early Nascent Soul Stage. Combined with his ghostly movement techniques and poisoned hidden weapons, he had successfully assassinated a Middle Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator and was one of the organization’s trump cards.
This time, the mission he received was to assassinate a Golden Core Peak Cultivator named Fang Hao and seize the "important item" on his person (the specific nature of which was vaguely described by the client, but the reward was ridiculously high). Mission intelligence indicated that the target came from a humble background but had significant Opportunities, possessed the ability to fight above his rank, and had an unpredictable itinerary. He was last seen in the Heavenly Pillar Peak area of the Ancient Elephant Mountain Range.
After accepting the mission, Shadow Three immediately set off for the Ancient Elephant Mountain Range. He spent some effort finding out that there had seemingly been an unusual disturbance at Heavenly Pillar Peak, with fluctuations of a battle between a powerful Demon Beast and a Cultivator spreading out. By the time he arrived near Heavenly Pillar Peak, Fang Hao had long since left for the Earth Fire Cave. But Shadow Three was truly a master tracker. He captured the residual, extremely faint Chaos Spiritual Power aura left behind when Fang Hao departed (Fang Hao had used Chaos Spiritual Power in battle, and although he later retracted it, Shadow Three had a special tracking secret technique). Combined with the faint, imperceptible spatial fluctuations coming from the direction of the Earth Fire Cave (traces left by Fang Hao passing through an unstable spatial rift), and his knowledge of the dangerous areas and potential hiding spots in the Ancient Elephant Mountain Range, he finally locked onto the general direction of the Earth Fire Cave.
He dared not get too close, knowing that anyone who could kill the target’s associate (Tiger Zhao) was definitely not someone to be trifled with. Using the "Shadow Evasion Technique" secretly passed down by the Shadow Pavilion and a Magic Treasure capable of greatly suppressing his aura and blending into shadows, he tracked him from afar with patience. It took him several days to finally confirm Fang Hao’s specific hiding spot—the very entrance to that hidden Earth Fire Cave. He did not rush in, but instead lurked in the shadows near the entrance like the most patient viper, waiting for a chance to kill with one strike.
He observed Fang Hao entering the Earth Fire Cave and also sensed a powerful aura (Lao Jin) faintly emanating from within, but he mistakenly assumed it was either Fang Hao’s own aura or that of the Earth Fire Cave’s Restriction, never imagining it was a Late Nascent Soul Stage Puppet. After all, someone possessing a Puppet of this level would at least be a great Cultivator at the Late Nascent Soul Stage or a Core Disciple of a top-tier Sect; how could it be a Loose Cultivator at the Golden Core Peak?
His original plan was to wait for Fang Hao to come out or to sneak in when the aura inside the Earth Fire Cave was at its weakest. But just a few days ago, he vaguely sensed violent fluctuations in the aura inside the Earth Fire Cave. It seemed someone was performing Alchemy, and the grade of the Medicinal Pill was not low. This made him even more convinced that Fang Hao was carrying precious treasures. He continued to wait patiently until shortly before, when the aura fluctuations inside the Earth Fire Cave subsided and a rich medicinal fragrance wafted out (the pill fragrance when the nascent soul forming pill was completed; although most was sealed, a tiny trace still escaped). Subsequently, he sensed Fang Hao’s aura rapidly weaken and stabilize, as if he had fallen into a deep sleep.
"Now is the time!" Shadow Three rejoiced inwardly. The target had exhausted himself greatly from Alchemy and fallen into a deep sleep; this was the moment of weakest defense and the highest chance of a successful assassination! Without hesitation, he executed a secret technique and, like a true shadow, silently snuck into the Earth Fire Cave. The simple Restriction at the entrance was as good as non-existent before a Nascent Soul assassin like him who was proficient in lurking.
After entering the cave, he became even more cautious, almost blending into the shadows, his breathing and heartbeat reduced to the lowest possible level. He saw the sleeping Fang Hao and also saw that metal Puppet (Lao Jin) standing quietly to the side like a decoration. He did not sense any overly strong energy fluctuations from Lao Jin (Lao Jin had retracted its aura and was in a low-energy alert state), and subconsciously dismissed it as an ordinary guard Puppet or some kind of mechanism, not paying it much attention. His entire focus was locked onto the completely defenseless Fang Hao.
To ensure nothing went wrong, he also employed a small trick, using a trace of extremely weak, imperceptible sinister force to stimulate an unstable rock layer at the bottom of the magma river, creating an extremely slight disturbance, intending to attract the attention of any potential hidden guardians (he suspected the Earth Fire Cave itself had a Restriction or a guardian beast). However, he did not expect that this tiny disturbance would instead raise Lao Jin’s alert to the maximum, and he himself had underestimated the horror of this seemingly ordinary lump of metal. Thus, the thrilling scene from before occurred. The meticulously planned assassination fell short in the face of absolute strength and loyalty, and he almost lost his own life in the process.
Inside the Earth Fire Cave. Fang Hao slept for three full days and nights. When he opened his eyes again, he felt refreshed and comfortable all over. The mental energy and spiritual power he had consumed from Alchemy were not only fully recovered, but his cultivation had even faintly improved a bit due to the relaxation after being pushed to the limit. It was just that his stomach was rumbling with hunger; after all, he hadn’t reached the Realm of Inedia yet. He stretched lazily, his joints popping and cracking, and groaned comfortably. "Refreshing!"
Then, he belatedly remembered where he was and what he was doing. He sat up abruptly and reached for the Storage Ring in his bosom first thing. With a sweep of his Divine Sense, hmm, twelve cold jade bottles, not one missing, the nascent soul forming pill inside possessed immense medicinal power and radiated an alluring glow. Very good, it wasn’t a dream. "Lao Jin, thank you for your hard work." Fang Hao grinned and looked at the boulder-like figure at the cave entrance. Upon hearing this, Lao Jin turned around, the light in its silvery-white eyes flickering calmly, and spoke in that same rigid, metallic voice: "It is my duty, Master."
Fang Hao nodded, not paying much mind. He got up and stretched his muscles and bones, just about to ponder whether to consolidate his cultivation first or directly attempt to break through to the Nascent Soul, when his gaze inadvertently swept across the ground, and his footsteps paused. He squatted down and looked at the unremarkable rocky ground near the cave entrance. There, there was a small, extremely faint scorch mark, slightly darker in color than the surrounding rocks. If not for his sharp eyes and his sensitivity to such scorch marks from using the Earthly Fiend Golden Flame so much, he wouldn’t have discovered it at all.
"Hmm?" Fang Hao raised his eyebrows slightly. He remembered that this mark didn’t seem to be there before he went to sleep. He looked at it carefully again; the scorch mark was very fresh, and... it didn’t look like it was caused by the splashing of Earth Fire magma or an out-of-control Earthly Fiend Golden Flame, but rather like it was left by the instantaneous burning of some highly concentrated energy. He stood up, walked over to Lao Jin, and looked it up and down. Lao Jin looked completely normal on the outside, not even touched by a speck of dust. But Fang Hao always felt something was off. This Lao Jin... was it a bit too quiet? Although it was usually not talkative, after waking up this time, he felt its silvery-white gaze seemed exceptionally "composed"?
"Lao Jin," Fang Hao stroked his chin and circled around Lao Jin, "Nothing happened while I was sleeping, right? For example, did any rats sneak in?" Lao Jin’s metal head turned slightly to look at Fang Hao, the silver light in its eyes calm and waveless: "Report, Master. During the guarding period, a total of one low-level magma disturbance occurred, which has been recorded. No other abnormal creatures entered the alert range. Master may rest at ease."
"Magma disturbance?" Fang Hao glanced at the slowly flowing magma river in the distance, then looked back at the scorch mark on the ground, his inner doubts deepening. It was normal for the magma river to have some small movements, but this scorch mark... He stared at Lao Jin’s expressionless metal face for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled and patted Lao Jin’s cold shoulder: "Alright, it’s good that nothing happened. I trust your work."
After saying this, he stopped dwelling on it, turned around, and walked to the side of the chaos pill cauldron to start pondering matters regarding breaking through to the Nascent Soul. Since the nascent soul forming pill was in hand, Lao Jin was repaired, its strength greatly increased, and this place was safe, this was the perfect time to attempt the breakthrough to the Nascent Soul! As for that small doubt... perhaps it was caused accidentally during Alchemy, or Lao Jin had handled some minor trouble, not worth mentioning. Fang Hao sat cross-legged, adjusted his breathing, and prepared to begin his secluded meditation, charging toward that Realm that countless Cultivators dreamed of—the Nascent Soul Realm!
And behind him, Lao Jin stood quietly, its silvery-white eyes watching his back, the light flickering slightly before returning to calm. Some things, the Master did not need to know. Guarding was its only duty. As for that "rat" that snuck in, it had already been driven away; if it came again next time, it would just be annihilated.
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