Escape

Xueming, on the ground in a half-lying position, glimpsed the other man with eyes that began to blur. He remembered that the guy who was now attacking him was one of Li Biao's minions. Despite having sensed that Li Biao was behind the assassins, he still had no evidence to confirm. Now it was evident to his eyes that they were Li Biao's people. The rage and hatred that he thought he had already had so much could still multiply as if the resentment of the human heart was a bottomless object. It was only that at this time, Xueming's condition was no different from that of a fully bent bow. If one wanted to draw it further, the bow would definitely be broken.

The eyes that gazed with disillusionment could not do anything to the person coming to take his life. The strength that he had before could no longer be used. Just to get up and escape was still difficult, not to mention to retaliate or escape. Despite feeling discouraged, in the depths of his mind, he refused to surrender. Xueming secretly continued to steer the flow of the scalding heat energy to heal the injuries. Yet, judging from the distance from Jian Chen who was already approaching, Xueming probably would not be able to recover and escape from death today.

"Just surrender and die." Jian Chen said in a plain voice. In his hand raised an emerald green sword—a top-grade weapon that the former leader of the Li family gave him for use in protecting the young master of the Li family—to kill Xueming in one go.

When the enemy was helpless, the assassin’s sword posture used therefore did not contain the full ten parts of the power. Yet, with the fifth level of the basic Qi cultivation, only half of his strength would be enough to kill Xueming without much difficulty. The emerald sword was swung from above, slanting toward Xueming's neck.

CLANG!

But then, amidst the dark night, a metal dart suddenly flew through the air to intercept. The strength of the dart caused the emerald sword to miss its target. Yet, because the dart had traveled a long distance, the emerald sword still reached Xueming. Although the dart hit the sword until it deflected in a different direction, the sword edge inflicted a long, diagonal wound on Xueming's chest, revealing a fully muscular chest with bright red blood pouring out.

At this time, Xueming did not know who the person extending a hand to help him was, or whether he had any hidden purpose. Right now, in Xueming's brain, there was only the thought of having to recover as quickly as possible, because now that his life was hanging on a thread, Xueming only trusted himself. He preferred to stand on his own feet rather than allow fate to take its course like in the past.

The scorching hot Qi energy gradually regained its strength, little by little. Although the sound of an ongoing fight was not far from him, Xueming did not care. He steadily closed his eyes, meditating and ceaselessly steering his Qi to heal his body. But then, suddenly a white smoke flew out from the five assassins’ corpses and rushed through Xueming's closed left eyelid into his body. The hot Qi energy that was quickly running abruptly stopped. Xueming's consciousness faded, making him recall the event of the first night that he had killed an assassin in a motel. If it had happened here right now, he would have become unconscious. Instead of having enough energy to perceive, he would have become a slice of meat on the chopping board waiting to be slaughtered.

With that realization, his body that started to recover suddenly rebounded into a standing position before rushing his footsteps in full speed to get away from the scene. Despite being curious about what happened, he decided not to look back—just quickening his steps heading out of the city haphazardly.

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The black-clothed man who intercepted Jian Chen had extraordinary skills. They fought one another for over a hundred moves. Despite not fighting to win, he seemed to be slightly superior to Jian Chen. Plus, he was not rushing to defeat Jian Chen, just attacking and defending cautiously. Unlike Jian Chen, who had cultivated to the fifth level of the basic Qi, perceived that his skill was second only to the leaders or descendants of the influential families in the Purple Jade City. Therefore, early in the battle, he was attacking the opponent so intensely to show his strength and power. Unexpectedly, the enemy was inexhaustible. The longer they fought, the more obvious that his skills were half a step better than those of Jian Chen.

During a serious showdown like this, the inferior Jian Chen couldn't separate his mental concentration, thus completely forgetting about Xueming who seemed to be unable to move. Until after a while, the thoughts in his head definitely confirmed that he would not win this fight. Jian Chen suddenly thought of altering his plan in order to kill Xueming as intended. Although he would have some injuries after the battle, he had to escape from this fight before dawn. Otherwise, if letting it prolong until the night passed, this mission would be in vain.

Where is that kid?!?

Jian Chen's shocked exclamation caused both opponents to stop fighting.

... Xueming whose condition was critical disappeared while the two were clashing.

When the mission failed, Jian Chen who had revealed himself to do this job could not afford to receive the punishment should he stay in the Purple Jade City. Therefore, he hastily escaped from the City before dawn.

The person who had intervened to help Xueming this time intended to help Xueming, not to kill anyone. When Jian Chen fled, he did not pursue for more fights. He just stayed still, staring at an empty place in front which was the spot where he saw Xueming sitting cross-legged. In his heart, he thought about many things that he could not help speaking to himself.

"I violated my master's order by extending a hand to help the young master's friend this time, for fear that the young master would be sad if his comrade passed away. Surprisingly, this little boy had many stories that could not be understood by the information obtained earlier. Despite having seen it with my own eyes, I still can't believe this is true.” His gaze swept over the corpses of the five assassins who had died with eyes wide open. But soon, he was shocked because the previously perfect corpses unbelievably shriveled up. He simply assumed that it was the assassin’s way to destroy their trace.

Despite the many events of various emotions in that night, he intended to keep them as a secret without telling them to his own boss, because he thought it would be better to let the friendship of the two boys develop naturally, rather than a friendship that resulted from the hope for future benefits.

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Xueming incessantly ran directionless. His eyes became more and more blurry, only knowing that he had crossed past the city wall for a while. Yet, he was not sure if someone was still stalking him. His two feet were getting tired, but he must force himself to keep running like that.

Xueming did not know how long time had passed. Two blurry eyes suddenly became narrow to a state of half-awake. Then, a cold wind blew past his face, causing his narrow eyes to widen slightly, looking straight out into the vast, limitless expanse.

Xueming suddenly realized that something was not right, but he was one step too late. His right foot leaped into the void. The exhausted body abruptly became cold and had goosebumps all over, falling uncontrollably into the abyss before him.