Chapter 14 The Softest Place
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What's happening?
The lean young man's mind was momentarily muddled, unable to discern who the assassin was.
But feeling the tremendous force pressing against his throat, he came to his senses and looked at the little boy before him in alarm and fear.
What kind of monster is this? Barely seven years old, yet possessing such terrifying strength. Even at the tenth level of perfection in the Power Passage Realm, plus the resurgence of the noble lord's Divine Blood, it shouldn't be so exaggerated, should it?
"Who sent you to assassinate me?" Li Hao stared intently at the other party and asked, while various pieces of information surfaced in his mind. Playing chess was a means to approach him, indicating that the other party's purpose in coming to the Divine General Mansion was straightforward—to assassinate him.
The lean young man was somewhat silent, as the child before him displayed a strength and cognition far beyond that of an ordinary six-year-old.
He had thought he was sent to deal with a useless little thing, only to uncover such terrifying information.
"You're not a martial arts waste. Hiding your strength, is this your idea, or your old man's arrangement?" the lean young man asked, slightly squinting his eyes.
Now that the assassination attempt had failed and he felt the enormous strength at his throat that could crush it at any moment, he knew he had no way out and became calm.
Assassinating the direct bloodline of the Divine General Mansion was a task with very slim chances of survival; it's just a pity that the mission could not be completed.
"Do you know my father?" Li Hao's eyes flickered slightly.
"You're joking."
The lean young man said coldly, "Who in the world does not know the Martial Marquis Xingwu? Currently, he is stationed at the Frontier Pass, and a few months ago, he gathered martial artists from Jianghu in Northern Yan to assist in suppressing demons, commanding great respect with a single call."
Assisting in suppressing demons? Li Hao furrowed his brows; could it be that the situation in Northern Yan had become so difficult that they had to rely on the strength of Jianghu martial artists?
"Are you sent by my stepmother?" Li Hao asked.
The lean young man was momentarily stunned, then suddenly realized, a sneer crossing his eyes, "You've been the target of assassination? Unexpectedly, even within the iron-blooded Divine General Mansion, there's such decay. No wonder you're pretending to be useless, but speaking of which, I really haven't seen you train. How many hours do you practice every day?"
I've always been training with you... Li Hao calmly looked him in the eyes and said, "You answer my question first, and then I'll answer yours. That's called an exchange."
The lean young man slightly raised his eyebrows and couldn't help but laugh. This child was indeed interesting.
"Anyway, it's a sure death. You've made me fail my mission and doomed my family, why should I tell you?" the lean young man scoffed lightly.
Li Hao said, "Because I can see that you don't want to die, you're also afraid of dying, and there are many ways to die. I can give you a swift death."
The lean young man's smile vanished, he fell silent for a moment, and then slowly said, "The one who sent me here is..."
Suddenly, his arm quivered, and he threw a punch at Li Hao's head.
Li Hao slightly tilted his head and easily dodged it, not retaliating but just looking at him with cold eyes.
The lean young man felt a chill as his heart sank; the gap was that big? He, a mighty Zhou Tian Realm martial artist, seemed to have switched roles with this child. In front of him, he was like a child, completely seen through.
The latter's contempt made him dispiritedly retract his hand: "You truly are a monster."
"Spill it," Li Hao said coldly. "You should know that the Li Family is a martial family with countless captives and convicted criminals subjected to interrogation. The methods used are beyond your imagination, impossible to wish for death. If possible, I can give you a swift end."
The lean young man's eyes twitched slightly; of course, he knew the child before him was not lying, and a sense of fear began to grow within him.
"If I tell you, can you let me go?" the lean young man asked with a glimmer of hope, relying on the chance that the child in front of him still had a naive nature.
"I can," Li Hao answered.
Spurt... the lean young man almost coughed up blood. Could you not be so blunt? It's so fake it can't be faked anymore. Do you think I'm a child?
He laughed bitterly and said, "Actually, telling you doesn't matter much. The assassination has failed, and my family won't survive either. I came from Northern Yan, and the one who sent me to kill you is 'Monarch Bai'."
"Monarch Bai?"
"That's right, one of the three great Demon Gods of Northern Yan with terrifying strength, and also your father's old adversary."
The lean young man's eyes were complicated: "Your father is a genius with his troops, and the Li Family army is fearless and unstoppably strong; Northern Yan would have fallen long ago. At present, they've managed to hold the front, but Monarch Bai sent me to assassinate you. He wants your death to spread out from the Divine General Mansion, to reach the Frontier Pass of Northern Yan, to cause great disarray within your father's army. If he leaves the battlefield to return, Northern Yan will be conquered."
With that, he looked intently at Li Hao.
No one knew that this child was the key that could affect the life and death of tens of cities and hundreds of thousands of people in Northern Yan.
Li Hao was stunned; so, it was because of Northern Yan.
The warfare there had actually reached the Divine General Mansion, so far away.
"Your father commands the battles in Northern Yan, they are battle-hardened with no vulnerabilities, unassailable, and you are their only weak point, the softest spot."
The lean young man continued, "Only by starting with you can they defeat your parents, make the Frontier Pass of Northern Yan fall, and let the demon army march straight in."
Li Hao fell silent, digesting the other's words, and after a while, he slowly said, "You are of the Human Race, why would you work for the demons?"
The lean young man was slightly stunned, paused for a moment, then looked gloomily at Li Hao, his eyes filled with jealousy and hatred: "Not everyone is as lucky as you. Even if I explained, you wouldn't understand."
"Is that so?"
Li Hao looked at him calmly, "Since birth, my parents have been away, and I was betrayed by close relatives. Now, because of my parents, I face assassination; do you still think my life is good?"
The lean young man's mouth opened slightly, he was stunned, at a loss for words, and could no longer speak.
Li Hao did not say more, merely stating, "I promised you, I would grant you a swift death."
"Heh, you're quite a decent person," the lean young man recovered, forced a mocking smile, and said.
No matter what is said, in the end, death is inescapable. He had a hint of fear deep in his eyes; he didn't want to die, he was afraid of dying, or else, why would he end up taking orders from demons?
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Li Hao spoke as if he didn't understand the sarcasm, "Actually, I don't want to kill you."
"Oh?" The gaunt young man's eyes revealed a cold sneer, clearly not believing him.
"Because your chess skills are not bad," Li Hao said seriously.
The gaunt young man was stunned.
After a while, he came back to his senses, a bitter smile on his face, "But the pity is, I've never won against you."
"Next life then."
Li Hao began to exert force with his palm, "In your next life, don't practice martial arts, just play chess honestly, at least you'll live longer and more at ease."
The gaunt young man wanted to struggle, but seeing Li Hao's indifferent and composed eyes left him in despair, he bitterly said, "You really are a strange child."
In the end, Li Hao still pinched him to death.
As suffocation set in, the gaunt young man struggled violently again, but to no avail.
After dealing with the assassin, Li Hao remembered that he still didn't know the man's real name.
And the name of the house servant the man had used to sneak in was one bestowed by the Li family.
However.
It doesn't matter anymore.
...
...
After the assassin died, Li Hao summoned the house servant, scaring him half to death.
That night, the entire Divine General Mansion was shaken.
The lights in each courtyard were lit, and the ladies of each courtyard, already in bed, hurried over in their clothes. Upon seeing the corpse of the assassin lying in front of the chess table, they were all incredibly shocked.
How could an assassin infiltrate a place like the Divine General Mansion?
He Jianlan's normally graceful and composed demeanor was gone, and she hugged Li Hao anxiously, touching and looking him over, "Are you all right?"
"Aunt, I'm fine," Li Hao reassured her.
After confirming that there were indeed no injuries on Li Hao, He Jianlan, now reassured, questioned him closely, and Li Hao relayed the story he had thought up in advance.
An assassin attacked, and in a critical moment, an old man intervened and killed him.
Afterward, the old man disappeared.
Li Hao thought to himself that since an assassin could infiltrate the Divine General Mansion, making up a story about an old man should also be no problem, right?
After all, if you didn't even know about the assassin, then not knowing about other powerful experts is quite normal too, isn't it?
After hearing Li Hao's story, He Jianlan was visibly shaken, immediately conjuring up some speculations. Could it be a military expert sent secretly by the Divine Martial Marquis?
Or is it... that elder from the clan?
She suppressed the guesses in her heart and never doubted Li Hao's words.
After all, no matter how mature Li Hao was, he was still a child under seven years old.
And having not stepped onto the path of martial arts, if there were no expert secretly protecting him, he would surely have died without question.
He Jianlan then asked Xuejian to take Li Hao and the little girl Bian Ruxue to rest at the Eternal Spring Court first, to recover from the shock.
Meanwhile, she sat in the grand hall of the Mountain and River Courtyard, called over the house servant who had accompanied Li Hao while he played chess, and the first house servant who had been startled awake by Li Hao's call, questioning them carefully in the yard.
At the same time, she summoned the mansion's experts to examine the corpse of the assassin.
It wasn't long before the entire course of events was learned from the house servants.
When the assassin entered the mansion, how he revealed his talent in chess, performed in front of the Mountain and River Courtyard's servants, and ingratiated himself with them, and so on.
Clearly, the other party had gathered information about Li Hao, deliberately approaching him by playing chess, with everything leaving traces to follow.
Later in the night, the examination results of the corpse were also out. The assassin was astonishingly at the Zhou Tian Realm, roughly between the third and fourth levels.
This level of cultivation, thrown out into the world, would be considered quite decent for a knight-errant, capable of upholding justice in Jianghu and gaining a bit of fame. However, in the Divine General Mansion, where powerful individuals abounded, it would be a very ordinary existence.
Nevertheless, to kill a six-year-old child, this level of cultivation was more than enough, even like using a cleaver to kill a mosquito, excessively overkill.
Moreover, the assassin had consumed some kind of special pill that sealed his own sense of qi, which is why no one had detected him.
Hearing this result, the ladies of the courtyards all felt chills of fear in waves. If the target of the assassin had not been Li Hao but their own children, they would undoubtedly have faced certain death!
The sudden rise of a Zhou Tian Realm killer beside a child was terrifying.
Liu Yue Rong, upon hearing the results of the examination, slowly let go of the slight suspicion and speculation that had crossed her mind.
Even if Li Hao's Divine Blood had not been ruined, it was not possible for him to kill the assassin on his own.
It seemed that the couple, although stationed at the Frontier Pass, had made thorough preparations for their son.
Realizing this, she felt secretly apprehensive; the matter of her drugging should have gone unnoticed since it took place in the Shuihua Courtyard, and she also had formidable experts in her own courtyard.