[POV: Sun Jian]
“Thank you, Sir Gryphon,” I said to the majestic beast beneath me.
I glanced down at the forest below and felt the various spiritual signatures hidden among the trees. The assassins had trained themselves to conceal their spiritual pressure, but their attempts at stealth were vividly reflected within my spiritual senses. I could feel their struggles, their desperation, and the faint fluctuations that betrayed their movements.
“Leave this place to me for now, Sir Gryphon. Take care of Feng Cai and wait for my return. We’ll meet again soon.”
The majestic beast gave a proud chirp, as though accepting my words, and I leaped from its back. I trusted myself to gravity. The forest rushed toward me as I fell, the wind tearing past my face. I recalled the map my benefactor had shown me. This was the more organized portion of the enemy's forces, which meant there was someone here capable of giving orders. That made my target obvious.
I honed in on the assassin with the strongest spiritual presence.
As I fell, I completely suppressed my spiritual pressure, drawing every trace of qi back into my body. I became nothing more than another object descending through the forest.
The last time I had fought these assassins, I had been surrounded and had not even possessed a weapon. That had been a battle where I was forced to fight against overwhelming numbers while already wounded and exhausted.
It was not unheard of for weaker cultivators to triumph over those above their tier, provided they were prepared to pay the necessary price. There were many factors involved in killing a higher-tier cultivator. Skill, preparation, terrain, equipment, and the difference in cultivation all mattered.
But more often than not, it eventually came down to one thing. It was numbers. Right now, I had no excuse to lose. I had numbers on my side. I had my weapon. I was in peak condition. And, thanks to my benefactor, even the old injury I had sustained from the old general was long gone.
I fell between the leaves and branches, my body twisting through the gaps with accuracy. When I caught sight of my mark, I stopped suppressing my spiritual pressure. It erupted from me. At the same instant, my sword sang joyously as she left her sheath.
The reason I had been named the Sword General was because of my mystery that allowed me to bond with my sword. She was not merely a weapon in my hands, but a partner that completed me as a warrior.
With a single swing, I severed the assassin’s head. He had not even seen me. His body collapsed a moment later. I landed lightly on the ground and immediately concealed my spiritual pressure once more.
The art of stealth through the suppression of spiritual pressure was not exclusive to assassins. My own mastery of it had been forged through years of warfare.
Every time a cultivator used a technique or ability, they inevitably expressed their spiritual pressure to the world. In the chaos of battle, those fluctuations could become as obvious as a torch burning in the darkness.
Learning to suppress them was crucial.
War was chaos.
To survive within that chaos, one had to learn how to hide oneself.
It was not uncommon for generals and commanders to be identified solely through their spiritual pressure. Once that happened, weaker soldiers and ambitious warriors alike would focus their attacks on them until they were dead.
A battlefield did not care how powerful a general was. If the enemy could find you, they could kill you.
I found my next mark soon enough. I dashed beneath the thickets, keeping my spiritual pressure concealed, and struck from the shadows. Another assassin fell before he could even react. I continued making my rounds through the forest, cutting down isolated enemies while paying close attention to their movements.
The more I observed them, the more unsettled I became.
These assassins possessed an almost military-like discipline.
They were not simply fleeing in panic. Dedicated captains were maintaining their formations and directing their subordinates as they made an orderly retreat. Whenever one group came under pressure, another would reposition itself to cover their withdrawal.
I attempted to eavesdrop on their sound transmissions, but I gained nothing.
These were not ordinary soldiers.
My honest assessment of Purple Rope Hall was that they were assassins pretending to be soldiers. Their performance reminded me more of elite special forces designed for guerrilla warfare, infiltration, and precision strikes than a conventional army.
There was only one difference. These assassins had a strangely mass-manufactured feel to them. The damn ministers had really done it. Their corruption had clearly gone far deeper than I had imagined. At first, I had still been doubtful. A part of me had desperately clung to the hope that Purple Rope Hall had nothing to do with Great Feng.
I had been mistaken.
Feng Ping was most likely a member of Great Feng’s military intelligence. Somehow, he had been transferred into this organization, or perhaps he had been part of it from the beginning. The thought left a bitter taste in my mouth. I continued taking down enemies, isolating their leaders and eliminating them one by one.
Amid the chaos, I began to notice traces of my allies. I had been curious about the warriors serving under my benefactor. I simply had not expected them to be... not human. They were blue, round, and bouncy. Several of the strange creatures had cordoned off part of the forest, pushing inward from the eastern side. I could not sense any spiritual pressure from them whatsoever, yet their abilities spoke for themselves.
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Four or five of them suddenly leaped onto a single assassin. The poor man disappeared beneath a bouncing mass of blue bodies. When they scattered, he was already dead.
I stared for a moment.
Spirit beasts? That was the only explanation I could think of. They reminded me of Sir Gryphon in that regard, although these creatures were considerably less majestic. I moved toward my next target. I leaped from behind, sword already in motion.
Clang!
My blade was unexpectedly parried. I landed and immediately shifted my stance. The assassin before me had reacted. More importantly, he had reacted fast enough to stop my attack. His eyes widened when he recognized me, then he shouted with all his strength.
“It’s the Sword General! On me! Third Variation of Slaughter Wheel Formation!”
The moment his voice rang through the forest, assassins began converging on my position. I narrowed my eyes. So this was the one giving them orders. The assassin before me was a Fifth Tier cultivator, Soul Recognition. Judging from his position and the way the others responded to his command, he was most likely Feng Ping’s second-in-command.
That made him considerably more important than the assassins I had been cutting down. I tightened my grip around my sword. Flying needles suddenly came screaming toward me. I tilted my blade, knocking them aside one after another.
At the same time, assassins began rushing toward me from different directions, moving in a clockwise formation. They were attempting to surround me. Their movements were coordinated, precise, and practiced. I stood in the center of their formation, watching them close in.
“You should know when you are beaten,” I said to the Fifth Tier cultivator before me. "Surrender. Do not force me to kill every one of you just because you refuse to accept the inevitable.”
Preferably, none of the assassins here would escape.
That was the ideal outcome, though I knew it was unlikely. At the very least, I wanted to beat them so thoroughly that they would never consider returning to this place again. From what I had seen so far, their casualties were already substantial. If I were the general leading this force, I would have been utterly ashamed of myself.
Unfortunately, these were not soldiers.
They were assassins, and they possessed an assassin's mentality. Unlike ordinary soldiers, who might retreat, regroup, and fight another day, assassins were accustomed to operating through underhanded methods. Their priorities were different, and so were the ways they approached a losing battle.
Three assassins suddenly leaped toward me.
One of them deliberately threw himself in front of my sword, sacrificing his body to protect their leader. My sword was fast enough to kill him outright, but his sacrifice served its purpose. His body disrupted the momentum of my swing, buying the others enough time to move.
I parried another volley of needles aimed at me while the remaining two assassins entered my range.
They pulled at the purple ropes wrapped around their wrists, revealing thin threads connected to the explosive talismans hidden beneath their clothes.
'Suicidal attacks?'
I immediately reacted.
With a sweep of my sword, I carved a trench beneath my feet, deep enough to conceal an entire person. At the same time, I erected a barrier of qi above me. I dug my feet into the earth and remained still, concentrating my qi into my sword.
I was already familiar with this formation. They had used it against me when they were hunting me.
The key was to stay out of sight and disrupt their formation. The poisoned needles were dangerous enough, but the explosive talismans could inflict considerable damage if I allowed myself to be caught in their effective range.
I stabbed my sword into the earth beneath me and drew upon my metal attribute.
"Steel Mountain Edge!"
I swung upward.
The ground before me split apart as an enormous blade of sword qi carved its way through the earth, tearing open a trench in its path. It missed its intended mark. The Fifth Tier assassin managed to evade the worst of it, although he was not fast enough to escape entirely. One of his arms was severed, and his body staggered from the force of the attack.
I exhaled and pushed forward.
The assassin suddenly tore open his clothes, exposing his chest. Embedded in it was an enormous spirit stone, its surface covered with numerous seals and intricate markings.
He looked at me with a wicked smile.
"You just missed Lord Feng."
What?
"But it doesn't matter anymore! Glory to Great Feng!"
I stared at him in disbelief.
'Didn't I already kill Feng Ping?'
Before I could dwell on that thought, the spirit stone began to glow.
The assassin exploded.
However, not before I managed to carve through the spirit stone with my sword and behead him in a single breath. Whatever mechanism had been prepared inside his body, it only detonated his innate qi rather than triggering the full destructive potential of the spirit stone.
Even so, the resulting explosion was powerful.
I immediately raised a barrier of sword qi to protect myself. The explosion crashed against it, sending a tremendous shockwave through the surrounding forest. I managed to withstand the brunt of it, but I did not come out unscathed. A painful bruise had already formed along my sword arm.
I frowned.
These people really had no intention of surrendering.
Another assassin immediately stepped forward, taking command of the remaining forces. "Maintain the formation! The rest of you, continue the organized retreat! Do not allow the enemy to break through our ranks!"
So they still had someone capable of giving orders.
I remained where I was, allowing my qi to replenish itself while more of my allies advanced through the forest.
The blue, round creatures continued bouncing toward the enemy, overwhelming isolated groups with their numbers. Their seemingly harmless appearances did little to diminish their effectiveness. If anything, they were proving to be remarkably troublesome opponents for the assassins.
While recovering, I began to objectively assess the battlefield.
I recalled the map my benefactor had shown me and mentally reconstructed the current situation. Considering the positions of the enemy forces, the direction of their retreat, and the areas they had deliberately avoided, I gradually realized something.
They were stalling.
But why?
I raised my gaze toward the mountains.
There, I saw the regal figure of my benefactor, standing imposingly over the mountain in his legendary dragon form.
His majestic silhouette was unmistakable.
It occurred to me then that the enemy's movements had been deliberately arranged to keep us occupied. While we were busy dealing with the forces in the forest, a more elite unit must have infiltrated deeper into the mountains.
They were bringing the fight directly to my benefactor.
I immediately regretted leaving his side.
I held nothing but awe toward the greatness of dragons. Their existence was something that even powerful cultivators could only look upon with reverence. However, despite that admiration, I couldn't help worrying about my benefactor.
I was about to march back toward the mountains when a familiar, small figure fluttered into view before me.
I recognized her immediately. "You are his lordship's aide, aren't you?"
The little creature squirmed in delight. "Ah! Aide! I like the sound of that! Anyway, orders from the great lord!" She puffed out her chest, looking incredibly pleased with herself. "We are to focus our efforts on wiping out the rest of them! Make sure that every enemy of his greatness is eliminated! This is for the peace of the great lord! If they discover that you and your charge have taken refuge here, they might cause us trouble again down the line! We can't have that!"
I looked toward the mountains again, unable to hide my concern. "But what about his lordship? Isn't he in danger?"
She laughed. "Silly you! Of course not! Back home, the great lord has an awe-inspiring reputation as a one-man army! He's the strongest!"