Deep within the rain and mist, an indistinct figure appeared, but only for the briefest of moments. He was gone as quickly as he appeared.

Su Yi’s gaze focused, and he waved his sleeves.

Boom!

The surrounding curtain of rain collapsed with a bang. A wisp of sword qi silently descended from the dome of heaven.

Steady, accurate, and ruthless!

And so quick that it seemed like teleportation.

Bang!

The sky collapsed around Su Yi, while he disappeared from view completely.

The battle abruptly fell silent.

The rain poured down, and layers of mist rose into the air. Everything was overcast. There was no trace of an enemy, nor was there any sign of Su Yi. The only sound was the endless downpour.

Time slipped by.

Ten snaps of the fingers later, the countless raindrops froze in place, then hovered in midair. They were like translucent, unmoving pearls.

A moment later, the countless pearls of rain exploded.

Bang bang bang!

The rapid-fire explosions were like the beating of a drum. As the raindrops scattered, they sharpened into sword qi.

A wave of sword qi swept forth, enveloping everything on all sides completely.

In another stretch of sky, a figure staggered into view, then blurred into a shadow and shot into the distance.

Boom!

A streak of sword qi descended like a cage of the Grand Dao. It was radiant, hot, and searingly bright.

It completely sealed off that shadowy figure’s escape route!

“Break!” That figure bellowed, pressed his fingers into a makeshift sword, and furiously slashed the air.

Tyrannical, fiery sword qi whooshed forth, but before it got far, the descending sword qi slammed into it, shattering it into pieces.

A moment later, a figure staggered backward. His expression shifted dramatically.

“Who sent you?” A calm voice rang out as Su Yi appeared in the distance out of nowhere.

His assailant was a man in black robes. His face was thin, and his eyes were sharp as knives. He gripped a long, thin, black sword. The blade was only two fingers thick, but it was fully four feet long and imposingly sharp.

Su Yi could tell at a glance that the man in black was an early-stage Immortal King and a ruthless master of the Dao of Assassination!

The pouring rain and overcast skies were natural phenomena.

The man in black then used a secret technique to hide himself, fusing himself almost perfectly into the downpour. He didn’t reveal even the slightest flaw.

Even Su Yi didn’t notice him until

after

he made his assassination attempt. It was obvious how extraordinarily skilled the man in black was.

More importantly, he was an Immortal King! Even by the standards of the Immortal Realm as a whole, he was an absolutely first-rate assassin!

Even other Immortal Kings would struggle to sense this assassin’s attacks in time, let alone those beneath that level!

The man in black said expressionlessly, “Do you really think I’ll tell you?”

Kcch!

He suddenly transformed into a black shadow and disappeared into thin air.

This was an extraordinarily wondrous evasive technique. It let him slip into the air, and it drew upon the Laws of Space. It allowed instantaneous teleportation, and other cultivators’ divine senses couldn’t lock onto the user.

A mocking grin tugged at Su Yi’s lips as he raised his hand and struck the air.

Bang!

The sky collapsed and shattered on all sides.

The man in black was just three hundred feet away when Su Yi forced him back into view.

He shot ahead and disappeared back into the sky, only for the countless spatial rifts to transform into sharp, tyrannical sword qi and envelop him on all sides.

The streaks of sword qi were so dense and so numerous that they blotted out the sun!

The man in black couldn’t help but gasp. One palm strike, and Su Yi shattered the sky, transforming the surrounding space into an all-encompassing sword rain. It really seemed like he was seizing good fortune from the heavens!

He dared not hesitate. His sleeves billowed around him as he took a step forward and bellowed, his voice booming like spring thunder. “Break!”

Boom!

Countless golden flames surged forth, burning the heavens and destroying the earth. The countless streaks of sword qi melted and collapsed.

The man in black seized the opportunity, shooting forth like a beam of black lightning. His figure contorted in midair, flickering in and out of view.

In the blink of an eye, he shifted locations dozens of times over. It was impossible to nail down his location.

Overflowing murderous intent locked firmly onto Su Yi.

There was no need to question it. The moment Su Yi revealed even the slightest weakness, the Immortal King assassin would swoop in to deal a lethal blow!

But it was as if Su Yi didn’t even know the meaning of the word “danger.” He suddenly stepped forward in the air and swung his left hand like a sword.

Boom!

Endless sword qi poured down, as if the river of heaven were raining down to earth. It was vast and grand, and its power swept outward in all directions. It seemed almost omnipresent.

Terrifying sword force burst forth like a tidal wave or avalanche.

The man in black dodged repeatedly, darting across the sky, but no matter where he went, a flood of sword qi was there to greet him.

In the end, there was nowhere left to dodge. He could only swing his sword and fight back.

Bang!!!

A deafening impact rang out. The man in black felt as if a tidal wave had slammed into him, sending him flying backward.

His eyes widened with disbelief.

How could an Immortal Lord possibly have such attainments in the Dao of the Sword?!

Before he could steady himself on his feet…

Su Yi appeared out of thin air, raised his hand, and ruthlessly swung his palm. It struck with the force of a divine mountain in freefall.

That terrifying power left the man in black unable to even breathe. He realized how dangerous this attack was, and he dared not linger. He had no choice but to draw on his trump card.

Meanwhile——

A thousand miles away, beneath the great tree at the peak of a mountain, there stood an enormous middle-aged man clad in beast skins. His skin looked like it was forged out of bronze, and his muscles bulged.

He had a sharp, prominent mustache and eyes like a hawk. His hands readied a white bone bow. Its string was already taut and ready to fire a black arrow covered in countless contorted markings. The dull arrowhead reflected no light.

The middle-aged man didn’t move a muscle, and his aura was entirely withdrawn. He blended into his environment perfectly, as if he were a boulder.

But his essence, qi, and spirit were locked onto the battle taking place a thousand miles away!

Meanwhile, in a barren landscape, a red-robed Daoist stood in silence, gripping a snow-white saber. His features were handsome, with a strange, unearthly beauty. He looked young, and he had a golden vertical eye on his forehead.

His entire body was shrouded in ripples of silver starlight that hid him from view. He was entirely undetectable. Even if someone was right next to him, and even if they used their divine sense, they wouldn’t know he was there.

He too was locked onto the battle raging a thousand miles away.

There were two other hidden experts at the ready, just like the middle-aged man in beast skin and the red-robed Daoist.

A cloaked spearman, and a dainty, beautiful woman in white. A two-foot ink-black saber curved like a crescent moon hovered before her.

The four experts were each a thousand miles away, one for each cardinal direction. All four were perfectly blended into their environment.

And all four were locked firmly onto the man in black despite the distance!

The moment their auras swept over Su Yi, he was sure to sense it. That would reveal their presence.

When the man in black was forced back and saw that Su Yi was already readying his next strike, he struck the air.

His four allies attacked without the slightest hesitation.

But despite their best efforts, something unexpected happened——

Su Yi suddenly stopped what he was doing and shot off like a lightning bolt. In a flash, he was ten thousand feet away.

The four Immortal Kings furrowed their brows, and they felt stifled. They found this incomparably difficult to accept.

The prey they’d been waiting for all this time had finally fallen into their trap…. Only to somehow escape anyway.

In the end, they suppressed their frustration and decided to continue waiting for another opportune moment to strike.

But Su Yi made no further attempts to attack.

“I’m afraid your attempts to bait me have failed,” said Su Yi. He swept his gaze around the area before focusing on the man in black. “If you dare to give chase, next time we meet, I guarantee that not one of you will escape with your life.”

With that, he turned to leave. He shot ahead like a wisp of floating light, and in the blink of an eye, he’d vanished without a trace.

The man in black silently narrowed his eyes, his gaze shifting and uncertain.

In the end, he gave up the chase.

“Come on out. Our prey’s already discovered you,” the man in black said glumly.

Before his voice had even finished echoing through the air, a middle-aged man in beast skins, a Daoist in red robes, a cloaked figure, and a woman in white appeared. Each came from a different direction.

“How did he discover us?” the middle-aged man in beast skins asked gravely. He was obviously unwilling to accept this.

“How the hell should I know?” The man in black frowned. “I have to admit that Shen Mu really is terrifying. He’s obviously just an Immortal Lord, but his strength and abilities are simply unbelievable.”

“I tried to take him out earlier, and you all know me. I should have been able to catch even a mid-stage Miracle Realm expert off guard, yet that kid managed to dodge!”

The other four frowned.

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

The man in black was a master of the Dao of Assassination. He was unquestionably among the greatest assassins in the Immortal Realm. Although he was still only in the early stages of the Miracle Realm, when he caught his targets off guard, even Immortal Kings of higher cultivations were doomed.

Yet now, he’d failed to kill a mere Immortal Lord!

“Furthermore, when we fought, I had the strange sensation that he recognized the abilities I was using, right down to my cultivation technique. He dodged everything I threw at him with ease.”

The man in black tried his utmost to remember every last detail of their clash. His eyes glinted. “In the end, when I was about to use my ultimate killer weapon and take him down alongside you, he sensed it and withdrew. He didn't even stop to think for an instant. His flexibility and reaction speed are simply terrifying!”

“Who cares how fast his reaction speed is? He still ran away, didn’t he?” The red-robed Daoist rubbed his forehead. “Before we began this operation, I told you that Shen Mu wasn’t simple. I said that even though all five of us are Immortal Kings, and even though we've made ample preparations, we must be on guard.”

“As you can see, this little fish slipped out of our hands. He’s a troublesome one.” He paused, then continued, “Also, it’s highly likely that he’s grasped our location and he is now on guard. We’ll have to change our approach for our next attempt.”

The others nodded.

The woman in white sighed in apparent self-deprecation. “All five of us are Immortal Kings, and we’ve been preparing this for quite some time. Who’d have thought we’d let a little Immortal Lord slip through our fingers?”