Chapter 17: The Assassin Strikes

…

The first rule of the Assassin’s Heart Sutra is that an assassin must have patience. An assassin without patience might get lucky once or twice, but they won’t be lucky every time.

Zuo Qianqian agreed deeply with this. When she was young and went hunting, she often missed many good opportunities because she lacked patience. She even encountered many dangers and paid the price with blood and scars. After learning her lesson again and again, Zuo Qianqian learned patience in hunting.

Killing humans was no harder than killing wild beasts. However, she could not make a single mistake, or else she would be the one killed instead of the killer. Inside Zuo Qianqian’s body, the thin Nether Fighting Qi circulated slowly. The dark Fighting Qi gave her the ability to become one with the night. It allowed her to hide in the dark places, just like a fish in water.

Avoiding the moonlight and starlight, she stepped silently on the shadows, walking slowly and steadily toward the bandit camp. There were more than thirty bandits in this group. They had hunted a wild boar during the day. So, at night, they lit bonfires and had a great party with strong liquor and delicious food.

This was the difference between bandits and a regular army.

A regular army had strict discipline and extremely strict control over alcohol. But the bandits were different; their loose discipline often made it hard to control their lazy behavior.

The strong liquor and the partying made most of them feel tired after the excitement. During this time, following orders to search the forest for the two escapees from the small mountain village had already exhausted them.

Most people had fallen into a deep sleep inside the sheepskin tents in the camp. Only a few unlucky ones on duty had to stand guard on this shivering cold night.

The good wine and food, along with their tired bodies, made the sentries drowsy. Leaning against the bonfire, wrapped tightly in fur coats, they fought against the cold in a half-asleep state.

Zuo Qianqian infiltrated very steadily. After half an hour, she finally entered the camp silently and hid in the shadows. She carefully calculated the positions and distances between the three guards. Because this was her first time assassinating someone as an assassin, she had to be extra cautious. In her mind, she kept calculating how to kill the three sentries without a sound.

But she still waited patiently. She let the cold wind blow on her worn cotton coat and drill into her body. She waited for another hour or so. The night was more than half over, and dawn was approaching.

The time before dawn was always the darkest time of the whole day. Those bonfires had also dimmed because no one added firewood for a long time. The crescent moon also happened to be hidden in dark clouds. Inside the camp at this moment, one could barely see their own hand in front of their face.

But because Zuo Qianqian had cultivated Nether Fighting Qi, she actually felt a special sense of safety, comfort, and warmth, just like a fish in water. At this time, the Nether Fighting Qi was more active than during the day. As it flowed through her body, it stimulated her heart and made her feel faintly excited.

“The opportunity has come.” Zuo Qianqian moved her almost frozen feet and merged her body with the darkness. Stepping on the snow, she only made very faint sounds. She slowly approached the back of the nearest sentry.

Her small hand holding the dagger was shivering a little, and a trace of hesitation flashed in her eyes. Killing someone up close felt completely different from killing them from a distance with a bow and arrow. Her heart was shaking, her hand was shaking, and her whole body was shaking.

But suddenly, the image of her grandfather before he died flashed through her mind, and a surge of hatred rose in her heart. It was this group of bandits. Not only did they harm the neighborhood and scourge the poor villagers, but they also insanely massacred her village. Even her grandfather died miserably at their hands.

Thinking of all this.

Zuo Qianqian’s clear and pure eyes began to turn red. The hand holding the dagger also became steady and stopped shaking. The Assassin’s Heart Sutra had many descriptions of assassination techniques. Various vital points of the human body were also explained clearly and plainly.

Her slightly frozen small hand reached over gently. Suddenly, she covered the sentry’s mouth. Just as the sentry woke up in shock and before he could resist, the sharp black dagger cut his throat as lightly as a feather. When the blood sprayed out, it also drained the resistance of the tragic sentry. Zuo Qianqian, who had tested it before, knew very well how sharp the dagger passed down by her grandfather was.

After a short while, the sentry stopped his weak struggle and lost his breath. But Zuo Qianqian’s face was extremely pale. It took more than ten breaths before she slowly let go of him. She gently placed him on the snow.

Zuo Qianqian, who killed someone at close range for the first time, felt an impulse to vomit from nausea. But thinking of the hatred and her oath, she forced herself to calm down. She slowly hid in the shadows and rested for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. Then, with a determined and resolute look, she went toward the second sentry.

Zuo Qianqian knew very well that if the first raid on the camp tonight failed, it would alert the enemy, and they might even set up various traps. Trying to assassinate them again would be as hard as reaching the sky. The second time, she obviously did better. Of course, part of the reason was that the enemy was completely unguarded.

It took the time of burning an incense stick in total for Zuo Qianqian to silently kill the three sentries. She dragged them into the shadows. In this way, even if someone came out to pee in the middle of the night and didn’t see the sentries in the dim light, they would only think the sentries had sneaked away to sleep.

After doing all this, Zuo Qianqian sneaked into the nearest tent. After half the time it takes to burn an incense stick, she came out and went to another tent. Back and forth, after another incense stick’s time, the number of bandits who died at the hands of this new assassin, Zuo Qianqian, had reached seventeen. This was the power of an assassin. Once the time, place, and other conditions were right, the damage an assassin could cause to the enemy far exceeded imagination.

Just then, a tent exploded with a bang, and Zuo Qianqian’s delicate body flew backward. A giant man, nine feet tall and as strong as a bull, rushed out with a roar, holding a copper hammer. He charged toward Zuo Qianqian ferociously.

Even though the bandits were not very disciplined, at the sound of the strong man’s roar, they all rushed out of their tents in chaos. They grabbed their weapons and charged out of the camp tents.

Zuo Qianqian’s skills leaned towards being agile and flexible. After landing on her back in the snow and rolling over, she spat out a mouthful of blood. She wildly urged the Nether Fighting Qi in her body and started to rush toward the forest. For an assassin, if one strike failed, fleeing far away was common sense. Moreover, that strong man was strong; he had clearly reached the level of High-stage Black Iron. If she fought him head-on, Zuo Qianqian would undoubtedly die.

That strong man was quite powerful. In his rage, combined with his large size, he could step over ten feet in one stride. Like a fierce and evil beast, he chased after Zuo Qianqian to kill her. But in his great anger, he forgot and ignored one thing: did that assassin have any companions?

Before he could chase a few steps, a series of brilliant lights exploded in the darkness. More than ten sword glows, sizzling with thunder light, shrouded his burly body.

Obviously, that strong man was also a veteran of many battles, and his reaction was very fast. While he was shocked, he waved his copper hammer to block. Under the threat to his life, he actually used his excellent strength to wave the hammer, creating layers of hammer shadows.

Clang, clang, clang! A series of crisp sounds rang out as the sword and hammer met.

Pfft! The sword glow passed through his hammer shadows and pierced into his chest. Blood splattered, and the strong man fell backward with a crash, his life cut short.

No matter how powerful this strong man was, he was only at High-stage Black Iron, which was several levels lower than Lei Qing, who was at High-stage Bronze. Moreover, Lei Qing relied on his sharp combat techniques and took full advantage of the sneak attack. This caused the strong man, who was decently strong at High-stage Black Iron, to be killed by Lei Qing in just one encounter.

Lei Qing, having won the first battle, had a warlike gleam in his eyes as he looked at the more than ten bandits swarming toward him. His heart filled with heroic spirit, and he stepped on the snow, charging directly at them.

…