Assassins!

The sky rumbled, as a thunderstorm approached. Three men could be seen in dark robes, standing on floating swords, outside the window of a small room, connected to an inn.

One of the men, with a raspy voice, whispered "Number 3, you break the window, me and number 2 will kill the target."

"sure thing, leader" replied the other man, who, as soon as he finished talking, placed his palm on the window, as ice flowed from his hands and into the inn's walls.

The ice immediately spread to the whole room, instantly freezing it. Then, with a motion of Number 3's hands, the ice shattered into millions of pieces, fully revealing the small bedroom. Finally, with a third movement of his hand, ice gathered around Hua Shu, who had just woken up from the ruckus, freezing her in place.

Seeing the mess of shards that was the room, the leader aggressively reprimanded "Number 3, this is not your time to show off, we are in a serious mission!" before gesturing to Number 2 to follow him.

Li Zhu, hearing the sound of something shattering, immediately sprung up, trying to understand what had happened. Feeling the chilling frost qi from Hua Shu's room, though, he realized something was wrong, so he immediately circulated heavenly energy to his fist, before punching straight through the stone wall separating their rooms, revealing the two men with their swords drawn.

'I knew my instincts were right, they're trying to kill her!" Seeing the two men in front of him, Li Zhu, who had just recently been almost assassinated, instantly understood the situation. At the same time, he became determined to stop anything that had to do with assassins, which were now the people he hated the most.

Seeing the newcomer, the two assassins charged towards Hua Shu, trying to quickly get their jobs done and leave.

"Not so fast! If you want to kill her, you will have to pass through me!" Realizing their intentions Li Zhu raced towards Hua Shu.

'They are core condensing realm experts! this is bad!" Having realized the cultivation of his opponents, Li Zhu cursed under his breath, as he racked his brain to find a way to save Hua Shu without either of them dying.

'Although these guys are strong, Flaming Saber City is after all under the protection of the Flaming Saber Sect, meaning once the assassination attempt is discovered, they will come rushing in to help. The commotion caused by the ice did not help, as it just means assistance will come sooner... I just need to defend for a few seconds!'

Although a few seconds sounded like a small amount of time, the difference between a core consolidating cultivator and one at the qi gathering realm was immense, to the point that death in a single attack was usually the result.

Any qi gathering realm cultivator that had ever defended an attack from a core consolidating realm expert had gone down in history, with cities being named after them and experts bowing down to them. Even Li Zhu, as the most talented prince of the Heavenly Dragon Empire, had not been able to replicate this feat.

Although he realized this, Li Zhu could not abandon Hua Shu, who had saved him from death before, so, albeit with great unwillingness, he decided to use that technique.

'Although I risk revealing my identity, this is the only way to defend against their attack!"

Gritting his teeth, Li Zhu began moving his hands to form a circle, as he circulated his heavenly energy through the meridians in a specific order.

Immediately, sharp pain erupted from his arms, making him grit his teeth, trying to persevere. The pain was like a tide, crashing into him, and then receding, endlessly. As he resisted the pain, the skin on his arms slowly peeled off, revealing shiny red scales.

The crimson scales started at his fingers, and reached all the way to his elbows, while his arms emitted an ancient aura, as though a sacred being was there.

'Heavenly Dragon Shield!' thought Li Zhu, who stared at his arms, which now seemed so foreign to him.

Where his hands had formed a circle, the ancient, oppressive energy in his arms slowly gathered, forming what seemed to be a round shield, which stayed in front of Li Zhu, as well as Hua Shu behind him.

Seeing the unusual technique, the assassins became serious, as they used their strongest attacks straight off the bat.

"Sword of the thousand suns!"

"Divine Wind Slash!"

As the assassin leader's attack appeared, a long blade of wind flew towards Li Zhu, giving him a feeling that it could cut through any surface.

'My shield could possibly block this attack, but assassins are always trained in combination attacks, meaning the flames of the other assassin will probably boost the destructive damage of the wind blade, making the attack powerful enough to kill everyone in the inn, let alone just me and Hua Shu!'

Contrary to Li Zhu's expectations, though, when the flames of the other assassin's attack appeared, they were not aimed at him, rather at the assassin leader, who was fully exposed, clearly not expecting this sudden betrayal.

"How could you, Hui Fan? We have known each other for twelve years!" having been stabbed in the gut by the flaming sword, the assassin leader was now spitting blood, yet all he could think about was how his closest friend had been the reason of his death.

"Don't act as though killing isn't just a job for you, Lei Song! We both know we're doing this for the money, not the friendship. I would have been fine with boss's plan if he hadn't brought young miss into it. Now you will have to die!"

With a cold expression, Hui Fan spoke those words, before disappearing in a flash of light, leaving Li Zhu to fend the wind blade, which was still flying towards him.

As Li Zhu stared at the fleeting figure of Hui Fan, he suddenly grew furious, since, though he felt no pity for Lei Song, he knew the pain of being betrayed, and it was not something humans should have to handle.

Though he had these strong feelings, Li Zhu had to deal with the most pressing concern. Bracing himself for impact, Li Zhu circulated all his energy towards the shield, which was now slowly becoming more solid.

Finally, the wind blade came into contact with the Heavenly Dragon shield, causing the ground below Li Zhu's feet to crack, as it struggled to withstand the collateral force caused by the two strong skills.

'Even just the remaining force is this strong, if it wasn't for the shield I would be dead by now!" thought Li Zhu, as he smiled bitterly.

The wind blade had not yet dissipated, though, as the final bit of energy contained in the attack suddenly exploded, creating shock waves which caused the floor to cave in.

Hua Shu, still bound in ice, stared in fear towards the wind blade, hoping that, though improbable, Li Zhu would somehow survive. She was not optimistic, though, as she realized if she was in Li Zhu's place, death would be the only result.

Right as the explosion had almost ended, the Heavenly Dragon Shield finally succumbed to the pressure, as it abruptly dissipated, leaving Li Zhu's already injured body to block the remaining wind energy, which, with no delay, crashed into him like a bull, flinging him into the back wall.

Li Zhu crashed through the wall, into the hallway, as the scales on his arms gradually disappeared. All the injuries he had somewhat healed a few days earlier were Instantly reopened, and new ones were formed, leaving him half dead on the ground, in a pool of blood.

At that moment, an immense aura of suppression rose from the city center, carrying with it a short, bald man, with anger etched on his face.

Sensing the pressure, the last assassin, who had frozen Hua Shu, immediately fled, as he shattered the ice that bound her, in a last attempt to kill.

Crimson flames rose from Hua Shu, as a small, triangular gem on her necklace stuck to her, before shaping the flames into a skintight barrier around her.

The ice crashed into the flames, yet there was no suspense… it all melted.

Generally, fire had an advantage, yet it was not to this degree, meaning the fire barrier must have been a much higher level than the ice.

'She even has a protection talisman, and it can completely block an attack from a core consolidating realm expert!' Right before he lost his consciousness, these were Li Zhu's last thoughts, as he saw the unharmed Hua Shu in front of him.

Spirit talismans were made by formation masters, who, as with spirit blacksmiths, were extremely rare. Generally speaking there were three main types of talismans: Protection, Attack and Illusion, which were pretty self-explanatory.

In Hua Shu's case, she owned a protection talisman made by a powerful expert at the golden core realm, which was one realm above core condensing. This meant that any attack below the golden core realm could be warded off, though as with many talismans, this could only be done once, and the defense power gradually weakened, becoming essentially useless after a few hits.

This was also the reason why three condensing core realm assassins had been hired to kill her, as that attack force was needed to kill her quickly.

"Who dares kill in Flaming Saber City!?" with those powerful words, the bald man who had let off the oppressive aura finally arrived on the scene.