“Are you sure the target is in there?”

Five men wearing black clothes and masks, hiding their features, were quietly hidden within the vegetation near Qin Yun's residence, observing the situation. One of them was perched on a tree overlooking the compound. Using his qi, the man relayed his words so that only his companions could hear them.

"Affirmative! The target is confirmed." the man said as he rushed down the tree, making sure to erase any traces of his presence. In fact, none of the branches even wavered the slightest bit despite his passage. "It's a match with the description we've been given."

“Did you double check?” a large man one and a half times the other’s size asked. “The client won’t accept any mistakes.”

“Positive, boss. I’d recognize that orange dress anywhere.”

“Good. Prepare yourselves. We’ll enact the plan at sundown.”

Three of them nodded in silence, yet the man who had been on a tree couldn't help but ask a question.

“Shouldn’t we act during the night?”

The large man sighed.

"In normal circumstances, I would agree, yet the client left rigorous instructions. Apparently, the target is able to use some kind of multicoloured light. Acting during the night would only offer a beacon attracting attention to the operation. Enough with the questions. To your positions and lay low. We act at my signal."

The men nodded once again, then scattered around the hill's peak, awaiting the sun's descent.

******

"They sure are taking their time," Lian Huiling said, still sipping her tea.

Next to her, Yun Jingfei couldn’t help but frown, while Feng Xia seemed a little nervous. Yun Jingfei gently patted her head, blowing away any tensions Feng Xia may have felt. Sometimes, Yun Jingfei couldn't help but think she was taking care of a small pet.

“Are you sure this isn’t a false positive?” Yun Jingfei asked.

“Hey! Do you think so little of me that I'd make such a rookie mistake?" Lian Huiling scoffed, showing a very obvious displeased expression. "They're here alright. Don't look down on them. They are professional, after all. If I had to guess, I'd say the weakest of them should be at the Void Core realm, while the strongest may have reached the Golden Core."

Yun Jingfei's frown only deepened, and her murderous intent propagated outward, bathing their small courtyard in a scent of slaughter. Her killing intent was so thick that Lian Huiling could smell an odour of blood waft in the air as if they were standing on a mountain of corpses. She couldn't help but be taken aback by how real it all felt. By her side, Feng Xia couldn't help but tremble as she looked at Yun Jingfei's expressionless visage as if she were the reaper itself.

“Calm yourself, will you?” Lian Huiling sighed after expunging the dread that had mounted in her heart. “Leave some of that for when they truly arrive.”

Yun Jingfei looked at the woman dressed in green and gold before sighing deeply, retracting her killing intent. Yet, her grim expression remained.

“When do you think they’ll take action?” Yun Jingfei asked.

As she had been raised in a sect, sheltered by her master from such mortal occurrences, Yun Jingfei was unaccustomed to the machinations of politics. While she was a fast learner, this was the first time she had been targeted by assassins. As such, she could only rely on the experience of others.

“If I had to guess, they'll strike either when the sun goes down or deep into the night. Which of the two will depend on the information they gathered about us."

Yun Jingfei nodded. While she had no interest in deception and subterfuge, when it came to talent for battle, few could match her. She knew full well when the most opportune time to strike would be; the rest would only depend on if their opponent proved worthy.

With nothing to do but wait, Lian Huiling raised her hand, motioning for a maidservant standing in the corner to refill their cup and bring a plate of cookies. Feng Xia's smile became more radiant at the sight and then began munching again on the small dessert, yet there was a glint of anticipation in her eyes.

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Yun Jingfei didn't miss it, yet she ignored it. She eagerly awaited what was to come. Those who thought of them as easy marks since her husband was absent would come to regret it. Then, she, too, took a cookie, breaking it with her teeth as if it were the heads of her enemies. Lian Huiling couldn't help but shake her head and silently sipped her new cup of warm tea.

******

With the sun almost hidden beneath the horizon, the sky was dyed red, reflected on the numerous clouds blocking the sky. A slight drizzle began falling, moistening the soil of this forest. With the appointed time upon them, the large man clapped his hands and injected his qi within the resulting wave, sending a high-frequency sound wave outward that only his companions could recognize.

As if in unison, the five men rushed out of the forest, blending themselves into the encroaching darkness of night. Their steps made no sounds as they rushed through the densely packed forest full of brittle branches and dried leaves.

Less than five seconds later, they each arrived at their own infiltration point, then scaled over the wall separating the outside world from the residence in a single step. But, even then, they didn’t even leave a single footprint on the fresh and soft forest floor.

With expert movements, they blended from shadow to shadow, peering through every window in search of their prey. However, their search proved futile. They combed the rooms one by one, yet no signs of life could be discovered. Eventually, the search went on for so long that night had fallen on the land. Surprisingly, despite the incoming darkness, not a single sign of light could be seen within the residence.

The large man frowned, thinking whether the target had seen them coming and chose to flee. Still, he rejected the idea as they kept a watchful eye on all sides of the residence. They would have seen anyone if they were to leave, yet they saw no such thing. They were bound to be within.

Then, as the five men regrouped within the centre of the compound to share their discovery, countless torches lit up simultaneously, revealing the three women looking down on them from the roof of the main building.

“Finally,” Lian Huiling said with a smirk. “I was getting tired of waiting.”

The men were stunned into silence; they couldn't conceive of being ambushed. Still, their reaction was quick, if almost rehearsed. They let their instincts and experience take over, and they scattered in all directions, wishing to blend back into the night. While they wouldn't abandon this contract, they weren't foolhardy enough to strike head-on against prepared opponents.

However, as they repositioned themselves, the man in black came across a shimmering boundary that separated them from the outside world. The large man who seemed to be their leader poured qi into his fist before his muscles bulged, becoming twice their size. A dark brown yet ethereal lotus outline appeared above his head, slowly rotating as he dug his feet into the stone floor before striking with his fist.

His knuckles collided with the shimmering barrier, yet all it created were waves propagating on its surface as it dispersed the impact outward. For a split second, the man seemed to have noticed dimly glowing lines appear on the floor, yet they were much too fleeting for him to seek their origins.

He turned and sought to warn his men, yet the sight behind his back left him stunned. A thick purple mist enveloped all of the ground within this bubble, cutting all visibility. Fortunately, the man could still rely on his affinity with his spiritual roots to determine his surroundings.

The brown lotus above his head became ever more tangible, creating pulses of qi that travelled through his body before propagating outward within the ground as if a sonar. Then, as the man felt the rebound of those waves on his feet, he could determine his men's whereabouts with extreme precision without using his sight.

Still, the man felt something unusual return to him, yet he couldn't place the feeling he had. To be safe, he poured a massive amount of qi into his arms, hardening them as if they were made of stone before raising them before his face. This instinctual action would prove to save his life.

A blade emerged from the purple mist, striking against his qi-laced arms, leaving a shallow groove. The man's skin collapsed slightly as if they had been hit with a metal rod, yet no blood had been drawn. The man recoiled back from the impact, gliding along the ground until his back collided against the light barrier blocking his path.

From the purple mist emerged a woman in a blue dress, her dark hair fluttering in the night breeze. Her eyes were cold, colder than the moon's surface. Yet, just as the moon reflected the sun's light, they too shone with light, the light of murder. Indeed, her killing intent seemed thick enough to be tangible. So dense that the man could even suffocate on it. Even as an experienced killer, the man had rarely seen someone so intimate with death. He couldn't help but wonder how many she had killed.

"Who's your client?" Yun Jingfei asked, her voice cold and calm, akin to a frozen lake in winter. "I might be inclined to give you a painless death for your honesty."

Hearing her words, the man felt a shiver down his back. His hands trembled unconsciously while cold sweat poured down his neck. While he was deeply intimate with death, none seemed as real as the woman before him. He felt an irrational conviction that this woman could follow through on her promise.

The man gritted his teeth momentarily before letting out a howl purely meant to regain his composure. His short fingernails dug into his large palm strongly enough to cut the skin and draw blood. The red liquid cut through the purple mist as it fell to the cold stone ground.

Only then, as he heard the sound of his dripping blood, did he see the dim pulsating line on the ground hidden by the mist. They all converged towards the centre of the courtyard. A small flame of hope arose in his heart as his courage bloomed again.

He rushed toward the woman, striking the flat of her sword with his knuckles while parrying the edge with the back of his forearms, letting it glide along its hard surface as if it were made of stone.

Sparks scattered in the wind as the metal collided with the man's arms, yet the edge could only leave a scrape upon its surface. Yun Jingfei frowned, yet she remained patient, slowly chipping away at the man's qi with every strike. She knew the longer the battle lasted, the softer those arms would become as they lost the qi within. Her eyes were those of a predator slowly cornering its prey, waiting for the perfect time for a final strike when she would reap its life.

The man knew a fight of attrition would only lead to his doom; as such, he recklessly dove in, trying to bridge the gap within them. As long as he was close enough, he knew she couldn't produce the force needed to break his defence.

Yun Jingfei frowned slightly but then smirked. She remembered Qin Yun's lesson on this subject. She shouldn't retreat but, in fact, dive forward herself, using her opponent's momentum against him.

Her blade collided with the man's arms, yet the man's charge was transferred to this collision. As such, the force was close to double what it was earlier. The man muffled a cry of pain as the blade dug halfway into his arm, yet he gritted his teeth and counterattacked, striking Yun Jingfei in her core.

The blow came so swiftly that she couldn’t avoid it; she could only retract her blade from her opponent’s flesh to lessen the blow. She flew backwards, disappearing within the purple mist.

With blood dripping from his arm, the man rushed along the dim lines on the ground, toward their origin, only to come across the torches he had noticed earlier, standing upright into the ground. Revelation flashed into his mind as he now knew the reason for their existence.

“Men!” the large man yelled. “Follow the lines on the ground and regroup here! This is the formation’s eye! As long as we destroy it, victory is ours!”