At this hour, the cold wind was still blowing and snowflakes were still dancing in the sky. Dark clouds covered the entire sky like thick curtains, not even allowing a single ray of light to penetrate through them. At this moment, the only place that could be considered bright was the intensely burning bonfire on top of the city wall in the distance. Only some stars and lights from the lanterns which the wealthy manors hung up about fifty meters away from the wall were what lit up the city at night…
Yan Liqiang was hopping lightly from roof to roof like a floating spirit. He moved so silently and only made footprints as deep as half a palm on the piled-up snow on the rooftops. Not only that, but his footprints were only the size of melon seeds; they were nearly invisible. This kind of lightness skill technique had pretty much reached the legendary level of not leaving even a trace in the snow. It was certainly impressive enough to stun many people.
Although the two people Yan Liqiang was watching weren’t weak, their lightness skill techniques still paled in comparison to his. In addition, none of them noticed that they were being followed either.
People might struggle with visibility due to the darkness, but Yan Liqiang’s eyes could see through the darkness as if it were a bright day if he wanted. This was the best kind of darkness to blend in.
Houses flashed past under Yan Liqiang’s feet as he zoomed past streets and alleys. The two people sprinting ahead of him seemed to be extremely familiar with Hui Provincial City. Yan Liqiang sprinted behind them through some quiet alleys, then jumped in and out of one or two wealthy manors’ gardens and backyards. After successfully avoiding three patrolling troops in the city in just less than twenty minutes, Yan Liqiang finally arrived at the compound of Yuhua Pavilion…
The pavilion was built on a hilltop in the eastern part of Hui Provincial City, and Chenghuang Temple was located right behind it.
The hilltop was filled with pine trees, graves, and weeds. Not far from Yuhua Pavilion was a stele forest, which could be considered as one of Hui Provincial City’s scenic places. The ghostly shadows of the steles and graves made the place extremely eerie at night. The folks in town would only come to Chenghuang Temple during the day to pray and burn incense. At night, not even a soul was in sight…
By the time Yan Liqiang reached the area, he saw from afar that strange and fast-moving black figures had dived into the pine forest where Yuhua Pavilion was located. The figures were running toward Yuhua Pavilion and Chenghuang Temple which was nearby. All of them were clad in black, wearing green demonic masks. They seemed to be moving extremely well in groups and the glints of their weapons would occasionally flash through the spaces between the pine trees. From the looks of it, there were at least a hundred people.
Seeing these black figures with demonic masks, Yan Liqiang was sure that they worked for the White Lotus Society’s Demon King. They were known as the Demonic Night March and specialized in night operations. Wearing terrifying-looking masks, they had made their mark by exterminating several sects in a few southern provinces in the Great Han Empire. They were ruthless, merciless, and completely unscrupulous. Just their name alone would strike fear into people’s hearts. As the White Lotus Society’s terrifying weapon, the Demonic Night March was rumored to be invincible as it was impossible to exterminate them.
Needless to say, Yan Liqiang didn’t believe any of those rumors. Invincible? Impossible to exterminate? These rumors were just testing a person’s perception. Putting aside the Demonic Night March, if the Demon King himself was that invincible, the throne would have been his. Based on Yan Liqiang’s experience, the so-called ‘invincible’ description was just nonsense. The Demonic Night March either took some special drugs that could greatly enhance their endurance or battling under influence.
Apart from the Demonic Night March, there were also a few similarly-masked experts who swung from branch to branch in the pine forest.
When the two people in front of Yan Liqiang reached the place, they rushed into the pine forest willingly. They converged with the Demonic Night March and made their way toward Chenghuang Temple at the hilltop.
Thoughts flashed through Yan Liqiang’s mind. Instead of recklessly charging ahead of them, he chose to stay back a little and trailed the Demonic Night March up the hill…
Coming here, Yan Liqiang was extremely curious about the person who was hiding in Chenghuang Temple. He simply couldn’t guess who in Hui Provincial City could make the White Lotus Society send out the Demonic Night March to infiltrate the city.
Yan Liqiang had always instinctively abhorred entities like the White Lotus Society which was a deceptive group that even sacrificed commoners for their ambitions. Yan Liqiang sneered inwardly when he noticed that some of the crossbowmen from the Demonic Night March had found somewhere to hide instead of rushing to the front when they arrived at the pine forest. The crossbowmen climbed up a tree and nocked their crossbows as they waited.
Holding onto the principle of ‘the enemy of my enemy is a friend’, Yan Liqiang silently and swiftly leaped onto the nearest tree which was occupied by one of the crossbowmen. While the crossbowman had his gaze fixed into the distance, Yan Liqiang’s sword had silently pierced his heart. He channeled his vital Qi to the sword, instantly shattering his enemy’s heart…
Most people, even martial experts, would instantly die after suffering such a mortal wound. No one would be able to survive this by a fluke. Yet when his sword shattered the heart of his first victim from the Demonic Night March, the man first went stiff before suddenly turning his head around to look at Yan Liqiang. His adam’s apple moved as he was about to scream…
Sh*t…!
Yan Liqiang immediately slapped the crossbowman’s head without even thinking. The indirect force from his palm promptly shook his enemy’s brain into a pile of mush.
The crossbowman from the Demonic Night March became motionless. There was no scream, not even a peep.
Yan Liqiang quietly wiped his cold sweat away. If the man could still f*cking move or scream after having his brain and central nervous system completely destroyed, Yan Liqiang would wonder if he was actually dealing with a ghost. Fortunately, everything was still within reality even though it was quite scary when the crossbowman had turned his head around just now. If he’d done that to ordinary people, they would be too scared out of their wits to continue battling.
Yan Liqiang cautiously placed the corpse on the tree fork while taking off the man’s mask — it was an ordinary face, albeit a little dull-looking. There was a faint black line that extended from his philtrum to the area between his brows. The black color was particularly darker in between his brows; it was a telltale sign of poisoning.
As expected, these people from the Demonic Night March were wearing scary masks to hide the fact that they were under the influence of a poisonous substance that seemed to allow them to move until they were brain dead. Since this was something unexpected, it could scare many people.
Just when Yan Liqiang finished off one of the Demonic Night March’s men, another bloody fight started over on the other side…
As soon as one of the experts from the Demonic Night March leaped over the stele forest beside Yuhua Pavilion, a giant axe suddenly flew out from the trees. The expert let out a blood-curdling scream as his body was split into two and his blood rained down.