On the way to Paraj

With Alia on his shoulder, Shui made it back to the town they arrived at before heading to Black Rocky Plains. Unfortunately he didn't see any idols this time, but perhaps that would happen in another town. Shui went straight to the underground guild and saw the woman who was the branch manager there. He told her that he was ready to take the rank-up exam. After a quick supplementary explanation, Shui was told to head to Paraj, the Land of the Auxiliary Arts.

With Shui entering the rank-up exam, there were ten participants so it was finally time for the test to begin. Although there were many ways to evaluate an assassin's skill, there was only one aspect that the exam would focus on, success rate. As long as you could kill the target within the given time then you would pass. However, the amount of assassins that could pass was always decided beforehand through the number of targets set. If there were three targets, then only the ones who killed their target would pass. Even so, while there was nothing you could do if your target was killed by someone else, if there were less competitors then the chance that multiple persons would be assigned the same target was decreased.

In other words, it was subtly encouraged to kill the other participants ahead of time. The other nine participants were already in Paraj, which put Shui at a huge disadvantage, but in their world luck was also a skill so none of the supervisors overseeing the exam saw a problem with this. Anyone who became part of their organization, even a low-rank member, had to possess the abilities to pass a test of this level.

Shui only joined this test so that he could get access to more information and privileges, so he had little concern for who the targets would be. If he failed because he didn't want to kill them, then that was that. However, that apathy would change once he found out that one of the planned targets was a certain mature woman who used her charm to captivate and bleed men dry.

Anyways, as Paraj was a popular destination for cultivators regardless of whether they trained in a secondary profession or not, many groups could be seen heading to the city at any time. One such group which shared a carriage, were travelling through a forest just outside the famous city. All of the passengers felt at least a tiny amount of excitement when they thought about reaching the city, but suddenly one of them would lose that chance.

With the sound of a low-pitched whistle, an arrow flew through the carriage before stopping inside the forehead of a slender young man. Majority of the passengers froze at this sight, but two were swift in their reaction.

"Junior sister!"

"I know."

A young man with toned muscles and above-average facial features, raised a barrier and crouched down with the cloaked girl beside him. Noticing the two who acted immediately due to their unfortunate amount of experience, the other passengers began to take action, but not before another man was downed from an arrow.

"Ahh!!!"

The lady beside him, likely a relative or a lover, screamed at the sight and finally alerted the driver, but the first two to react grimaced as they predicted what would happen next.

After being startled by the scream, the driver hastily turned around, only to be shocked by the two dead bodies.

"Wha-, wha-"

It was obvious that he was weak to gore despite being a cultivator so his control over the carriage slackened, causing it to wobble out of control. He quickly took back the reins but the mistake had been made. Maybe they could have escaped if he went at full speed, but that wobble cost them dearly.

Out of nowhere, three black-clothed figures blocked the road. Leaving them no time to change course, one of the three threw a dagger which perfectly landed in the driver's neck. Along with his death, came the scared reaction of the horse carrying them.

"Neigh!"

The carriage quickly tumbled over, causing all of the passengers to become disoriented, and by the time the fastest of them regained their senses, five assassins had them surrounded.

They weren't able to see through the assassins' cultivations, but the cold killing intent that rolled off them was enough. Of the six passengers left, one chubby man quickly jumped out of the carriage, went down on his knees and begged for mercy.

"Please! Please! I, I, have money. You can take everything, just please spare my life."

He was in quite the pathetic position, but it was hard to blame him in this situation so everyone kept their mouths shut. Everyone except the woman who had lost someone.

"You-, you animals! You killed him! You damn murderers killed my-"

She stomped her way towards them but as soon as they sensed energy gather in her hand, a knife made its way to her neck. There were now five of them left. While three of the remaining passengers trembled in silence, two were searching for an escape route. There was no doubt in their minds that these assassins came for them, so no amount of pleading would help.

"Junior sister, I'll try to distract them. Take that chance and leave," the young man of the pair whispered.

The girl vigorously shook her head, but he had already made his decision. Unleashing the full power of his early Earth Realm cultivation, the young man charged at the assassins. Three daggers glowing in red light shot at him, but none were able to break his barrier before he slammed into one of them.

"Now!"

Reluctant both to leave him and to waste his efforts, his partner dashed towards the trees. Two of the assassins went after her, while the rest stayed to deal with the young man. The other passengers looked at them in a daze, they could also recognise that this was the best chance to escape, but they were all indecisive. If they succeeded then they would keep both their lives and their resources, but if they failed then they would lose everything, just like the three corpses nearby. As each of them glanced at those corpses, they stayed seated and looked at the young man in hope that he would be able to defeat the assassins.

Meanwhile, the young woman was being chased into the forest. She had the lead, but her pursuers were quickly shortening the distance. Although she didn't have much hope, she screamed for help while burning through her stamina to keep running.

"Please! Help! Someone, please help!"

She was desperate to escape and survive this ordeal, even if she may never see her senior brother again, so she felt no shame in begging for help. As long as she could survive this time, she swore to take revenge on the ones who sent these assassins after her.

Unfortunately, with her only being at the peak of the Soul Realm and her unfamiliarity with the forest, there was no way she could outrun the black-clothed group. Once they got in range, one of the two assassins slammed her into a tree with mental control.

"Ah!"

There were no obvious injuries, but the throbbing pain of her forehead made getting back on her feet a struggle. By the time she managed to stand up with the help of the tree in front of her, it was too late. With one assassin on her left and the other on her right, the girl clicked her tongue in despair. This was the best she could do, the farthest she could go, but finally, her luck from a past life finally caught up with her.

"You need some help there?"