Chapter 2667: Chapter 2667
The black-clad assassins prepared to strike Ye Liuyun together, intent on eliminating him first. This assassination was a covert mission, and even if Ye Liuyun’s lion-tiger beast proved difficult to kill, they had no choice but to silence it as well.
The moment they moved, Ye Liuyun spoke up, his voice laced with cold amusement. "Trying to silence me? You’ve made a grave miscalculation. You’d be wise to leave me alone—unless you’ve got a death wish. At least in that formation, you’d know how you died!"
"Attack!"
His words clearly didn’t intimidate the assassins. One of them barked the order, and the group lunged at Ye Liuyun in unison.
But Ye Liuyun flipped backward, effortlessly evading their assault. He left them to his lion-tiger beast, confident in its ferocity.
Yet these assassins were no ordinary foes. They moved with practiced coordination, executing a seamless joint attack formation. Mid-air, each of them drew identical shields, blocking the beast’s strikes in perfect sync. The moment they landed, they trapped the creature between their shields.
Then, their daggers suddenly extended, infused with true essence, transforming into longswords. Pressing the beast down with their shields, they thrust their blades through the gaps, striking simultaneously.
Pinned and unable to move, the lion-tiger beast had no chance to react before seven swords pierced its body. With a final, agonized roar, it collapsed to the ground.
"You’ll pay for killing my beast," Ye Liuyun said icily.
Undeterred, the seven assassins turned their attention back to him, advancing relentlessly. The maidservant, still within the formation she had drawn, merely watched the spectacle unfold, making no move to intervene.
*Sigh. I wanted to watch the show, but now I’m the one being watched.* Resigned, Ye Liuyun had no choice but to act.
He unleashed a soul attack, using just a single strand of his divine soul to devour the assassins’ spiritual essence. All seven collapsed mid-charge, lifeless before they could even reach him.
"Pathetic," Ye Liuyun muttered, curling his lip in disdain. He swept his divine sense over their storage rings, finding nothing but weapons, some divine crystals, and the corpses of several beasts—along with five more black-clad bodies.
Among the dead beasts was a Golden Eagle—the very one the maidservant had ridden while chasing him. *Seems like all her beasts were wiped out by these guys.*
He collected the useful resources and the beast carcasses, then pocketed a few of the extendable daggers. He’d let Tongxin and the others study them—maybe they could replicate the mechanism for his own forces.
Only then did he pull out a dagger, slicing open the lifeless lion-tiger beast to harvest its meat before promptly starting a fire nearby to roast it.
"Are you here to kill me or save me?" the maidservant suddenly asked Ye Liuyun.
Without even looking up, Ye Liuyun retorted, "What kind of question is that? Do I have some grudge against you? Or do you have anything worth coveting?"
Hearing this, the maidservant relaxed slightly. "Didn’t you already leave this place? Why did you come back?"
"Where I go is none of your business. Do I need your permission to return?" Ye Liuyun shot back, slicing off one of the beast’s thighs and tossing it onto the fire.
"Now that I’m safe, why aren’t you leaving?" the maidservant pressed.
Ye Liuyun nearly laughed in exasperation. "Are you so used to being hunted that you feel uneasy when no one’s after you? Whether I stay or go has nothing to do with you. Is this your backyard? Why should I leave? If you want to go, then go!"
With that, he ignored her, focusing entirely on roasting the meat.
"If we don’t leave now, more black-clad men will come soon!" the maidservant warned.
"Let them come. If they dare attack me, they’re asking for death. If you’re scared, you can leave. After all, they’re after you, not me. I’m hungry—I’ll eat first before going anywhere," Ye Liuyun replied dismissively.
The maidservant fell silent, watching him cautiously from within the protective formation, too wary to step out.
She couldn’t be sure if Ye Liuyun had ulterior motives. Besides, if she left now and ran into those assassins again, she’d be in danger. Staying here meant she could rely on his strength to deal with them.
Ye Liuyun roasted the meat with meticulous care, occasionally sprinkling spices over it. Once done, he dug in without offering her any.
The maidservant swallowed hard as she watched him eat with relish. But when her gaze drifted to the lion-tiger’s corpse, she was reminded of her own slain beast and murmured something under her breath.
Ye Liuyun pretended not to hear, though his spiritual sense had already detected another dozen black-clad figures closing in on their location.
Ye Liuyun cast a glance at the black-clad corpses on the ground, surmising that their storage rings likely had tracking functions. Without a change in expression, he swiftly stowed the lion-tiger beast into his spatial world—better safe than sorry. If a fight broke out later, the creature might get damaged, and then he wouldn’t have the chance to roast it for a meal.
The maidservant noticed Ye Liuyun’s movement and immediately tensed up. She extended her spiritual sense to scan the surroundings, but her soul power was too weak, and the black-clad assassins were too far away. She detected nothing.
"Did you notice something?" she asked Ye Liuyun.
Seeing how jumpy she was, he couldn’t help but chuckle. "Why so nervous? Just stay put inside the formation, and you’ll be fine."
The maidservant thought about it and realized he was right—as long as she didn’t leave the protective barrier, she’d remain safe for now. Watching Ye Liuyun casually resume eating as if nothing was amiss, she decided she must have been overly cautious and relaxed a little.
The black-clad assassins’ stealth techniques weren’t particularly advanced, but they were more than enough to evade the maidservant’s detection. Soon, they had the area surrounded, tightening the encirclement step by step.
By then, Ye Liuyun had finished his meal and wiped his hands clean.
"Perfect timing—just finished eating. Time to stretch my limbs a bit!" He stood up, cracking his knuckles, and called out to the surroundings, "Come on out, all of you!"
Only then did the maidservant notice the black-clad figures closing in from all sides.
The assassins abandoned concealment, leaping into view—six at the second level of the Heavenly Human realm and six at the first level.
The leader, a second-level Heavenly Human assassin, glanced at the seven corpses on the ground before shifting his gaze between the maidservant and Ye Liuyun. "You killed them?" he demanded.
"Oh? Good guess!" Ye Liuyun tilted his head curiously. "How’d you know it was me?"
"Who are you?" the assassin countered, then pointed at the maidservant. "And do you even know who she is?"
The maidservant visibly stiffened, clearly anxious about her identity being exposed.
"Doesn’t matter," Ye Liuyun said dismissively. "I couldn’t care less about whatever mess you’ve got going on. Either end up like these corpses here, or scram while you still can!"
He had no interest in learning why they were after the maidservant—otherwise, he would’ve just extracted the information from their souls earlier.
