Chapter 238: Gold-armored Black Robe
Ning Xiaochuan and Yu Ningsheng had left the Imperial City together, and now they returned to it simultaneously. However, their circumstances were vastly different. One was about to become the Minor Marquis of the Jian Pavilion Marquis House, inheriting its power, wealth, and prestige, while the other remained a courtesan at the Jade Viewing Tower, her status lowly and their social gap wider than ever.
This turn of events left many sighing in lament. Martial Artists across the Imperial City spread rumors that Ning Xiaochuan and Yu Ningsheng had attempted to elope but were captured and brought back by the Jian Pavilion Marquis. Their story was adapted into serialized tales by storytellers, becoming the year’s most tragic and heart-wrenching saga.
"Human strength ultimately cannot contend with imperial authority," many lamented.
Not long after the news of Ning Xiaochuan’s impending appointment as heir to the Jian Pavilion Marquis House spread, a great uproar erupted within the household. Many were dissatisfied, believing Ning Xiaochuan too young, lacking the steadiness and experience required to shoulder such responsibility.
In a dimly lit hall of the Marquis House, Ning Qianwu sat with gritted teeth, his expression icy. Profound Qi seeped from his fingers as he crushed a bronze kettle, hurling it to the ground in a spray of water.
"The Old Marquis has lost his mind! What does Ning Xiaochuan amount to? A brat who hasn’t even grown his feathers, yet he’s being made the heir of the Jian Pavilion Marquis House?" Ning Qianwu seethed with fury.
Ning Qianwen, seated nearby, took a sip of tea and smiled faintly. "Fourth Brother, after toiling for the Marquis House all these years, with no credit but plenty of hardship, are you really content to let a greenhorn take everything?"
Ning Qianwu’s brow twitched. "The one who should be most resentful is you, Eldest Brother. As the firstborn son, you should rightfully be the Marquis. Yet the Old Marquis bypasses you in favor of his grandson. How humiliating."
Ning Qianwen’s eyes darkened with murderous intent. "If the Old Marquis refuses to treat us as his true heirs, then he leaves us no choice but to take desperate measures."
"What do you mean, Eldest Brother?" Ning Qianwu asked.
"Kill him."
Ning Qianwen continued, "Tomorrow morning, the Old Marquis will attend court, leaving the Marquis House for about an hour. That’s when we strike."
Ning Qianwu hesitated. "If things escalate too much, it’ll be hard to contain."
"Of course we won’t do it ourselves. We’ll hire outsiders."
Thus, Ning Qianwen and Ning Qianwu began plotting to eliminate their nephew before Ning Xiaochuan’s coronation.
In the past, though they had wished Ning Xiaochuan dead, they feared the Old Marquis’ wrath and dared not act boldly. Now, cornered, they cast aside all restraint.
Under the starry night sky, Ning Xiaochuan sat cross-legged in the courtyard, his Blood Qi circulating as a massive vortex formed within his Martial Arts Heart Palace, voraciously absorbing the Heaven and Earth Profound Qi.
Streams of Profound Qi flowed into his pores, merging with his blood, strengthening his physique, and refining his martial body.
At the Seventh Level of Heaven and Earth Profound Qi, his absorption rate was sixty-four times faster, rivaling even that of a Martial Venerable. Each breath he took resembled the exhale of a divine whale.
The Jian Pavilion Marquis House's foremost divine canon, the Heart Furnace Divine Canon, when cultivated to the sixth layer, only grants a sixtyfold absorption speed of profound energy.
The faster one absorbs profound energy, the quicker their cultivation progresses.
If one could obtain the eighth-level cultivation technique of Heaven and Earth Profound Qi and master it, they would achieve a hundred and twenty-eightfold absorption speed. At that realm, Ning Xiaochuan could drain all the Heaven and Earth Profound Qi within a radius of 500 meters in a single breath.
However, even the Emperor's Martial Palace—a sacred land of martial arts—only possesses the seventh-level technique of Heaven and Earth Profound Qi. Finding the eighth-level technique within the Yulan Empire would be as difficult as scaling the heavens.
After cultivating for half an hour, Ning Xiaochuan stopped.
At his current level of martial cultivation, the ambient profound energy in the air could no longer sustain his needs. It would quickly be exhausted, thinning out and slowing his progress.
To maintain peak cultivation speed, he had to rely on mystic stones.
Ning Xiaochuan retrieved a pristine white high-grade mystic stone. It was translucent, with liquid-like energy swirling inside, taking the forms of a Qilin, a Phoenix, and a Taotie. The stone's surface shimmered with a dazzling radiance.
Even simply exposing the high-grade mystic stone to the air caused wisps of profound energy to seep out, forming a glowing mist.
"Boom!"
Clutching the high-grade mystic stone, Ning Xiaochuan activated Heaven and Earth Profound Qi once more, voraciously absorbing the energy within.
Low-grade and mid-grade profound stones contained too many impurities. Martial artists couldn’t directly absorb their energy—their bodies would instinctively reject the contaminated essence.
But high-grade mystic stones were different. Their energy could be absorbed directly.
Thus, each high-grade mystic stone was exorbitantly valuable, worth more than a city’s ransom, impossible to buy even with mountains of gold.
Ning Xiaochuan only possessed this single high-grade mystic stone, worth over a billion small coins—his most prized treasure.
"Ning Xiaochuan, I heard Yu Ningsheng has returned to the Imperial City."
Duanmu Linger’s figure was graceful, light as a swallow. She vaulted over the Jian Pavilion Marquis House’s walls, evading the patrolling guards with ghostly speed, landing soundlessly in the clearing before Ning Xiaochuan.
Her beauty was striking—full bosom, slender jade waist, flowing hair—the kind of woman who seemed to radiate vitality.
Without pausing his cultivation, Ning Xiaochuan replied, "She is her, I am me. Her return to the Imperial City has nothing to do with me."
Duanmu Linger removed her face veil, revealing bright eyes and pearly teeth as she smiled coyly. "Yet everyone is saying the two of you share an extraordinary relationship."
Ning Xiaochuan countered, "Everyone also says the same about us. But what’s the truth?"
Duanmu Linger was momentarily speechless.
Suddenly, Ning Xiaochuan’s eyes snapped open, a cold glint flashing in his pupils. He stowed the high-grade mystic stone and fixed his gaze into the darkness, his voice low. "Someone’s coming."
Duanmu Linger, also a formidable martial artist, sensed the unusual presence.
"Swish—swish—"
Leaves scattered by a chilling wind whipped against them, carrying a murderous intent.
In the sky, a mass of black clouds condensed, spiraling into a towering column of dark smoke.
Six gold-armored black-robed assassins descended from the clouds, their arms spread wide like six enormous black eagles gliding down, landing within the Jian Pavilion Marquis House and encircling the courtyard.
Among them, two of the assassins were accompanied by mystic beast battle pets—a Winged Serpent and a Swift Tiger, both sixth-rank mystic beasts.
The Winged Serpent's body stretched eight meters long, adorned with two pairs of scaled wings. Its crimson forked tongue flicked out as corrosive Poison Qi billowed from its maw.
The Swift Tiger, though not large in size, moved with terrifying speed. The assassin riding on its back shifted positions constantly, swift as the wind, fleeting as lightning.
"Daring to barge into the Jian Pavilion Marquis House—these people have nerves of steel!" Duanmu Linger drew her Desperate Crescent Blade, its edge gleaming with silver light.
The radiant glow illuminated her delicate features, casting her fair skin and exquisite facial contours into sharp relief, as if she held a silver moon in her hand.
Ning Xiaochuan remarked, "They're from Dark Emperor City."
"Hah! Ning Xiaochuan, your eyes are sharp indeed, recognizing us so easily," a black-robed warrior standing atop the courtyard roof laughed boldly. Clad in gold armor with a black cape billowing behind him, he exuded arrogance.
He was the leader of the six assassins, the most formidable in martial prowess, with a swirling mass of black clouds above his head as though he commanded the very world.
Ning Xiaochuan snorted. "Dark Emperor City's gold-ranked assassins all wear 'black robes and gold armor.' Is it really that hard to recognize?"
The black robes and gold armor were the emblem of Dark Emperor City's elite assassins, symbols of their status as kings among killers, carrying extraordinary significance.
Any assassin who could don this attire was a peerless expert, a god of slaughter who struck fear into hearts.
Ning Xiaochuan said, "To hire six gold-ranked assassins at once—I must say, I'm flattered. The employer must have spent a fortune, no?"
Given that Dark Emperor City's gold-ranked assassins had been hired to kill him, Ning Xiaochuan could roughly guess who the employer was.
"Though any one of us gold-ranked assassins could take your life, the employer paid six times the price to ensure absolute success. Your life, Ning Xiaochuan, is nearly worth that of a Martial Venerable," another black-robed warrior floated mid-air, standing atop a wisp of azure cloud that kept him aloft.
Outside the courtyard, chaotic footsteps echoed.
"Who dares trespass into the Jian Pavilion Marquis House?"
"Fools with a death wish! Surround them—quickly, capture them!"
Eight hundred guards clad in black armor, wielding short swords, encircled the courtyard, their predatory gazes fixed on the six black-robed warriors.
The sheer number of guards formed an impenetrable ring, layer upon layer, like an iron barrel—not even a fly could escape.
"Old Seven, Old Two, deal with those guards."
The two black-robed warriors grinned sinisterly, sliding down from the treetops with slender blades in hand, charging straight into the ranks of the eight hundred guards.
"Thud!"
One of the black-robed warriors swung his blade, unleashing a sword Qi over ten meters long, cleaving through dozens of highly skilled guards. Their sturdy armor shattered into fragments, their bodies severed in half, blood cascading like waterfalls.
The two black-robed warriors charged into the ranks of the guards, unstoppable and overwhelming. The well-trained guards stood no chance, their formation shattered in an instant as over three hundred were slaughtered on the spot.
The remaining guards were utterly terrified, their morale broken as they scrambled backward in disarray.
The Guard Captain of the Jian Pavilion Marquis House, a Transcendent Realm Seventh Level warrior, rode forth alone atop his mystic beast to confront them.
Old Two and Old Seven grinned sinisterly, their bloodstained blades in hand, transforming into two ghostly figures as they clashed with the Guard Captain simultaneously.
Boom! Boom!
Blade light flashed, Profound Qi surged.
In the next moment, the Guard Captain’s head flew through the air, blood erupting from his neck like a crimson fountain.
Old Two licked the blood from his blade, his gaze fixed on the remaining guards of the Jian Pavilion Marquis House as he sneered, "When Dark Emperor City comes to kill, do you fools not even know to run?"