Chapter 595: Let It Begin!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The shower of blades was far more intense than the fallen leaves. They spiraled and flew in various orientations… and along with them, they brought the harsh cries of the wind.
Every piece and shard was laced with terrifying howls that came from the speed at which it cut through the gale.
It was not hard to imagine that such a blade only needed to brush past someone for them to either be dismembered or cut apart everywhere. Even worse, it would slice their chest or stomach open.
It was a matter of life and death. Who would dare take this lightly? Even when these were the assassins who roamed at the brink of life and death throughout the years, no one dared disregard it.
The leaves and blades wove an interlacing pattern with each other in a spiraling dance in the sky. There was a copious amount of weapons – swords, daggers, knives, thin flying needles, and other lethal instruments, appearing continuously to fill in any tiny gap between the attacks. Any gap that had previously existed was now a fatal threat.
That wasn't the end of it.
A fallen leaf drifted silently to the top of a Four Seasons Tower's expert and turned into an enormous hammer!
How could a giant hammer emerge from a piece of fallen leaf?
So far, every bit of the battle tonight had been within the realms of logic and reality. Such a switch was frightening to hear of, it was unbelievable and barely imaginable.
Yun Yang was fascinated watching the fight unfold, silently exclaiming at the professionalism he was witnessing. The assassins' tricks were truly innumerable and varied distinctively from each other. Even with his current cultivation base, he might not be able to defend himself if he were to encounter such an ambush. What was more, he would count himself fortunate if he could escape unscathed from such attacks.
Unless – unless, of course, his cloud manifestation powers could be recovered.
Otherwise, he did not dare claim that he could face the attacks gracefully without being injured.
As the assassins' attacks gained momentum, silhouettes and shadows appeared mysteriously in the thick fog, amongst the spiraling fallen leaves, from within the nightfall.
After the assassins made melee-ranged attacks with whatever they were capable of, the ferocity of the entire team's attack increased greatly. It was no longer comparable to when they attacked from a long distance. Each flash was an attack, each one accompanied by a substantially deadly strike; whether the attack launched was effective or not, whether there was any damage done, they disappeared immediately. They had executed a killer's basic strategy of fleeing far and high once an attack was made to perfection.
After a while, various manifestations began to appear incessantly. There was a huge lotus, an illusory giant leaf, even ripples of shimmering waves. All of them were manifestations of the assassins themselves. The abundance of varied tricks was already evidence of the countless people who participated in this operation.
The assassins who came had truly displayed their best skills. It was the best tactic against the Four Seasons Tower for now. Retreating promptly after a missed strike and not insisting on landing an attack ensured minimal depletion of the killers.
Such a strategy was absolutely brilliant.
On the other hand, the Four Seasons Tower's twelve experts remained standing in a triangular defensive stance with their backs against each other. Despite facing such frightening attacks, each wave more ferocious than the last, they looked cold and distant, defending each other almost mechanically without being ruffled.
Once an assassin appeared and left a little too slowly, one of them would entangle him in a fight while the other two would attack the killer lethally. Such attacks repeated themselves whenever the opportunity arose, without any mistakes!
There was not a single moment when the skills of the Four Seasons Tower's killers would let them down! Their battle experience was bafflingly terrifying.
It was also due to such battle tactics that no matter how intricate and peculiar the assassins' attacks were, no matter how they had fled once they missed, there were still cries of pain ringing out continuously.
Blood, broken arms, dismembered limbs… They flew everywhere almost unceasingly. The night was filled with the copper scent of blood as the crimson liquid flowed unchecked like rivers.
The battle was devastating, but it was refreshingly straightforward. The Four Seasons Tower's men maintained their positions and defensive strategy, occasionally venturing out to attack. Once the enemy's loophole was spotted, they worked together to eliminate the assassin at once, without skipping a beat. This they accomplished no matter how the assassins attacked with their various tactics and defended themselves.
The strategy was old, simple, even. Yet after Yun Yang's consideration, this strategy was actually the best method to prevail in the current battle. The simplest constant to face the array of changes had sufficed to handle the current warfare!
Currently, the leaders from the Four Seasons Tower had yet to show themselves. Similarly, the top-notch experts from the assassin organizations did not act recklessly to join in the fight.
It was because they simply did not dare to.
Each side kept their trump card securely. They were not confident about when the other side would launch their ultimate strike and were reluctant to act mindlessly, lest their carelessness caused total defeat.
Whoever struck first now would mean exposing their trump card. Therefore, they could only continue fighting. The only result would be not having one; even if there were plenty of casualties, it still did not damage the core strength of either party.
Yun Yang calculated, knowing that Sword, Frost, and Snow were intentionally making enemies for the Four Seasons Tower, but these three Venerable Lords did not want to die too early either. The best result for them would be to deepen the grudge between the Four Seasons Tower and the assassin organizations until it became an irreversible resentment. To achieve this, they only needed to prolong the battle. Be it the other side or their own, it was better if more people died!
On the basis of such a premise, the Four Seasons Tower would never step out and expose their all to the enemy, in fear that the latter would arrange their formations and execute targeting attacks.
As the battle escalated, so did the casualties of the killers. No matter how remarkable and bizarre their ambush techniques were, repeated launches would only increase the chances of the enemy seeing through them, thus rendering the tricks useless.
Even as the assassins' casualties increased, the Four Seasons Tower had also rotated three batches of men, their casualties significant. There were fifteen deaths among the previous two batches with the remaining nine people severely injured; while they were being taken back, they could no longer contribute to this battle.
This was actually a good sign to the assassins. The superior combat power of both sides was unknown, but the assassins' side had the advantage of numbers. Despite the assassins' higher ratio of casualties compared to the Four Seasons Tower, it still did not affect the overall fight.
In spite of this, the Four Seasons Tower's three Venerable Lords did not emerge at all, causing suspicion to rise among the killers. It was like they did not mind the casualties on their side at all.
The assassins who were in the battle right now, the assassins who had dared to join in were experienced killers, their special skills honed to perfection. At a glance, however, they knew no one from the Four Seasons Tower who were here. The men were shockingly unfamiliar to these veteran assassins.
Where did the many experts from the tower come from? Was the Four Seasons Tower's force so unpredictably strong?
No one knew anyone, despite the large number of killers present. This itself was a huge problem! No one recognized the tower's men; had they just fallen from the sky?
While such doubts existed, it gradually faded. Assassins who were easily swayed by such distractions would never live long enough to become famed.
Having the advantage of manpower and with the addition of veteran assassins in the battlefield, as well as some super assassins who were preparing to strike, the initially balanced battle began to tilt. At least, the Four Seasons Tower's experts who were fighting now had a sudden increase of pressure.
Hen Bieli and Hong Zhan hid somewhere in the dark, invested in watching the fight of the century. The same thought swirled in their mind – how many people from the Four Seasons Tower had taken part in this battle?
Taking the question further, how many percent of the Four Seasons Tower's capability had actually been revealed in this fight?
Nonetheless, both of them felt bitter, despite the assassins currently having the upper hand in the battle. The reason was simple. Just as the three Venerable Lords had expected, the two top assassin organizations were forced to take this route!
These were the most important three words to note – were forced to! They were forced to!
Their original intention coming to Tiantang City was to do business, to earn money – by killing a young child, maybe a king, perhaps a young master. This was their goal! Once they had completed it, they could call it a success. They would receive a handsome amount of payment and could flee far and high in the martial world. Even if Yutang were to subdue Tianxuan, they would have left long ago; nothing could be done to them!
Who would have thought that the Four Seasons Tower had charged towards them aggressively just as they arrived, just as they began plotting their schemes? Everything had yet to even start.
They were being killed every step of the way… Had they offended the tower? Where had they gone wrong?
Countless numbers of their capable men had been inexplicably killed, while those who were executing their missions were summarily executed without reason. Plenty of missions were halted then, barely able to be carried forward. Helpless, both of the leaders had rushed here personally to take charge of this unexpected episode.
In all honesty, both of the leaders were apprehensive about the Four Seasons Tower's infamy. Their initial plan was not to question the Four Seasons Tower directly but to have a talk and probe gently into the situation; perhaps there had been some misunderstanding… Then, they could work out a solution.
Yet, the Four Seasons Tower was not even willing to agree to such a humble request! They had opened fire immediately, killing the assassins under the hand of the organizations. They had pushed these two organizations right to the edge and were slaughtering their men unceasingly.
Such a method had undoubtedly pushed all the martial world's assassin organizations to the Four Seasons Tower's opposing end.
What was it for? It was an utterly absurd move!
Such a foolish method should not even have existed in the Four Seasons Tower.
The Four Seasons Tower was powerful. Disliking the world's famous assassins organizations, they had first begun their attempts at annihilation on the Concourse of the Underworld, killing the men from the organization, pushing them to the brink of extinction. This was a fact. However, the intelligence collected disclosed that the cause of this incident was due to Concourse of the Underworld's provocation, having targeted the Seasons head of the Four Seasons Tower, Supreme Lord Spring Frost. This was the reason the tower had retaliated. That particular episode, painful as it was, was reasonable.
Now that they had launched attacks on another two major assassin organizations, they had simply gone overboard.
Hen Bieli and Hong Zhan wracked their heads, yet they could not figure out the reason behind this mess. It was all a blur.
Even when Hong Zhan was involved in Venerable Lord Ice's death, the latter's death obviously contained an inside story. If the entire story was recounted and explained, the Four Seasons Tower still did not have the justification to do what they did!
Yet, the biggest issue right now was that the Four Seasons Tower had not even bothered to reason with them. They were slaughtering their men vehemently. What could the two leaders do?
Passively accepting the battle had brought them to this stage, Hen Bieli and Hong Zhan did not even know what all these were for. It was the first time they encountered such a thing in their lives, as the heads of top assassin organizations.
"I sense that there's a sinister hand quietly pushing everything so that it will fall into place behind the scene."
Hen Bieli frowned. "The feeling is vague, unreasonable even, but I'm sure of its presence."
Hong Zhan sighed, "I feel this strongly as well. No matter what I've done in the past, nothing has met as many obstacles as this. Nothing has gone according to my wishes at all in this trip to Tiantang. No, it's not only that. It's like you're sitting at home, but disaster has fallen from the sky; ridiculous as it may seem, you still have nowhere to hide… It's as if someone is directing all these, but we haven't any clue…"
"Such a director shouldn't exist."
"What's more frightening is that the Four Seasons Tower's source of intelligence is too accurate! We were hidden throughout Tiantang City and a lot of us are staying among the citizens. These are spontaneous decisions that aren't even reported, not even our people know about it. It's basically stealthy and unknown, yet the Four Seasons Tower can catch us one by one so precisely and kill us!"
Hen Bieli sucked in a breath and said, "Does the Four Seasons Tower really have such an amazing intelligence system in Tiantang City? To what extent does it reach?"
"Also, the Four Seasons Tower's men are killing like they've gone insane… Is this really normal behavior for such expert killers?"
His gaze was still on the house. There were currently two Four Seasons Tower's experts who were besieged by the assassins and were shrieking in fury. Almost instantly, they were torn into pieces by killers who came up from different directions. Then, there were another three Four Seasons Tower's men who flashed into existence from somewhere within the house to take their place.
However, this time was different from the last. Four people had appeared at the rooftop. Once these four people appeared, it was like a bloody gash had been torn open in the air. The seemingly empty night sky saw blood cascade down in endless gouts.
Those were the killers who had yet to strike and were still in hiding. These four people had locked down on them in advance and wiped them out.
After this happened, the battle took a sudden turn.
"The Four Seasons Tower has changed their countermeasures." Hen Bieli's eyes glimmered dangerously as he quickly issued his orders, "Switch tactics!"
His voice boomed in the dark night.
All the killers listened to his instruction and began altering their combat tactics. Whether they were successful or not, Hen Bieli's command had sunk itself into the deepest part of these assassins' brains, these killers who were usually lone wolves in the martial world.
The battle grew increasingly devastating for both sides.
The dark night that was supposed to be peaceful and quiet had been crushed by the massacre taking place here.
Yun Xiaoyao, who was watching the battle from the sidelines, had sent out his order in advance – "Yutang's officials and military are disallowed from coming within ten thousand feet of this area. Follow your assigned duty. No one is to act without orders."
"Those who violate these commands are to be beheaded!"
Let them fight each other, to whatever extent it could reach… It would be best if they could all perish. If the masterly expert who was behind this could die too, then it would be even better!
…
On the same night, Ling Xiaozui carried a person on his back and soared into the sky, exuding a cold and dazzling sword light, leaving silently through the air.
Following him by his side was Dugu Chou who was similarly furious.
Feng Xiange was a little slower for some reason, leaving after a quarter of an hour's gap – heading in a different direction.
The respective departure of these three masterly experts was a hurried race to some unknown location.
…
At the peak of Spirit Breeze Mountain, two silhouettes, one out in the open and another in the dark, were waiting quietly, watching the night sky in silence.