Gu Chen stared at the dagger on the ground; its tip was coated in a small layer of black liquid. He guessed it was most likely poison.
Before he could even say anything, another dagger came flying from within the cave and struck his chest again. But just like the previous dagger, this one bounced off after striking his white robe.
Gu Chen was now staring at two daggers in front of his feet. The daggers had arrived so swiftly that he didn’t see them until they reached him; he would have been unable to use the spell cards from the system in time had his attacker aimed at his face instead of his chest.
There was a brief silence after the second dagger failed to cause any harm to Gu Chen; his attacker must have realised that a third dagger wouldn’t make any difference.
After all, to them, Gu Chen wasn’t dodging and was letting the attacks land.
A show of power!
Gu Chen slowly bent over and picked up the two daggers; he skillfully avoided the blades without making it obvious. It would be bad if he ended up cutting himself and dying from the poison on the daggers.
Holding both daggers in one hand, he moved his gaze and stared ahead. The cave wasn’t deep, and he was instantly able to see its end, as well as the figure of his attacker.
Just a few meters in front of him, a beautiful woman with long, white hair, who appeared to be in her late twenties, stood vigilantly, her gleaming crimson eyes staring at him with caution.
Gu Chen was briefly stunned when he saw her. He had seen a lot of beautiful women while with the righteous sect. But even amongst women in the Immortal realm, very few could compete with Shuran in terms of looks.
"Feng Shuran," Gu Chen muttered silently.
Hearing her name from this strange man, Shuran’s eyes narrowed, instantly becoming more vigilant.
"Who are you?" She asked, her voice as soothing as a sweet melody.
Due to Gu Chen’s passive skill, Deceiver, she had thought he was an expert who was also hunting her.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the people from the righteous sect had placed a bounty on her head.
She had immediately tried to kill him before he could even react, but her two attacks had failed. Not because the other party had dodged or deflected them, but their clothes turned out to be a top magical item.
As the leader of an assassin temple, her experience immediately told her that attacking recklessly wasn’t going to work. She would observe him for now and find an opportunity to strike.
But that was where her confusion started. After taking a proper look at Gu Chen, she realised that he was just an ordinary person!
’Or is he simply too powerful that he can perfectly hide his strength?’ she thought.
Next was when he called her full name. Very few people knew her full name; even her disciples didn’t know her full name.
This person...was strange.
Similarly, Gu Chen was also surprised when he realised that he could see through Shuran’s strength. The woman was a Core formation realm cultivator; judging by the aura of her qi, he guessed that she would be around the 7th or 8th stage of the Core formation realm.
’A Core formation realm cultivator can become the leader of an assassin temple. Are people in this region that weak?’ Gu Chen thought to himself.
After all, as someone who was once a Heavenly Immortal cultivator, a Core formation realm cultivator was no different from an ordinary human to him.
Well, it didn’t really matter. He had to recruit her to get the rewards from the system.
"I believe these are yours," he said as he tossed the two daggers on the ground in front of Shuran.
Dang! Dang!
The daggers bounced around a bit before coming to a stop in front of Shuran. She didn’t bend to pick them up as her eyes remained locked on Gu Chen’s face.
"Who are you?" She asked again, her voice calm and cautious.
’Time to start the recruitment!’ Gu Chen thought, he placed both hands behind his waist in a dignified manner and proceeded to walk around the small room of the cave.
"Attacking your saviour before asking questions- is that the way of the assassin temple?" He asked in a casual tone as he stepped to the left.
But immediately he did, he stepped on an invisible line that had been set there for who knows how long.
There was a snapping sound, and Gu Chen suddenly found a silver thread tightening around his waist.
Gu Chen "..."
Shuran "..."
Both of them stared at the silver line that should have split Gu Chen in half around the waist area, and then looked at each other. Their faces were expressionless, but their thoughts raced in different directions.
’I should have expected that an assassin would obviously have traps in her hiding place. I’d better stop moving before I walk into something that aims above my neck!’ Gu Chen sighed inwardly as he immediately abandoned the idea of walking around.
Meanwhile, Shuran stared at the unmoving Gu Chen and thought to herself.
’Did he walk into the trap on purpose to show me that resistance is meaningless? If even my level five Earth grade silver threads can’t hurt him, just how powerful is he?’
The Earth grade silver thread was a magical treasure that she had spent a great fortune to acquire; it was capable of cutting even Nascent soul realm experts in half if they weren’t careful!
But this person had casually walked into it and stared at her like it was nothing.
Shuran was extremely worried. Just what sort of monster had discovered her hideout?
The silence lasted for some awkward seconds before Shuran eventually decided to speak.
She bowed while cupping her fist.
"I’m currently being chased and need to set countermeasures. Those...weren’t meant for Senior. I apologise." She said, her tone was sincere, and she even started addressing Gu Chen as Senior.
It wasn’t strange since seniority in the cultivation world was strongly related to one’s strength.
Looking at Shuran, who still had her head lowered, Gu Chen sighed in relief.
’Good, she doesn’t suspect anything.’
"Is that right? He asked calmly.
Of course, he couldn’t accept her apology so easily; it would make Shuran feel suspicious of him.
When Shuran heard his voice, small beads of sweat instantly formed on her face, and she lowered herself even more.
"It’s the truth; I dare not lie to Senior!" She said hurriedly.
"Hmm, come retrieve your threads then and also take off the other traps in this cave, then I’ll believe you." Gu Chen pressed. He had to establish the image of a top expert if he wanted to convince Shuran to join him, since using force wasn’t possible.
Although she was probably being cautious right now, he wouldn’t be able to stop her if she wanted to run away. Luckily, being an expert was natural for Gu Chen as he was a genuine immortal realm cultivator once.
Shuran raised her head when she heard Gu Chen’s words to remove all the traps in the cave, and she was extremely reluctant.
"Senior, the people pursuing me..." she tried to explain, but Gu Chen didn’t let her finish.
"I know the people chasing you. They are still looking for you, but I was able to find you easily. Who would you rather offend?" Gu Chen asked in a cold tone.
Shuran was stunned by the question. If she really thought about it, offending this person in front of her was probably worse than offending the righteous sect.
"I understand." She cupped her fist again before proceeding to remove all the traps she had set, starting from the silver threads that Gu Chen had walked into.
Gu Chen silently counted as Shuran went around removing the traps in the cave.
He was shocked when the woman finished removing everything.
The space in this cave wasn’t even as big as a normal room, but Shuran had managed to hide over seventy deadly traps!
There were more than ten at the entrance alone; Gu Chen had been extremely lucky not to have triggered any of them because they all targeted the head of whoever did!