The boxes were rigged with traps.
An escort of over thirty people wasn't considered a particularly massive group for a transport mission.
But not only were there multiple hidden 2nd Tier experts here, the cargo box was also rigged with traps.
Li Ban suspected their group had hit the jackpot, stumbling right into an escort agency transporting a hidden cargo.
On the surface, they lacked both goods and manpower. In reality, they were fully prepared, and none of their spirit practitioners were easy targets.
The assassins had already lost four men.
The escort agency was down to twelve, but their casualties were all ordinary guards without an identity. Their true combat strength had barely diminished.
Unless the Assassin Hall had another trump card, this raid was doomed to fail.
However...
Li Ban sighed silently.
Zhai Liu had ordered him to raise his status in the Assassin Hall as quickly as possible. He couldn't afford to fail.
His sigh fading, Li Ban stopped holding back.
His speed instantly doubled. Before the poison-palm user in front of him could react, he nimbly dodged to the side, using his blade for cover while his free hand grabbed the man's wrist.
Unseen by anyone, a tiny silver silhouette slipped from his palm into the enemy's sleeve.
The man noticed immediately, but he was too late to react. A sharp pain flared under his armpit, as though something had burrowed directly into his body.
Distracted, the enemy failed to block the incoming attack. Li Ban closed the distance and cleaved his head off with a single stroke.
Blood fountained from the severed neck, and a single drop splashed into Li Ban's eye.
A burning pain flared instantly.
He blinked his right eye. Spiritual rhinoceros swirled, and the pain quickly vanished.
When he opened his eye again, the escort guard who had gone to help the others had turned back toward him.
Seeing his beheaded companion, the guard's expression twisted in grief. Fighting through the pain, he lashed his legs out like whips, turning them into a blur of afterimages.
Unfortunately, no matter how fast his legs were, they couldn't escape Li Ban's eyes.
Li Ban merely kept his gaze fixed on the man's hip bones, reading every intended attack.
He constantly shifted left and right, evading the fierce strikes.
When a blow was unavoidable, he deflected it with his saber or took it head-on, relying on the Iron Fish Scale beneath his clothes.
Eventually, the rapid assaults drained the enemy's stamina. Catching a fleeting opening, Li Ban swung his blade, pinning the guard's pivot foot. He followed up with an Iron Blood Shakes the Heavens technique, driving a straight punch and palm strike directly into the man's throat, aided by the sheer hardness of the Iron Fish Scale.
A crisp crack rang out.
The guard's neck instantly caved in.
He swayed on his feet, then collapsed.
Just as he finished off the two enemies, Li Ban heard a noise behind him. He immediately executed a sideways roll, pulling his iron saber from the ground in the process.
But this time, it wasn't an enemy. It was Butcher.
Butcher swept his gaze over the two corpses. When he looked back at Li Ban, a flash of wariness crossed his eyes.
The wooden token and Iron Token members of the Assassin Hall were considered outer-ring assassins.
In other words, being an assassin was mostly a side job for them.
Because of this, it was common for their actual cultivation Tiers to be higher than their assassin ranks.
Therefore, Butcher hadn't been too surprised when he discovered Li Ban was a 2nd Tier expert.
But seeing Li Ban kill two 2nd Tier escort guards back-to-back without a scratch told him that Li Ban was far from simple.
A formidable 2nd Tier could even jump ranks and kill a 3rd Tier.
If they encountered a 4th Tier with ordinary elements and poor martial skills, they might even put up a decent fight.
"You go get the box. I'll hold them off."
Butcher issued another order, only this time he was telling Li Ban to secure the box.
Having said his piece, Butcher was already moving to help the other assassins block the approaching guards.
Li Ban bent down to retrieve the Silver Kingfisher from the headless corpse. He didn't approach the box right away; instead, he spun around and kicked the horse that was uneasily pawing the ground at the front of the carriage.
The draft horse was massive, but taking the brunt of Li Ban's near full-strength kick, it helplessly toppled over onto its side.
The entire carriage violently shook.
Seizing the moment, Li Ban stepped forward, using his shoulder and arms to thrust upward against the carriage's lower edge.
"Hah!"
With a loud shout, he completely overturned the carriage.
The vehicle crashed down.
However, the box strapped to it remained tightly secured to the floorboards, refusing to fall.
But without its lock, the lid swung wildly open.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several iron arrows shot out from different angles, firing harmlessly into the empty sky and the ground.
Li Ban leaped to the other side of the carriage, inspecting the open box from a safe distance.
There wasn't anyone hiding inside. Instead, it was rigged with a mess of hidden weapons fixed in every direction.
Because of his flip, the vast majority of those traps had either misfired or been completely wrecked.
Inside the massive crate sat a smaller box, less than a meter wide.
Jolted by the impact, the small box had tumbled to the edge of the large crate. If it hadn't been snagged by a weapon fixed to the inner wall, it probably would have rolled right out.
Li Ban walked over and pulled it out.
The small box was heavy, as if packed full of stones.
Carrying it in his arms, Li Ban glanced back at Butcher.
To his surprise, Butcher's gaze was still glued to the large crate.
Li Ban immediately looked back as well.
The large crate had been nailed to the carriage floor. After taking a heavy blow from the fall, one of its corners had shattered completely, leaving deep cracks across the rest of the wood.
And Butcher was staring dead at one of those cracks.
Faintly visible through the splintered gap was a streak of bright crimson.
There was a hidden compartment in the large crate!
A hidden shipment!
When Li Ban turned his head back, Butcher was already staring at him.
He immediately took two steps to the side, keeping a firm grip on the small box.
It wasn't that he was afraid of offending Butcher. The mission was practically finished, and he didn't want any unexpected complications ruining his promotion path in the Assassin Hall.
Seeing Li Ban back off on his own, Butcher breathed a sigh of relief. He stepped up and tore the hidden item out through the crate's splintered crack.
Because Butcher moved so quickly and used his body to block the view, Li Ban only caught a glimpse of something red being tucked away. He couldn't make out exactly what it was.
By this time, the other assassins had finished silencing the remaining escort guards.
Looking around, there were only four people left alive, including Li Ban.
"Let's head back to the cabin first."
With the operation a complete success, the group trekked over the mountain ridges and returned to the wooden cabin.
Butcher never took the box from Li Ban, letting him carry it the entire way.
Having just fought a fairly strenuous battle and then lugging a heavy box up and down the mountain, Li Ban was panting.
The physical toll had been significant.
Once they arrived at the cabin, Butcher had Li Ban set the box on the floor.
"You can go back now. Your mission rewards will be distributed as promised."
Hearing this, Li Ban rubbed his sore wrists. He didn't ask a single unnecessary question and simply turned to leave.
Another assassin quickly walked out after him.
But the third man never emerged.
Li Ban didn't care what the others were plotting. He just kept walking south through the mountain forest.
After walking a fair distance and putting the cabin far behind him, he came to a halt.
Because the second assassin who had left the cabin was still tailing him.
"We're supposed to split up. If you want to keep taking this route, I can let you have it."
Li Ban said, turning back toward the man following him.
The assassin across from him wore a mask with only two small holes for the eyes, hiding every trace of his expression.
"Are you really willing to just hand over all that cargo?"
"That stuff is worth thousands of taels. And that red thing—didn't you see how Butcher's eyes went red with greed? I bet it's worth more than the Cyan Silk Algae."
Seeing that Li Ban was unmoved, the man added another point.
"If we team up, we can kill those two and get rid of the bodies. Since everyone else is dead anyway, who's going to know who took the cargo?"
The assassin took a step closer, desperately trying to tempt him.
"You and I are just outer-ring members of the Assassin Hall. If we monopolize this batch of goods, we'll be set for life. Why keep living on the edge of a blade?"
The masked assassin grew more and more agitated as he spoke. He walked toward Li Ban, waving his hands around as if envisioning their bright future.
Thud!
A razor-sharp iron arrow shot out from the masked assassin's wrist, striking directly at Li Ban's throat. But it was blocked by some unknown object, dropping harmlessly into Li Ban's palm.
Li Ban chuckled. "Did Butcher send you to silence me?"