His toes touched the ground, his agile movements raising not a speck of dust.
His face covered with a black cloth, holding a dagger—this is the classic and traditional image of an Eastern Assassin. In dark and cramped environments, the dagger is truly the best choice.
Continuously groping slowly in the darkness, his scar-ridden cheeks showed no sign of nervousness.
His hands had been stained with countless blood—officials', scholars', and cultivators'. For this, he had even fled from Hezhou in the south to a foreign land to avoid being hunted, but unexpectedly, he encountered an old acquaintance here.
"Wang Qi, that kid, was always the craftiest when we were in the mountains."
"Who would have thought that after coming down from the mountain, he'd be willing to guard the door for someone else and watch over a child every day. Heh, I couldn't stand it if I were him."
"But he did introduce me to a good job—200 taels of silver as a deposit in hand, just waiting to take Jiang Feng's head to claim the remaining 300 taels of reward."
"With this, it's enough for me to spend a few days in the State City."
He silently made his way to the second floor. He and Wang Qi were old acquaintances, about a decade ago near Hezhou, an Immortal came down from the mountains to take disciples, and both he and Wang Qi were lucky enough to be brought back to the Immortal Sect as the lowest-ranking servants.
Their starting point was low, but there was hope. However, they were equally unfortunate, as neither of them had managed to step into the Qi Cultivation phase even after more than two years, and were eventually expelled from the sect and sent back home.
The competitiveness of cultivators is much more ruthless than the mundane world. To use Jiang Feng's words, before even being officially accepted, they fought desperately over an uncertain entrance ticket.
One exhausted his finances, the other hid for three years, and then both met their demise.
Besides, cultivation itself consumes a tremendous amount of resources. Generally, the resources of an entire county might just suffice to sustain a few cultivators—natural selection dictates that the sect would naturally opt to maximize benefits.
At the beginning of discipleship, the seeds brought up the mountain would be classified into hierarchies.
Top-quality seeds didn't need to temper their hearts in the outside world and would directly progress to the Inner Sect, and those with exceptional talents might even be brought personally to meet the higher-ups to be taken in directly.
The average seeds would start from being an Outer Disciple, climbing up step by step, relying on their own abilities. Although it may require detours, at least there's space for effort. The most tragic, or rather the most helpless ones, are Wang Qi and people like him.
Whether it's the higher-ups or those disciples who enjoy the sect's privileges, there's always a need for subordinates to handle chores, repairs, meals, baths, errands—all these cultivation-irrelevant mundane tasks.
And they belong to this pool of resources that higher-ranked cultivators can utilize, or rather, the discarded ones like them are part of these communal resources.
At first entry, although just a servant, life was not too bad because even outer servants still had the right to cultivate.
Body Refining, the first step every cultivator takes, aims to enhance the physique so the body wouldn't burst apart, followed by Qi Cultivation, drawing nature's spiritual energy for personal use.
Yet the vast majority are stuck at this stage, unable to feel the flow of spiritual energy around them in their entire lifetimes. For such lowly-tier people, the sect would naturally not waste resources on them, making sending them back home the only choice.
That's also why he and Wang Qi both ended up in this small Qingshui County.
The door was pried open a crack.
His cold gaze swept through the gap, and from several days of tracking and investigation, he knew that the young man called Jiang Feng was neither a cultivator nor a martial artist. Logically, he should have acted yesterday, but he patiently waited another day.
Not only Jiang Feng was waiting for this torrential rain, so was he.
The dense raindrops and thunder made him feel unusually secure. In such conditions, even taking action would go unnoticed. When he entered Qingshui County, he actually found himself being watched.
He had gone to investigate; apparently, it was a powerful local family called the Yan Family, which was said to have had an Immortal as an ancestor, and his target Jiang Feng was their future son-in-law. Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by novel-fire.net
Yet, he felt no fear. In a direct confrontation, he indeed couldn't fight off multiple opponents alone, but he was never someone who operated in the light.
With just a moment's lapse, he would have his chance, like now.
As he scanned the interior of this master bedroom on the second floor and saw the bump under the quilt on the bed, his foot fiercely kicked off!
The dagger plunged in.
Just like a professional habit, he pulled out the dagger, reached out a hand to grab the head, and with a swing of his hand, the blade fell on the neck!
The harsh metallic collision sounded exceedingly piercing in the dead of night.
Sparks flew, and it was by the light of these sparks that he realized, the figure lying in the bed was actually a dummy.
His expression turned to one of baffled astonishment, and before he could react, the dummy in front of him suddenly burst into a bizarre firework display, resembling ghostly flames. This was the first time he encountered such a strange scene while committing murder.
"At this time, it should be about right."
The young man braved the heavy rain, racing all the way to Firework Alley.
Indeed, tonight he was planning to stay at the brothel.
Not because he was audacious in lust – he, Mr. Jiang, had seen enough women in his previous life, experienced all sorts, and having just witnessed the ugliness of human nature, he had no interest in messing around in the brothel.
But rather, it was to save his life.
He was very afraid of death, especially since he faced life-threatening situations twice which made him suspicious of everything, even somewhat triggered. If he chose a rainy night to seek revenge, what about others?
From a few days ago, someone had been tracking him, might they choose today to strike? To be on the safe side, he decided to stay at the brothel tonight. Firstly, no one would think of looking for him there, and secondly...
Those who run brothels have some connections and strength; it's highly unlikely they would allow an assassin to just waltz in.
Moreover, with Jiang Feng's vengeful nature, he would surely prepare a little surprise before leaving.
A scream echoed through the empty bedroom.
The eerie ghost fire was burning. Though Jiang Feng didn't have the resources to create anything excessively deadly, anyone who paid attention during classes and visited the laboratory could manage to play with gunpowder and white phosphorus.
Actually, the worst-case scenario should only be the assassin hitting thin air, just that and nothing more. But Jiang Feng deliberately scattered some white phosphorus nearby—oh, and it was extracted using his urine, though it smelled quite strong when drying...
Should this assassin not have been rash enough to strike that blow at the neck, tonight would have passed without incident. But that one strike,
Caused the bed to explode.
Frantically patting clothes, with his face and body punctured by several needles, his appearance was incredibly haggard, and his body was smeared with burning white phosphorus. However, as Jiang Feng mentioned, it wasn't particularly powerful, enough only to give someone a fright.
But... That wasn't Jiang Feng's intention at all.
Moments later, someone yelled angrily in the pouring rain.
Its lack of strength didn't mean the commotion it caused was small.
That gentle young lady, ever since Jiang Feng's incident, had constantly had people residing nearby, attempting to protect her fiancé. Even though their vigilance could slacken over time, today's explosion necessitated their emergence even if it was bothersome.
Cursing in his mind, he hastily jumped out the window, and while doing so, forcefully removed the steel needles and iron plates embedded in his body.
Meanwhile, the instigator of all this chaos walked leisurely to the entrance of the largest and most majestic Ethereal Violet Pavilion, completely unaware of what occurred at home.
"I want ten... no, I want to order ten!"