Assassin Obstacle Course (2)

The threats which would populate the three ambush zones that Shui and Astar had predicted, in ascending order in terms of distance to Myriad Flower Pavilion, were the locals, the professionals and opportunists, and the last resorts. The locals were as their name suggested, assassins that worked in the region of Paraj and had escaped Shui's purge because they were either outside of his list of targets or were only making their move today. The last resorts were expected to be a series of traps mainly created via arrays; Astar and the siblings would take care of these. However, the most dangerous would definitely be the professionals and opportunists. These were assassins from outside of Paraj or were trained by a powerful organization so their skills would be above the locals, and their attack would be more direct than the last resorts. It would have been nice if these expectations had been exaggerated, but when they appeared, Shui knew that such a hope was foolish from the beginning.

The prediction had bundled the professionals with the opportunists, but judging from the few bodies lying around and the fresh scent of blood, it seemed only the professionals were left. They could be clearly separated into two groups, one dressed in black while the other favored dark blue. There were about ten in each group, which didn't sound too bad compared to the near hundred locals that had surrounded them, but there was one major difference that erased any relief brought by the lower number. Every single one still standing was in the Sky Realm.

Shui already knew that this would be difficult since he would have to rely on his energy and soul cultivation, but even he felt pressure at the thought of facing all of them. Fortunately, he had a good idea of their identities so he had been able to come up with a plan. The dark blue group was sent by the young duke. They were less dangerous since they couldn't reveal their affiliation and there would be a limit to the amount of strength they could use. The group in black was from the Tower of Killers, likely sent by Adler among other wealthy enemies. This group would have no hesitation in regards to using their strongest abilities, but Shui possessed a card that should be of use against them.

'But before I play it, I have to reduce their numbers first.'

Even if he could remove the assassins from the Tower of Killers from the playing board, he would have to exit for a period of time as well, so that move had to be saved for the time being. However, that brought back up the matter of how Shui would be able to not only face these two groups of experts, but also kill members of them without relying on his quasi-divine body. Although Shui did possess the Four Elements Technique, he couldn't be certain that these people didn't possess spells of similar power and besides that, spells alone wouldn't be enough to fight them off while protecting Emily since his reserve of energy, though much greater than those of the same cultivation, was not limitless and was probably only about the same as theirs. The concentration and efficiency of his energy was higher, but he would be drained fairly quickly.

The Unorthodox Blade Method was also not a suitable option since it required a lot of movement for a long battle and was unsuited for stable protection. Shui thought of a few other techniques that he was familiar with, but none of them would work well in this situation. Therefore, he had no choice but to dip his hand into something new.

'At least I finally have a use for these excess artifacts.'

Shui summoned his perfect relic, Sui, and then drew out swords from his storage ring one by one. Their enemies gave quizzical looks in response, but their wariness began to grow when the number of swords surpassed thirty. One of the Tower of Killers' assassins shot a fireball at the arrangement of swords, but they grouped together and blocked it without trouble.

None of them were inexperienced enough to express the emotions this brought them, but they all narrowed their eyes and scolded themselves for waiting too long to interfere. They were certain that they would be able to defeat two mere Earth Realm cultivators, and any objective viewer would think the same considering the wide gap in cultivation and number. However, that was only an assessment that looked at their direct combat power, it did not include special techniques and methods that any proper cultivator would have.

Even so, they had thought that no conventional methods would be enough against all of them. And yet, it might have been inevitable that Shui would prove them wrong.

It was a technique that he only knew in theory, but he didn't find it difficult to execute. It was known as a sword formation and was like a versatile array where the swords were able to borrow the power of heaven and earth and move to the user's will. The strength of the formation was based on the quality of the artifacts being used and the number of them.

With a total of ninety-nine swords that swirled above him like a flat sun, Shui sharpened his focus. Usually, one would control the swords in groups, but Shui possessed the ability to control every single sword. Still, controlling them that way would provide quite the heavy load so Shui treated the swords like a single organism that could split off at any time.

It may seem simple to make a couple swords float, but their arrangement, the speed they rotated, the angle they tilted at, every detail was essential to the formation. Emily noticed a few of the laws mixed into the formation that excited her array master spirit, but the tension kept her from meditating on them. She instead stuck to looking in awe as the swords surrounded the two of them like a cylindrical tower and glowed with a brilliant orange light.

"Wow..."

Shui couldn't hide his proud smirk that came from the amazement of his little sister, but his eyes stayed on the assassins who were ready to pounce. The ones who weren't hiding leaped at them, all with tesora-rank artifacts in hand, but Shui wasn't worried.

He used Sui as the main controller of the formation since he was still unfamiliar with it, and raised the blade in an overhead stance. It might seem odd to use a saber as the central point of a sword formation, but Sui was technically a part of Shui so there was no problem.

To counter the assassins first collaborative attack, he swung Sui down, triggering a portion of the sword formation to split off in the form of a giant golden energy sword that slammed down on them and then faded. Although the sword formation was comprised of spirit-rank artifacts, together, their might was more than enough to stand against the artifacts in the hands of the assassins.

While the dust hadn't cleared from the first heavy strike, Shui swung Sui horizontally. This caused a similar giant golden energy sword to cleave the buildings that were in front of him, forcefully ejecting the assassins who wanted to hide.

With all of them in the sky after jumping to evade the two strikes, Shui sent a thrust at them. The thrust came in the form of countless sword lights that threatened to shred them to pieces. Unfortunately, they all had defensive artifacts and techniques so the worse injuries were only minor scratches.

Even so, Shui was not discouraged, in fact, he was secretly glad.

"That was good enough for a warm-up. On to the real battle."