17. Assassination

"How's it going?"

Atop the final stretch of the Great Wall, two men draped in deep red cloaks stood on the ramparts, one fat and one thin, gazing into the distant forest.

The tall and slim man spoke in a cold tone, "Without any message from the assassin, it likely means he hasn't succeeded yet."

"What kind of assassin did you hire?" the short and plump man asked with displeasure, "Why is it taking so long to deal with a mere First Rank youngster?"

"Tsk, Panda, just relax. To prevent any mishaps, I spent a lot of money on that bald guy. He's Second Order, and he has even assassinated a Third Rank Spirit Master before. This time, going after a greenhorn is truly overkill."

The tall and thin man's gaze was sinister as he continued indifferently, "Moreover, that young Mr. Xia will have a hard time surviving an encounter with Qi Xiao, so we probably won't even need to lift a finger."

"The better for us!" Although Panda was somewhat short and fat, his thick glasses lent him an air of a scholar as he pushed them up, "This time you acted on your own without telling me, and if our lord finds out about the attempted assassination of Xia Feng, neither of us will get off easy!"

With that, he gave the tall and lean man a cold look, "So, Knight Yan, you'd better pray that Xia Feng really dies in the Evil Dragon Forest!"

Seeing that Panda still had a questioning and condescending attitude, Yan Xujia felt displeased and scoffed, "Fatty Pan, put your mind at ease. That young Mr. Xia won't possibly make it out of the Evil Dragon Forest alive!"

As the two men conversed, they were completely oblivious to a woman in a black dress standing on a higher part of the wall behind them.

Mu Qingtong stood aloof in her elegant black dress with her hands behind her back, a semi-transparent lace black veil hanging on her face, her beautiful eyes slightly squinting as she looked down at the two men's backs, "Judging by the half-moon emblem on their cloaks, are they from the Black Moon Church?"

Why would the Church Court want to make a move on Xia Feng? Mu Qingtong looked towards the depths of the forest, her brow slightly furrowed.

A Second Order assassin who had slain a Third Rank Spirit Master would invariably have extraordinarily rich combat experience, a formidable foe even for her.

But not without solutions.

One method would be to initiate a war of attrition, to conceal her presence and flee in the forest for two days, after which she was confident she could turn the tables on her pursuer.

As for Xia Feng...

"Mr. Xia, if you were to die just like that... it would only mean you're not yet worthy to be my opponent."

The woman in the black dress's golden eyes shimmered as she stood on the wall, gazing at the Blood Moon on the horizon; the density of the Evil Power here made her feel somewhat uncomfortable.

If Xia Feng was to take care of his pursuers, he would probably also need at least two days. Considering that the Evil Dragon Forest opened for only five days each year, thinking of this, she lost the desire to linger any longer and turned to leave the wall.

"I'll come back the day after tomorrow to see, Xia Feng, hope you won't disappoint me."

*

"This smell, it's so familiar..."

Xia Feng looked at the Wisdom Fruit in his hand, feeling somewhat speechless and disappointed.

After returning to the Light Evil Zone from the black hole, he casually wandered back while tallying up his spoils of war.

The Wisdom Fruit had a rough shell with a deep red color, and the flesh inside was translucent white, looking almost identical to a lychee on the outside.

Upon eating one... it tasted almost exactly like a lychee.

Well, well! Are the Wisdom Fruits in this world just lychees?

However, after eating one, he did indeed feel more rational.

But at the same time, he distinctly felt his ability to absorb Evil Power rapidly declining, and he even started to develop an irritable aversion to Evil Power.

"Hiss—" Xia Feng's eyes widened as he instinctively flung the bag full of Wisdom Fruits onto the ground with a slap, "Damn it, they're poisoned fruits!"

According to textbooks, Wisdom Fruits have the effect of clearing and resisting the erosion of Evil Power; clearly, they were his natural enemy!

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For him, it was the queen's poisonous apple!

But he had barely taken a few steps when, after a moment's thought, he turned back to pick up the bag on the ground and dusted it off.

Although it was a highly poisonous fruit, at present, the market price for a single Wisdom Fruit was 10,000 Empire Coins.

And there were still twelve left in the bag, which amounted to a whopping 120,000!

Previously, to gather the materials needed to activate the Evil Demon Heart, he had exhausted all his savings, and was as poor as could be.

Especially since he hadn't even paid this month's rent, this sum of money was a timely solution to an urgent problem.

Xia Feng shook the bag of fruits and cracked a smile, "Since it's of no use to me, I may as well use it to burst out a ton of gold coins!"

After storing the bag securely, he took out the Life Fruit, which although called Life Fruit, didn't have the miraculous effect of bringing the dead back to life.

However, consuming it could indeed extend one's life—this wasn't mere talk, but a genuine increase of anywhere between 1 day to 1 year in lifespan.

This thing started from the market price of 100,000, truly something only the rich could afford.

For that reason, there were plenty of big shots in this world who lived beyond a hundred years of age.

Of course, for him, the Life Fruit was useless; after all, it was the activity of the Evil Demon Heart that maintained his life, and the higher its activity, the longer he would live.

[Remaining activity: 7 days, 4 hours, 39 minutes]

It seemed that he had about a week to gather the summoning materials for the "Door to the World."

"Hmm?!" While he was pondering, Xia Feng suddenly froze, his hairs standing on end as a layer of golden light appeared on him and his long tail lashed out behind him to block a sneak attack—bam—

He took advantage of the force to leap forward, springing onto the treetop and looking down.

A bald man clad in a mink coat staggered back two steps, recovering from his shock and muttered, "Damn it, he actually has One-tail? Such a big intelligence error—did that guy in the black robe eat shit?"

Cursing under his breath, the man twirled the delicate knife in his hand and looked up grinning,

"But kid, although it's a bit unexpected, I like it when you little geniuses keep your talents hidden. Want to know why?"

As he spoke, he lasciviously licked the knife in his hand, his grin widening, "Because, my friend, it's all the more satisfying to kill you then!"

Xia Feng: "..."

Xia Feng's gaze lingered on the bald man's knife, realizing that people really do lick knives, huh? Well, at least it's possible to infer a bit of combat information from this—the knife isn't poisoned...

Ah no, now wasn't the time to be thinking about this. He looked at the muscular man with some confusion, "Who sent you? I don't recall offending anyone recently, have I?"

The bald man laughed, "Who sent me? Of course, it's—swoosh!!"

Just as Xia Feng's pupils dilated with the intent to find out who it was, the man took a step and charged at Xia Feng like a shooting star, grinning with excitement and murderous intent in his eyes.

Damn, it's Lao Liu! In a hurry, Xia Feng swung his sword and executed Triple Waves, attacking in place of defense.

Crack—But in the next moment, the burly figure in mid-leap vanished without a trace.

"Idiot, I'm behind you." The man's low chuckle came from behind, and at the same time, a palm strike laden with terrifying Spiritual Pressure descended upon him, Xia Feng's dark eyes tightened.

The tip of One-tail released a high-pressure shock aimed at the man's palm, bang!!!

Xia Feng paled and spat out a mouthful of blood as he was hurled into the air. He quickly twisted his body, using the tree branches for leverage, and made a tactical retreat toward the distance...

"Think you can run away? Can you really escape?" the bald man sneered, his figure shooting across the treetops like a meteor, with incredible speed.

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