19 - Assassination attempt

It was dark out in the outer boundary of the city master's residence, and there was the blaring sound of cheering permeating the air for a large distance. In the middle of the fighting ring stood Su Tao, expressionless. Twenty feet to his side was the unconscious body of his opponent. He stood there casually as if he had not just won a fight with one hit.

The fight was over so quick that some of the spectators even missed it by blinking. With haste, the announcer announced that Su Tao was the winner before sending someone to get the unconscious body of the challenger. Then, Su Tao went back down into the challenger area since he did not want to challenge anyone. Instead, he wanted to be challenged by the people there, and he was sure that it would happen quite often since everyone knew his name.

Sure enough, he was called up by the next challenger as well. But the same scene repeated itself as he won in a single hit once again. This process repeated several more times before people started to realize that he actually lived up to his reputation of challenging those at the silver rank while only at the second bronze star.

As such, it did not take long for a silver rank person to challenge him. There was a rule that those at higher ranks could challenge those at lower ranks, but the person at the lower rank had to accept the challenge before they could fight. Then, Su Tao went up to the person in the middle of the ring.

The opponent was a middle aged man at the first silver star and he had several scars on his chest and one running along his face. It was clear he had been in many battles and that he was experienced. But he did not have a very strong aura for one at the silver rank, showing that he was weaker among those at the silver rank, but Su Tao could not sense this since he was only at the third bronze star.

He spoke with a gristly voice that sounded like it had been ground by rocks. "I will go easy on you since I don't know what your true capabilities are." Then he launched himself towards Su Tao just like the others. But he drew out a knife with his right hand at the same time, unlike the others.

He knew that he could not beat Su Tao only by using his strength since Su Tao was obviously extremely smart and skilled, so he used a bit of his inner energy in his knife and covered his arms with it too.

Su Tao still had an expressionless face seeing the man charge at him, but instead of just standing there like he had before, he also charged at the man, bringing his right fist back and winding it up.

But just before the man reached Su Tao, preparing to block the punch prepared by Su Tao, Su Tao swung his fist early towards the man's arm that was holding the knife and opened his hand, grabbing towards the man's hand, while also bringing his left hand back and swinging it at the same time.

His hand grabbed the wrist of the knife hand of the man too fast for him to react, and it jerked back to the right side, pulling the man off balance and having his knife be brought over Su Tao's right shoulder while his left hand slammed upwards directly into the shoulder of the man with not only the momentum of the fist itself, but also Su Tao and the man's momentum, stacked with the power of Su Tao pulling the man towards him and off balance, making it hit ever more solidly and with more power.

The man did not have a chance to hit with his own left hand because it had been brought up in a blocking guard and he did not have the reaction speed to prepare to punch with it unlike Su Tao.

The man was hit back a total of five feet by Su Tao's punch, and he also fell to the ground from being pulled off balance from his right hand being pulled left.

He yelled out in pain as his right shoulder had been dislocated and his entire torso had been shaken by the hit. He finally realized just how dangerous Su Tao was, and that even if he had used all of his inner energy to make barriers around his arm, it would not change the outcome of what had just happened.

Most people only had the ability to form inner energy around their arms until they reached the second silver star or even the third silver star, meaning that he could not protect his shoulder or chest from being hit, meaning his inner energy was useless in that exchange.

But Su Tao did not stop here. He jumped over to the middle aged man, who was still on the ground clutching his shoulder in pain, and he punched at the man's face, and the man was muddled so much that he was not able to block in time and Su Tao's fist just knocked his arm aside while colliding in an upward motion with the man's jaw, instantly knocking him out.

Su Tao had just won a fight against a silver rank warrior without using any of the power of his eyes, which was the first time ever. But the man was only a weaker silver rank, meaning that if it came down to a life and death battle, Su Tao would not win so easily as to win in only two hits.

Suddenly, the audience, which had just been silent for a few moments in shock, suddenly exploded in cheers for Su Tao. There were very few people who were capable of beating a silver rank as a bronze rank, let alone in two moves. This put him near the top of all the bronze rank warriors in the whole city instantly.

The unconscious body of the man was taken away and Su Tao casually walked off the stage, while the audience was exploding in cheers for him. Because as much as they hated his mother for using dark arts, they loved a genius even more.

Several more fights happened, and as time went on, the opponents got more and more powerful and experienced, eventually leading to Su Tao having a completely even fight which he only barely won due to the reaction speed given by his eyes.

Then, another challenger came to the stage. This person also had black robes, which were commonly used to hide identity. He called up Su Tao as well, which was the common trend right now, but when Su Tao went up, he felt that there was something different about the person. He saw that it was a woman, and he had gone up against several women so far, but this person was different.

They were still a one star silver rank, and it was not the black robes that was different, but it was her eyes. They were cold and calculating. They also seemed to contain a small bit of killing intent. Yet Su Tao still went up to fight her. He figured that the worst that could happen was she tried to kill him and he hit her with all his right eye's power.

As soon as he went up, the woman did not bother with words and instantly launched towards him. But he instantly noticed something. She was much much faster than anyone who had come before her, and her inner energy was at full force, with a golden color. On top of that, her inner energy was able to cover more than her arms. It covered her entire body, which was extremely rare.

Suddenly, Su Tao realized something that was a major problem. Golden inner energy was made to diffuse all attacks, and rather than focusing on power, it was focusing on defense, and she had it covering her whole body. On top of that, she was also much much stronger than anyone he had fought so far, and he felt that she was probably even harder to fight than the two black robed men who had tried to kill him combined.

The golden inner energy was called a physical type of inner energy, and not only was the defense stronger than other types, but it also was able to improve her physical power, making her hit harder and take harder hits without flinching.

So far he had been able to at most break through a small inner energy barrier, but he was not able to do it many times in a row, at most being able to do it five times in a single fight, and he had discovered this through fighting in this arena. This was why he had come to the arena, but he finally found something that he could not win against without his right eye's power.

Most people had thought that his skin was super tough because it never got hurt from touching the inner energy, but in reality, it was tough enough to only be damaged so skin but did not break, but it was not as tough as they though as it just healed before the next fight started.

But not only was this woman's inner energy meant to defend, but it also covered her whole body, giving him no chance to attack her in a vulnerable spot. But he was able to identify a spot where it was weaker than the rest of her body. It was weakest directly in the middle of her chest.

And now that the fight had started, he could clearly tell that the woman intended to kill him and that she would play it off as him not being as strong as she expected. After all, accidental killing was okay, and intentional killing was highly frowned upon and punished, although not by major margins.

All of this took a long time to explain, but Su Tao's mind was able to process it in only a moment, so fast that the woman had not even moved a single foot forwards as fast as she was. He knew that even if he alerted anyone that she was trying to kill him, people would not be able to get there fast enough to save him even if he ran away, and as such, he charged directly towards the woman.

The woman also realized this, and she realized he was extremely smart because she could see no sign of hesitation from him even though he could not possibly defeat her, meaning that he figured he could not get help from others at all even if he ran away. She was quite happy to see this as well, considering that her goal was, in fact, to kill him.

The woman had no weapon, but her physical power was more than strong enough to kill Su Tao in only a couple well placed hits. As such, she knew that he would try to dodge her hit. But she had seen just how skilled he was at avoiding hits so far considering that so far only a total of ten hits had barely connected with him even though he had been in many more fights than that with people at the silver rank, and none of these hits even caused a bruise to him.

She started by instead of swinging a fist at him, she leaped and swung her leg wide to make it hard for him to avoid. But little did she know he did not plan to dodge at all. Instead, he swung his fist at her leg, using about a tenth of the power of his right eye in his fist.

His lightning tattoos glowed lightly, and when his fist collided with her leg, the inner energy barrier shattered after a moment or two, and his fist connected with her leg, throwing her back a little bit. But all the power of his right eye that he used to break that inner energy barrier had been spent just to break it, meaning that only the physical power of his fist impacted her leg, but even then, it was still enough to hurt her quite a bit and throw her back.

She stood there in slight shock. No one at the bronze rank had ever managed to break through her inner energy barrier so easily. But she ignored this and instantly recovered, launching herself at him again. She was quite a bit slower than before because he had managed to hit her calf and mess up the bottom half of her leg a little bit.

But he was only a little better off compared to her, because her inner energy barrier had taken time to break, meaning that all the force of her kick had transferred into his arm, jamming it back and making it buckled awkwardly, but he was expecting this and let his arm go limp after it had hit her calf all the way so it would take less damage from the knockback of her kick.

But he did not slow down in the slightest as he once again launched himself at her full force, now closer to her. She swung out her fist this time, and just when it was about to hit him, she did the same thing he had earlier, swinging just a little bit earlier looking to grab his arm. But she was doomed to fail when Su Tao instantly saw the shift of her arm and dodged it easily, giving him room to finally get a good hit on her.

She was not at all expecting him to dodge the grab, so even though her other arm was coming in for a hit, he was even faster, putting the remainder of his right eye's power into his one singular fist and hitting her dead center in the middle of the chest. She was not expecting this.

She had known previously about the green lightning "poison" that he used to win against the other two men who had attacked him, as she was part of the same group, and she was one of the senior sisters of them. She did not know how he used it, but the moment it collided with her leg, she was able to tell about how strong it was, or at least that's what she thought.

But the moment his fist collided with her chest, she was instantly proven wrong when her inner energy barrier shattered without the slightest resistance and instantly slamming full force into her chest throwing her back a total of at least fifty feet before she even hit the ground. All the ribs in her chest were broken and she had instantly lost consciousness.

While in the air, the green lightning ravaged her entire chest. By the time she hit the ground, there was a trail of blood following her and her chest had completely caved in. On top of that, her robes had a hole burned in them, completely exposing her bare chest. But no one could even see her chest exposed as it had been burned black by the lightning.

As she hit the ground, her body slammed into it like a ragdoll, and she rolled backwards. She then violently slammed into the wall of the arena with enough force to break her back as well. Even her arms and legs had been broken by the impact, and she was without a doubt dead.

The entire arena was completely dead silent. A single pin drop would be able to be heard at this moment. Then, Su Tao's voice rang out and filled the entire arena. His voice was instilled with the will of a king and the voice of death itself, bringing fear to every single person that heard it.

"For any of you out there that dare to have thoughts of killing me like she did, this is the fate that awaits you. You will find nothing but death if you dare to cross me." He spoke simply, but his voice contained an indisputable tone that could not be fought against. It brought terror to the hearts of those who did not like him, and admiration to those who adored him.

Then, while the arena was still dead silent, he walked out, unobstructed. All those who were in his way moved long before he even got close to them. Even the person overseeing the matches was completely silent.

He was at the second silver star, but even he did not have confidence to kill a person at the first silver star with a defense type inner energy with such total defeat, to the point where body was almost unrecognizable as a person, in a single hit. The difference between one silver star and two was so big that no one star could beat a two star, but it was not that extreme to have such a level of power.

He looked at her body, only to see that half her body had been burned at this point, and it was barely recognizable that she was a person anymore. Almost every bone in her chest had been broken and even her arms and legs had been broken from slamming into the arena wall. Even the arena wall had been cracked from the impact, and it was made of solid wood at least a foot thick.

There were many flashes of green lightning flashing about the surface of her body, and they only died off after about ten seconds. But only the person at the second silver star was able to see this, and only just barely, because it was very faint. One would need to have the lightning right in front of them or on them to see it if they were not a two silver star ranked warrior.

But it was then that he replayed the scene in his head and finally realized something. He had seen the woman's weakness, which was the direct middle of her chest. It was only about seventy five percent as strong as the rest of the barrier, and Su Tao had hit exactly there.

Thinking about this, he found it easier to believe what had happened now, and he was confident that the boy's power was not equal to the hit of a second silver star warrior. He also figured that if the boy could even repeat the move at all, then it would be a one time move for a single battle, meaning that it took time to build up the power to make that move, like a killing card.

The judge had also seen that the woman wanted to kill Su Tao based on her actions, but he would not be able to get to them fast enough to save him, just like both of them had already figured out.

And he made no attempt to save Su Tao because he thought that Su Tao would be killed in the first hit anyway since he was mainly relying on skill to beat the previous opponents, not power. This meant that she, who had the full body defense type inner energy, could kill him almost instantly before he could get there anyway.

Only about thirty seconds after he left did the arena start to fill with noise. News spread quickly that there was a new super demon genius the likes of which this city had never seen, and his name was Su Tao. He even slightly stole the spotlight from the city master's daughter, who was the whole point of the entire banquet.

Even Su Tao himself was slightly surprised with how easily he killed her in one hit with all the power of his right eye. It was only now that he finally realized just how strong the power of his eyes were, and he figured that maybe the more he used, the more powerful it would be exponentially, meaning that using one tenth of it would not be half as powerful as a fifth of it, but it would be only a third or a fourth as strong as using a fifth of it.

This meant that when he used all of the power of his right eye all at once, the power of it might be comparable to a second silver star warrior. But this was only a single hit, and it left him extremely vulnerable after since it took a long time for him to replenish his eyes' power.

Su Tao had taken his robes back and put them on before he left, and he had also originally brought a bow with him. He did not plan to use the bow in the arena since he was going to use the arena to learn how to fight better in close combat and better understand his own strength.

This was because he could not currently get any better at the bow, and it was being borrowed from Su Xue anyway, as he did not have his own bow yet.

By now, it was getting close to time for the city master's children to come out anyway, meaning that he would have left the arena anyway. He had slung the bow over his back and put his robes on with a hood up, making him more low key and almost unrecognizable other than his face. But it did not matter much as his eyes were his main recognizable feature anyways.

He had already decided upon a place to meet up with Su Xue, and being the number one genius of the Su family, she was right up near the front of the audience with the Su family elders and the grand elder.

When the elders saw Su Tao with her, they had a nasty expression, especially Su Long, but they ignored him after a moment since they could do nothing especially here where everyone was under the watch of the city master.

After a few more minutes, the city master came out with his children. On his left was his daughter while on his right was his son. The instant they came out, all of them felt an extremely domineering gaze on them, the likes of which they had never felt before. Even the young master, who was not even at the silver rank yet, was able to sense it.

For the city master and his daughter, this was an inspecting gaze, but for the young master, he sensed a very deathly clear killing intent. But being only a bronze rank warrior, he was not able to tell where it was coming from, but the city master and his daughter instantly were able to pick out Su Tao from the crowd.

Both of them looked at him at the exact time, but neither of them lingered on him for more than a moment when they felt that his gaze contained no ill will. No one other than Su Tao himself noticed this, however.

The reason that he did not look at them will hatred or ill will was because the city master had protected him previously, therefore settling the issues between them, and he had no issues with the city master's daughter in the first place. But even they were not capable of sensing the deathly killing intent that the young master felt when Su Tao's eyes locked onto him.

As soon as they came out, thousands of cheers broke out at the same time. Then, the city master gave a quick speech about his daughter and her achievements thus far. He also talked about her potential and how it was far better than even his own and how she had the ability to reach the second gold star, a new highest ever for the City of Silver Sparrow. (Author's note: Yes I am literally just too lazy to write a speech. Sorry, but I am sure that you all can imagine what was said and stuff.)

Then, the banquet began. All around there were people having a good time eating good food and partying. Su Tao did not eat any food, however, as he had his eyes trained on the city master and his children the whole time. They found this weird, but they ignored it since they were the center of attention.

The killing intent that Su Tao was previously emitting was also entirely gone now, and it had not lasted for more than a second in the first place.

Finally, after a few minutes, the city master went around talking to other people and left his daughter alone. The young master also wandered off as well. By now, word had started to spread about Su Tao and what had happened at the arena, and a few minutes later, the city master's daughter got word of it while talking to others, who were joking that there might be another new star today.

She knew very well who he was, and she also knew that her father had protected him. Hearing this, she finally realized why he had protected Su Tao. She looked at him once again, only to lock eyes with him for the first time. She had previously looked at him, but not into his eyes.

When she locked eyes with him, she felt extremely uncomfortable, as if she had been seen naked. She hated the feeling. She averted her eyes, but the feeling lingered for another minute longer before it disappeared.

Another few minutes passed in general peace, but then suddenly Su Tao averted his eyes from the city master and his children. Both the city master and his daughter felt this change and looked towards him at the same time to see where he was looking, but they were not fast enough. They only saw him tap Su Xue on the shoulder and urgently gesture something to her.

She then gave him her bow, and the moment she did, he nocked an arrow and drew it back as far and as fast as he could. But he did not point it towards the city master's children at all. Both of them looked where he was aiming, only to be alarmed. Far away on the roof of the residence blending into the shadows was another person drawing his own bow pointing it towards the city master's daughter.

The city master reacted instantly, moving towards his daughter, but he was not fast enough. The assassin had already released his arrow and it was on its way towards his daughter. But the next moment, Su Tao released the arrow that was nocked on his own bow. He had gotten the bow from Su Xue because hers was much more powerful and much faster than the one she had lent to him.

Both the arrows flew through the air and no one even knew that they were. Time slowed down for the city master and his daughter as they panicked. But the city master was across the banquet and was about five hundred feet behind his daughter, while the arrow was faster than he was.

Just as the assassin's arrow was about five feet from hitting the city master's daughter, who was barely able to move at all in this time, Su Tao's arrow flew extremely close to her head, almost hitting it, going straight past, hitting the other arrow and slowing it down enough for her to get out of the way of it.

Su Tao had spent all of his right eye's power, otherwise his arrow would be able to completely destroy the other one. But it was just a normal arrow while the other one had been imbued with extremely powerful inner energy. But it was enough to slow it down and knock it far enough off course, just enough for the already moving city master's daughter to get out of the way.

Then, the next moment, the city master reached her, and after confirming that she was okay, he instantly launched himself towards the assassin. The assassin reacted instantly and leaped away, blending into the shadows as if he was a shadow himself. But he could not escape the city master inevitably. On top of that, the Silver Sparrow Guard also launched towards where the assassin was.

It only took a few moments for them to catch the assassin and knock them out. They then took the body of the assassin and took inside the residence while the city master ran over to his daughter, who was now shaking. She felt that she had never been closer to death than she just was, and if it was not for Su Tao's arrow, she would most certainly be dead.

Then, a weird substance erupted from his body violently. This substance was inner breath, and he used it to form a sort of bubble around them before he brought them both over to Su Tao, and he once again used the inner breath, slamming it against Su Tao's head, knocking him out, but not hurting him.

He then took Su Tao's unconscious body and his daughter inside while ordering one of the Silver Sparrow Guard to get his son and bring him inside as well. This all happened so ridiculously fast that even those at the second silver star were barely able to react before they were all inside.

No one was able to figure out what exactly had happened until someone pointed out the arrow impaled deep into the stone floor and the shattered arrow not far from it.

Su Xue, who had given Su Tao her bow, thought that he had tried to kill the city master's daughter, but then she cast the thought aside when she saw the other actual assassin get captured by the city master and the Silver Sparrow Guard.

Then, without any warning, the banquet was cut short and every single person there was sent home instantly.