Paragon Shadows
The night had just arrived when the competition for the day ended.
Although the Whitedrift City lit up from the sky due to the combined effect of illumination crystals and auxiliary lighting artifacts, some small alleys and corners were still shrouded by total darkness.
In one of these dark alleys, two figures wearing hoods could be seen standing opposite of each other. The alley retained its silence throughout their interaction. It was because these two men were talking through transmission.
"Same as usual." One of them said telepathically.
"Ji Chen, an early-stage great emperor."
"Background and location."
"Sure." Then, a crystal used to store information was handed.
The man who spoke first slightly frowned reading the details in the crystal. He did not answer hurriedly and calculated something in his mind.
After some pondering, he replied, "5,000,000 energy stones. Half of it will be the down payment."
"What?! How did you come up with that price?"
The man snorted and said dispassionately, "His strength and location is both a high risk. Scram if you can't pay up."
"Can your men do it clean?"
The man narrowed his eyes and replied, "Are you questioning our credibility?"
The other man sweated cold feeling the hostility coming from him.
"No. Here." Reluctantly retrieving hundreds of thousands of energy crystals, the other man confirmed what it seemed to be an old framework of dealing with this man.
"Is it the same as always? Full repayment upon failure?"
The man nodded while checking the energy crystals transferred to him before he vanished under the cover of darkness.
Upon making sure he really left, the other man heaved a sigh as he broke the silence of the dark alley. "Why do I feel we are making a mistake here?"
He shook his head in denial and even mocked himself for what he perceived as weakening of his mentality.
'How can an early great emperor with no background escape the Paragon Shadows?' He thought in his mind before vanishing, leaving the alley abandoned once again.
An hour later, inside a luxurious villa decorated with golden details, a laugh bordering on insanity was heard by the passing guards. The guards only whispered to each other and did not try to approach the villa.
"Hahaha! Good, good, good! Prepare a party to intercept his disciples once they leave the Governor Residence. I want the three ladies alive. They can be useful for us."
"Sect Master, what if the Governor Residence escorts them back to their city or towards the capital? Or worse, recruit and bring them to their umbrella?"
"We just need to find a chance. I don't believe they will not venture out of that place. We need to catch that woman alive to avenge my son and advance his cultivation."
Ji Chen, who was unaware that his life had been bought by energy stones, lay comfortably in his room after warning Bai Ningshuang and all his companions to avoid leaving the grounds of Governor Residence.
Even Pavilion Lord Su and Veranda Lord Wuji restricted their disciples due to how the last battle concluded between Bai Ningshuang and the Young Lord of the Radiant Yang Sect.
Their years of experience already alerted them that things might be calm at the surface, but from the way the leader and elders of the Radiant Yang Sect looked at them after their Young Lord's lower body was incapacitated by Bai Ningshuang, there would be no bottom line for revenge.
Of course, Ji Chen also explained to them the prior encounter that led to this situation.
Pavilion Lord Su and Su Yunfei became furious hearing the details. They knew the fate of a woman being used to refine a man's yang. It was either both would benefit from it at a slower rate, or the woman would die while the man got all the benefits at a faster rate.
It was the same fate for a man being used to refine a woman's yin, with the man being squeezed to death.
From how the Young Lord and the elders of the Radiant Yang Sect acted, it seemed that they preferred tormenting women to death.
---
Ji Chen, who seemed to be relaxing on his bed, was inwardly wary of his surroundings.
His vigilance had been on maximum level ever since they arrived in the Governor Residence.
He was not being paranoid but rather, cautious in a foreign place.
The dangers and encounters he had experienced in the past already were enough to not commit the common mistake of trusting the security given by other people.
Because of this, his senses had always been scanning the ground around him. Even the movements of insects crawling outside of his courtyard created ripples on earth that could be sensed by him.
In this place where flying was prohibited, no one could get closer to him without alerting his sensory first.
The night in this place had always been sleepless for Ji Chen but as a cultivator and not to mention a great emperor, he could even stay awake for a whole year.
His level of caution proved to be critical as just a block away from the walls of the Governor Residence, two concealed figures were slowly making their way to the complex and guarded compound.
It was as if they knew the blueprint of the compound, the schedules of guards, up to the empty and crowded passageways.
Their movements could only be described as expert. They worked together to evade some patrols and even set up small distractions for the guards.
Gradually, they made their way a block away from Ji Chen's villa.
They made eye contact and moved in opposite directions at the same time. One went toward the back entrance while the other to the front entrance.
No one noticed their figures as they perfectly blend to the surroundings with their plain inconspicuous robes.
Ji Chen, who was originally relaxing, abruptly stood up and disappeared from his spot. His aura retracted and his vital energy was greatly repressed to his body. Anyone who saw him would think he was just a mere frail mortal.
'Is this the answer of Radiant Yang Sect?' Ji Chen admired their efficiency and based on the quietness outside, he could deduce that their men were professional since they had not been noticed by the guards.
However, as much as he admired their flawless concealment and infiltration, he still detected them due to his earth element.
Since he was dealing with assassins, he would also be an assassin assassinating them.
'Just doing the same thing you want to do with me.'
Two formation discs appeared in his hands. At the same time, he slapped a Concealment Talisman on his chest as another precaution.
He had no confidence in killing the approaching two assassins but escaping alive should be relatively easy given his location.
If the Governor Residence was somehow involved, there were Escape Talisman and Teleportation Talisman for the last resort. His doubt about the Governor Residence was also the reason he chose to deal with the assassins himself.
Several minutes later, two shadows crept into the darkness of his villa. These shadows came silently from the back and front entrance.
Ji Chen didn't take chances and immediately controlled one of the formation discs in his hands.
A disc flashed towards the two shadows who were caught by the ambush.
In an instant, they found themselves in an endless hallway. The mirror walls reflected their figures.
"Retreat!" One of them knew that they had already failed the assassination and immediately sounded the retreat.
A large mace appeared out of nowhere as the assassin hacked the mirror walls.
The mirror walls shattered into pieces easily but before the two could escape, they found themselves standing at the summit of a mountain full of dead trees. Around the mountain were also duplicates of the same one they were standing on.
The cold wind kept caressing their gloomy faces. They felt an unprecedented danger coming from everywhere.
"We've been ambushed. Let's break this formation!" The other one roared as water serpents materialized in the air and slithered their ways towards the sky.
In conjunction with these water serpents, sharp wind blades as long as a hundred meters also targeted everything around them.
They wanted to overwhelm the formation by forcibly making it resist their attacks.
'A mid-stage great emperor with another early-stage? Are they underestimating me?' Ji Chen sneered and executed the fourth style of his Four Style of Absolution.
The last thing the two assassins saw before they lost consciousness was a sword strike they never believed to exist in this world.