Chapter 539: A Startling Rainbow Leaves the Sheath

From the voice alone, one could tell the masked man was no longer young.

Niu Youdao's expression remained utterly calm, neither grieving nor rejoicing. “She's dead. You killed her.”

The masked man replied, “That's perfectly normal. People who overestimate themselves usually meet that kind of end.”

The words carried another meaning, as though he were also referring to Niu Youdao's present actions.

Niu Youdao said, “If you can capture me alive, you won't kill me.”

The reason he was so certain the other side would try its utmost to take him alive was not difficult to guess.

Yucang could not be sure Niu Youdao had left no contingency behind, nor could he be sure Niu Youdao had not already revealed the secret to others.

The best course was therefore to capture him alive and force him to confess whether he had disclosed the secret, and to whom.

If Niu Youdao truly had made preparations beforehand, then holding his life in their hands would also prevent those contingencies from being triggered too easily.

Until that was clarified, Yucang would not dare kill him rashly.

If someone else already knew the secret, what use would killing Niu Youdao be?

The masked man said, “So you knew. No wonder.”

He had found it strange before.

Niu Youdao was supposedly only at Foundation Establishment, yet he had dared deliver himself straight into their hands. The masked man had assumed he must possess some hidden reliance.

So he had simply known they wanted him alive and was therefore unafraid of being killed by mistake.

Niu Youdao said, “Looks like the person who sent you didn't tell you why I must be captured.”

“Do I need to know?”

“Don't you want to hear my explanation? It may benefit you.”

“You found the wrong man if you think you can solve this with your mouth.”

As the masked man finished speaking, the ground rapidly approached below them. He suddenly thrust out one hand.

A gigantic claw of azure light abruptly took shape.

Niu Youdao was caught completely off guard and seized squarely.

The masked man and Niu Youdao, linked by the enormous phantom claw, landed at the same time.

Within the azure glow, Niu Youdao poured every shred of cultivation into struggling, yet could barely move.

The masked man's five fingers clenched.

The giant claw tightened with them.

Pain instantly twisted Niu Youdao's face. His complexion flushed dark red, as though the blood in his body might burst out through his skin.

Four figures dropped from the sky and landed in four directions, surrounding the two men at the center.

Guan Fangyi landed as well and was immediately encircled by four assassins who descended after her. Niu Youdao had thrown her off earlier, leaving her isolated.

Old Six Xu, Old Thirteen, and Yuan Gang landed together and found themselves surrounded by ten masked men.

Uncle Chen, Yin'er, and Yuan Fang touched down in another place, where ten black-clad killers rapidly descended and formed a perimeter around them.

The two sides had landed across the grassland in four separate clusters.

Of the thirty assassins, twenty-nine had come down.

Their flying mounts circled overhead, with one man remaining in the air as lookout.

For the assassins, forcing Niu Youdao's group to the ground was the best possible outcome.

Fighting in the air made it far too easy to injure the flying mounts, and every one of those beasts cost an astronomical sum. If such needless losses could be avoided, naturally they would avoid them.

That was why almost all of them had abandoned their mounts and descended.

Three heavy crashes sounded one after another in the distance.

The three badly wounded Black Jade Eagles that had been tumbling through the sky finally smashed into the ground, blood splattering on impact.

One lay motionless.

The others still managed to flap their wings weakly, but none could stand.

Yin'er turned and stared at the three enormous birds that had carried them here, now lying broken on the ground.

Yuan Fang had wanted to flee, but there was nowhere to run now that they were surrounded.

He could only hide behind Yin'er, squeezing himself between her and Uncle Chen while repeatedly whispering, “Yin'er, hurry and do something! Hurry! Master Dao can't hold on much longer!”

Yin'er turned back and looked toward Niu Youdao, who was still trapped.

Uncle Chen held his sword in one hand and a Mountain-Splitting Talisman in the other, watching the surroundings warily.

Each of the Fufang Garden men carried three Mountain-Splitting Talismans.

Guan Fangyi had given them out beforehand for emergencies and self-defense.

Their greatest concern right now was the Heavenly Mechanism Aura-Breaking Arrows in the assassins' hands.

Yet the killers surrounding them had already slung their bows across their backs.

Part of the reason was that the Heavenly Mechanism Aura-Breaking Arrows were expensive and could not be carried in large numbers.

More importantly, the assassins themselves knew the arrows were far less useful on the ground. Even a layer of earth thrown up during combat could disrupt their effect.

There was no reason to waste them.

Seeing Niu Youdao in danger, Guan Fangyi flipped her hand and brought out a Heavenly Sword Talisman, preparing to rush over and save him.

The four killers surrounding her instantly scattered and maintained their distance.

Shing! Shing! Shing! Shing!

All four swords sprang from the assassins' backs at once and floated in the air, pointed at Guan Fangyi like predators watching prey, ready to strike at any moment.

Guan Fangyi's expression changed.

All four were experts capable of controlling swords with qi.

There were plenty of Golden Core cultivators in the cultivation world, but not every Golden Core cultivator counted as an expert.

Cultivation at the same realm did not mean equal strength. At times, the difference could be as vast as Heaven and Earth.

The ability to control a sword with qi was one of the great dividing lines within the Golden Core Realm.

It enabled long-range attacks: the so-called flying sword.

An ordinary person could see nothing.

But a cultivator opening the Dharma Eye could make out a hair-thin filament of spiritual power connecting each floating sword to its wielder.

That represented an exquisitely precise command of spiritual power, utterly different from the crude surges and releases employed by ordinary Golden Core cultivators.

Four experts at that level had been sent specifically to deal with her.

Guan Fangyi immediately understood the problem.

This was no coincidence.

They were here for her.

The other side clearly knew she possessed Heavenly Sword Talismans and intended to use long-range attacks to wear them down without ever entering the talismans' effective killing range.

The appearance of those four sword-controlling experts pinned Guan Fangyi in place at once.

Yuan Gang, however, could not concern himself with that when Niu Youdao's life was in danger.

Three-Roars Saber in hand, he charged directly out.

“ROAR!”

A tiger's roar split the air like a thunderclap.

Clang!

Yuan Gang crashed head-on into one of the killers coming toward him. Saber and sword collided, and both men were blasted backward.

Shock filled the assassin's eyes.

He had plainly not expected that outcome.

Two more killers immediately joined the attack.

Old Six Xu and Old Thirteen could not stand aside and watch. They rushed in to help.

All ten assassins immediately joined forces, and the two sides erupted into a chaotic melee.

As fighting broke out elsewhere, the masked man holding Niu Youdao in the phantom claw sneered.

“With your cultivation, once you've fallen into this old man's Azure Dragon Claw, there's no point wasting your strength struggling!”

He pulled one arm back.

The giant azure claw instantly dragged Niu Youdao toward him.

Until now, the masked man had still harbored some caution.

He had worried that Niu Youdao might be carrying a Heavenly Sword Talisman and that this reckless approach concealed some hidden confidence.

But once he had seized Niu Youdao completely and left him unable to deploy even a talisman, that concern disappeared.

He yanked Niu Youdao close.

His five fingers thrust into the azure glow and reached for Niu Youdao's throat.

At the same time, he shouted, “Kill!”

He had not given the order earlier because Niu Youdao needed to be kept alive.

Now that the living prisoner was already in his hands, they could pry anything they wanted out of Niu Youdao's mouth.

The lives of everyone else no longer mattered.

But the instant the word “kill” left his mouth and the assassins moved, the masked man's own eyes changed violently.

Something was wrong.

Niu Youdao, whom the Azure Dragon Claw had held with absolute certainty, whom he had squeezed immovably tight, suddenly seemed to loosen.

It was as though the claw had grasped nothing at all.

Just as the masked man dragged Niu Youdao into arm's reach and shouted “kill,” Niu Youdao seemed almost to obey that command.

The hand he kept habitually resting on his sword hilt wherever he went moved.

A startling rainbow left the sheath.

This was the moment Niu Youdao had been waiting for.

The crushing force of the Azure Dragon Claw seemed to lose all ability to suppress him in an instant.

They were too close.

Niu Youdao's sword was too fast.

And the attack came too suddenly.

The masked man had no time to react.

The unexpected strike arrived without the slightest warning.

He watched with his own eyes as a cold streak of light swept across his chest.

A chill brushed through him.

The phantom Azure Dragon Claw collapsed.

Violent wind burst outward.

Grass fragments flew in every direction, carrying away the blood that had collected along the sword held crosswise in Niu Youdao's hand.

Niu Youdao stood before him with his sword angled at his side, face expressionless.

Their eyes met.

One gaze was calm and cold.

The other was filled with horror.

The masked man's outstretched hand had nearly reached Niu Youdao's throat.

Slowly, he lowered his head and looked at his chest.

Blood was already pouring from the wound in great surges.

His arm gradually dropped.

His palm pressed against Niu Youdao's chest.

His body sank.

Thud.

He dropped to his knees directly in front of Niu Youdao, then slowly lifted his head again, disbelief filling his eyes.

The four masked men surrounding them stared just as incredulously.

For a moment, they almost seemed to doubt whether they had seen correctly.

The assassins elsewhere who noticed what had happened were stunned as well.

Their leader had actually...?

Guan Fangyi and the others, who had been worrying constantly over Niu Youdao's safety, were equally shocked.

This...?

“Bastard! Are you still not coming over to help?”

Guan Fangyi cursed while desperately using the paired short swords concealed in her sleeves to resist the flying swords attacking her.

Shock and delight mingled in her expression.

She had worried for nothing.

So that bastard had actually been hiding his depth.

But there was no chance for Niu Youdao to come help her.

The four killers surrounding him had already attacked.

Bang!

Niu Youdao kicked the man kneeling before him away and immediately plunged into combat with the four assassins.

Yet the killers Xiaoyue Pavilion had sent were simply too powerful.

Niu Youdao's side fell into a disadvantage almost instantly.

The entire battle tipped one-sidedly.

Guan Fangyi was trapped by flying swords and could not break free.

The enemy attacked from a distance, leaving her with Heavenly Sword Talismans she could not properly bring to bear.

What good would it do to release their power uselessly into empty space?

And Niu Youdao was not some deeply hidden peerless expert after all.

The disparity in cultivation and raw strength was right there.

The four assassins attacking him could advance and retreat far faster than he could.

He could not injure them.

Fortunately, Niu Youdao's close-range reactions were extraordinarily fast, and he could withstand the force of their powerful blows.

Even with all four working together, they could not immediately do anything to him.

The situation around Old Six Xu, Old Thirteen, and Yuan Gang was more dangerous.

They relied on their talismans, occasionally using one to break an attack and buy breathing room, barely managing to hold on.

The truly dangerous position was Uncle Chen's.

Uncle Chen was unquestionably formidable.

But neither were the killers sent by Xiaoyue Pavilion ordinary men.

Facing ten powerful assassins at once, his situation could be imagined.

Once the talismans in his hand were exhausted, he was already an arrow at the end of its flight.

The real problem was that, against assassins at this level, Yuan Fang was completely useless.

He could do nothing except get hit.

Yin'er, meanwhile, barely reacted at all.

She simply stood there watching.

Neither one helped.

Uncle Chen still had to spare effort to protect them.

Two fists could hardly resist four hands, much less the combined assault of ten experts.

Thud!

Another sword struck Yuan Fang and hacked him straight to the ground.

A fresh tear appeared in his clothes.

He began howling miserably, “Yin'er, hurry and do something!”

He truly was on the verge of tears.

Uncle Chen was focusing most of his spare attention on protecting Yin'er.

Naturally, Yuan Fang was the one suffering for it.

His paired ring sabers had long since been knocked away.

The impacts had left blood flowing from his nose and mouth.

More than a dozen sword strikes had already landed on his body.

He desperately wanted to ask whether Uncle Chen was blind.

Does she need you to protect her?

I'm the one who needs protecting!

In fact, the assassins who had struck Yuan Fang with their swords were also somewhat astonished.

How was this old fellow actually impervious to blades?

This time, however, Yuan Fang truly could not bear it any longer.

He wrapped both arms around Yin'er's leg and refused to let go.

“Yin'er, hurry...”

The words died in his throat.

His face froze as he looked upward.

A head of silver hair was drifting in the wind.

[End of Chapter 539]