"Ah—" Just as Li Ban finished speaking, a short, sharp wail echoed from nearby.
In the dead silence of the abandoned village, the sudden scream drew everyone's attention.
Li Ban glanced over, just in time to see an assassin standing on the perimeter pull a dagger from a refugee's body.
It was a refugee who hadn't taken a gold bead. Thinking he was safe and not a target for the men in black, the fool had stayed right where he was instead of fleeing immediately.
The assassin had emerged from a dilapidated house right next to him, but the refugee had been too busy staring at the people trapped in the Spider Web to notice.
Just as Li Ban made his proposal, the assassin struck, killing the foolish refugee.
Li Ban narrowed his eyes at the killer. "What are you doing?"
The assassin wore a mask, hiding his expression.
Yet his indifferent tone made his disdain for Li Ban's proposal perfectly clear.
"I was worried the ones you caught might not have gold beads. Killing a few more ensures no one slips through the net."
Li Ban gave a slight nod, as if agreeing.
But a split second later, he surged forward with his blade drawn, blurring past the cluster of assassins to appear directly before the masked man.
His horizontal blade slashed out with explosive momentum, carrying a thunderous roar that felt heavy enough to cleave steel.
In the blink of an eye, the blurring steel was about to bisect the man. The assassin's eyes widened in horror, his body moving purely on combat instinct.
He raised his dagger to block the strike.
Clang!
The masked assassin sharply realized his speed was vastly inferior to Li Ban's. If he hadn't kept his dagger drawn and leveled across his chest after killing the refugee, he never would have blocked the blow in time.
But he wasn't just outmatched in speed—he was completely overpowered in sheer strength.
The dagger proved totally inadequate for defense. It skewed under the heavy impact, unable to bear the force, and the cold gleam of Li Ban's blade pressed down toward his chest.
The masked assassin hastily shoved his left arm in to brace behind his dagger. The faint phantom of a turtle shell surfaced on the back of his hand, forming a shield right in the path of the descending blade.
Clang—thud!
The edge slid off the dagger and chopped into the phantom shell. To Li Ban's surprise, it felt like hacking into thick pigskin. The blade sank in, meeting greater and greater resistance, until it forcibly ground to a halt just a finger's width from the assassin's hand.
Li Ban was surprised, but the masked assassin was absolutely terrified.
Just a fraction of an inch!
Just a fraction of an inch, and Li Ban's blade would have broken through the shell's defense to sever his arm!
The masked assassin instantly grasped the vast gap between them, knowing his chances for promotion were ruined.
He assumed Li Ban was targeting him simply because he had defied Li Ban's decision and interrupted his attempt to establish dominance.
Facing Li Ban's lethal strikes, he didn't dare stay a second longer.
Having barely blocked the strike, the masked assassin used the impact to launch himself backward and turned to flee.
But Li Ban didn't hesitate to shoot another Spider Web at him!
This web was only three feet square, but it slapped directly onto the masked man's calves.
The assassin was instantly glued to the ground, unable to run.
Li Ban closed the distance in a single stride, raising his blade to chop at the man's face once more.
"I was wrong, I'll listen to you! No, wait, I forfeit— Ah!!!"
The masked assassin never finished his final words; Li Ban's blade sheared off half his head.
Li Ban glanced at the rolled edge of his long blade. It was just a standard weapon from a regular blacksmith shop; chopping through bone took too much of a toll on it.
He tossed the blade aside and bent down to pick up the masked assassin's dagger.
This weapon was much better crafted.
It was a lethal weapon meant for murder.
From his sudden attack, to the first block, the attempted escape, and the final fatal blow, only a few short breaths had passed.
None of the other assassins had intervened. Some hadn't even processed what was happening.
"Why did you kill him? Don't tell me—you actually know someone among these refugees?" the feminine assassin asked, his laughter laced with a probing edge.
To him, the physical qualities Li Ban had just displayed resembled those of a 3rd Tier Spirit Cultivator. He was essentially the ceiling of strength for everyone participating in this selection.
He would be incredibly difficult to deal with.
But if Li Ban truly had a weakness hidden among this group of refugees, that would be perfect.
After all, an assassin's success didn't depend purely on martial strength.
With the right scheme, even a young child could slaughter a burly man.
When Li Ban turned around, his expression remained cool and completely devoid of emotion. He didn't even cast a single glance toward the refugees.
"The fight has already begun, hasn't it? After I said start, he killed a refugee, which proves he still wants the gold beads."
"If he wants the gold beads, then he wants to compete against me."
Li Ban stood with his head slightly bowed, then suddenly lifted his eyes. His gaze was razor-sharp.
"Anyone who wants to compete with me has to die!"
His aura abruptly changed.
If the previous Li Ban had carried a reasonable tranquility, he now radiated an irrational, violent cruelty.
The gazes of the remaining seven assassins immediately locked onto him.
None of the participants in this trial were ordinary 1st Tier or 2nd Tier cultivators. Naturally, they had all realized that Li Ban was the biggest threat on the field.
Bearing the weight of their stares, Li Ban stood as steady as a boulder.
There was still one assassin hiding in the houses who had not yet shown himself.
Li Ban could feel that the last person was also observing him from the shadows.
This was the heightened sensory perception granted to him by the mental element, Flute Sound.
Li Ban slowly narrowed his eyes.
The gazes of the eight wooden token assassins, along with the two copper token assassins watching from above, felt as clear as pillars.
Only the silver token assassin felt as though he didn't even exist.
Several of the assassins, rattled by Li Ban's strength, exchanged a spontaneous glance.
The killing intent in their eyes was obvious. They all understood they had to take down Li Ban first—the strongest wooden token assassin on the field.
"Kill!"
One of them shouted the order, and the black figures rushed Li Ban.
They weren't trained soldiers fighting in formation, nor did they have any experience cooperating, but they automatically fanned out to attack him from all four cardinal directions.
The feminine assassin and the short assassin, however, held their ground.
Meanwhile, the tallest assassin watched the others encircle Li Ban before immediately mocking him, "I thought you were formidable. Your blade skills are average and your hand-to-hand combat is only slightly better. How can you be so arrogant?"
This towering assassin wielded a double-bladed axe.
In every previous assassination mission, his style had always been to violently smash straight through the crowd.
He would kill over a dozen people before finally slaughtering his target.
Yet thanks to his overwhelming charging power, he managed to escape unscathed every time.
He was more of a warrior than an assassin.
But this paid better than being a warrior!
Gripping the axe handle with both hands, he bent his knees and abruptly exploded forward, launching himself like a cannonball.
The massive axe howled as it tore through the air, plunging down from above to split Li Ban—currently surrounded by four assassins—straight in half.
Up on the roof, one of the copper token assassins watching couldn't help but laugh.
"What a foolish brat. He actually dared to question the Lord's decision."
"I thought he was tough, but he's already trapped just from five people rushing him," the other snorted coldly. "Look, Ninety-One and Eleven haven't even joined in yet, and Baishu hasn't even shown his face. A mere 2nd Tier Spirit Cultivator really thought he could show off here?"
The silver token assassin hadn't made a single comment. He just stared at the tangled group below, watching as the tallest, Number Sixty-Two, charged in with his raised axe.
He narrowed his eyes, deeply curious to see how Ninety-Seven—the man who had directly questioned his rules for this game—planned to break out of the situation.
Li Ban was fast, but facing attacks from all directions left him slightly frantic at first.
He had never actually fought multiple opponents on his own before.
Moreover, the four men in front of him wouldn't take turns attacking like enemies in a television show.
Relying strictly on the dynamic vision of his right eye, paired with the razor-sharp perception granted by Flute Sound, Li Ban single-handedly withstood the near-simultaneous onslaught of all four men.
The first man slashed his blade.
Li Ban blocked, using the momentum to press the man's blade down before sweeping his dagger up to strike a second attacker.
But by then, the two from the other angles were already moving in. One thrust a palm strike forward, a vicious spike protruding from his palm.
The other threw a heavy punch, his four knuckles armed with iron brass knuckles.
Li Ban swept them with his peripheral vision. He instantly read their timing, angles, and speed, predicting exactly when and where their attacks would land on his body.
Using the recoil from his parry, he snapped a kick into the thigh of the man behind him, then violently twisted his waist, deliberately taking the fourth attacker's punch square on his back.
Thud!
The iron brass knuckles smashed into Li Ban's waist, but it felt like slamming into a steel plate.
The punch-throwing assassin instead felt an agonizing ache flare through his finger bones.
He bared his teeth, thinking furiously, 'This punk is wearing soft gold armor! Damn it, he's loaded!'
Taking the punch only slightly jostled Li Ban's internal organs. Uninjured, he borrowed the kinetic energy of the blow to bulldoze the man in front of him, slipping away just in time to dodge the massive axe falling from above.
Having weathered the first wave of attacks, Li Ban knew he needed to immediately eliminate one of them.
He had to carve out an opening to let his superior strength and speed shine.
Feeling several lethal threats closing in from behind, Li Ban held his dagger high and charged forward, shoving the assassin in front of him three meters away.
The man tried to bleed off the momentum and evade to counterattack, but Li Ban gave him absolutely no chance.
While he didn't know any elegant footwork, wind seemed to gather beneath his feet. He blurred into an afterimage, darting cleanly under the man's armpit. Before the assassin could even turn around, Li Ban slammed a palm directly into the center of his back.
Spitting mouthfuls of blood, the first unlucky assassin was pitched forward, careening straight into the path of the double-bladed axe.
The towering Number Sixty-Two didn't even attempt to check his swing, following through to chop the tumbling assassin to death.
Freshly bathed in blood, the twin-bladed axe looked even more imposing.
Number Sixty-Two didn't feel a shred of remorse. He was planning to murder all these competitors eventually anyway.
Following the downward chop, he rode the axe's heavy momentum, looping it into a vicious upward cleave.
Number Sixty-Two violently twisted his thick waist a half-circle, determined to split Li Ban in two along with his dagger.
But he had forgotten one detail: right now, he was the only opponent standing in front of Li Ban.
Moving later but arriving first, Li Ban slapped a palm hard against the flat side of the axe head. The blow instantly derailed the heavy strike Number Sixty-Two had assumed was unblockable.
'What monstrous strength!?' Number Sixty-Two finally understood exactly how the assassin crushed by Li Ban just moments ago had felt.
With his center of gravity completely thrown off, Number Sixty-Two scrambled to adjust his footing, only for Li Ban to snap a vicious kick into his ankle.
A man of his towering size was kicked so hard by an opponent a full head shorter that he almost crashed to his knees.
But that wasn't what terrified him the most.
What he couldn't comprehend was that the very instant he thought about making a move—before his muscles had even twitched—his opponent had already read what his next action would be.
'This guy has incredible vision! It has to be some sort of element's ability. Ordinary physical enhancements can't push a person's eyesight to this kind of terrifying level.'
Planting one hand on the ground, Number Sixty-Two swept his axe horizontally at Li Ban's feet, hoping to cripple his high-speed mobility first.
But Li Ban suddenly vanished from his line of sight.
"He's behind you!"
The short assassin, Number Eleven, shrieked a warning.
But Number Sixty-Two was already too late to turn around. He only felt a fist smash brutally into the side of his skull.
A loud buzzing exploded in his brain.
Exploiting Number Sixty-Two's blind spot, Li Ban had smashed him half into unconsciousness with a single blow.
At that moment, two more assassins rushed in to attack.
Li Ban dodged one, tanked a blow from the second, and drove his dagger straight into the towering brute's nape.
Number Sixty-Two convulsed once and collapsed heavily onto the ground.
Claiming yet another life, Li Ban didn't pause. He grabbed the arm of the assassin who had just punched him in the back, twisted it savagely, and flipped the man wholesale, hurling him directly at the remaining attacker.
The two crashed together. Like a pair of street thugs in a brawl, they were so battered and dazed that they couldn't immediately stumble back to their feet.
These two were merely 1st Tier Spirit Cultivators. In front of Li Ban, they posed absolutely zero threat.
Li Ban finally paused to catch his breath, sweeping his gaze over the remaining men.
The feminine man and the short assassin still hadn't stepped up.
The assassin who had launched the palm strike with the spike hadn't charged in again. He stood rooted to the spot, completely stupefied.
When he saw Li Ban butcher two people while trapped in a siege, his courage completely evaporated. "I-I forfeit. I won't fight you for it." He splayed his hands open, palms facing Li Ban to demonstrate he meant no harm.
This spike-wielding assassin was the first person in the trial to surrender.
The copper token assassin watching from the roof frowned, visibly displeased by this cowardice in battle.
While wooden token assassins weren't core members of Assassin Hall, showing such pathetic weakness during a selection meant he would never have another chance at promotion.
"If you forfeit, drop your wooden token and leave!" the copper token assassin shouted.
Hearing this, the surrendering assassin paled in horror. "I only meant I was giving up my chance at promotion this time—!"
The copper token assassin snapped back harshly, "Number Thirty-Four, you were the one who volunteered to participate, and now you want to run. If you accept a mission in the future, are you going to randomly forfeit that too? Assassin Hall has no use for people like you!"
"Get out!"
Number Thirty-Four's chest heaved, unable to accept this outcome.
But when he finally mustered the courage to look back at Li Ban, he met those dead, emotionless eyes, and his newborn courage shattered.
"I forfeit..." He powerlessly dropped the wooden token from his waist, tossed it to the dirt, and turned to leave the ruined village.
However, halfway to the exit, his body suddenly went rigid. A second later, his head slid off his neck.
Number Thirty-Four's headless corpse remained standing stiffly as blood sprayed high into the air.
Most of the men present hadn't even seen what happened, but Li Ban had.
It looked like a handleless Willow Leaf Blade.
It was incredibly thin.
So thin that after slicing cleanly through Number Thirty-Four's neck, it hadn't caught a single drop of blood.
The tenth assassin, who had remained hidden the entire time, had finally made his move.
The feminine Number Ninety-One covered his mouth and giggled lightly, his pinky finger slightly raised. "It seems someone is trying to teach us how to be an assassin."
"Oh well. I only became an assassin for some easy money anyway. If you expect me to gamble my actual life, you can count me out. Though, if you try to kill me, I'll definitely fight back with everything I have."
Number Ninety-One pulled off his own wooden token and tossed it onto the ground without a trace of reluctance.
With that said, he swayed his hips and walked toward the exit.
Bizarrely, the Willow Leaf Blade that had struck just moments ago made no attempt to assassinate Number Ninety-One.
Everyone simply watched as Number Ninety-One walked right out of the village.
The two battered assassins stayed huddled together on the ground. Too terrified to stand up and too terrified to surrender, they reached a tacit agreement and simply played dead.
The only assassins still standing in the arena were Li Ban and Number Eleven.
The diminutive Number Eleven stroked his chin, just recovering from Number Ninety-One's withdrawal.
"Tsk, and here I thought that once they drained your spiritual rhinoceros and stamina, Number Ninety-One and I could finish you off easily."
Li Ban faced Number Eleven. "Are you going to attack by yourself now?"
Number Eleven was clearly still hesitating.
He and Number Ninety-One had been observing from the sidelines this whole time, wanting to use the others' hands to confirm exactly what abilities Li Ban possessed.
But after watching for so long, all they had learned was that aside from a Spider Web with an unknown usage limit and his ability to take a beating, his physical stats were incredibly high.
Whether it was his raw strength, speed, or reflexes, every attribute vastly eclipsed those of an ordinary 1st Tier or 2nd Tier Spirit Cultivator.
Number Eleven considered himself among the apex of 2nd Tier Spirit Cultivators, yet facing Li Ban now, he realized he didn't have total confidence in a victory.
He obviously had a trump card, but if he used it on Li Ban, how was he supposed to defeat Baishu later?
That guy was famous even among the wooden token assassins.
Baishu had always refused promotion in the past; no one knew why he had suddenly decided to join the selection this time.
"Baishu! We're both assassins. How about we team up to kill this rule-breaking freak first, and then settle things between us?"
Hidden in the dark, Baishu gave no response.
"It seems that in Baishu's eyes, we're both just enemies," Li Ban said, dragging his long blade as he advanced on Number Eleven step by step.
Number Eleven shook his head. "I never should have come out. If you hadn't used the gold beads to force us out, and this was a pure contest of assassination, you would absolutely be dead."
Li Ban nodded. "I know. That's exactly why I stepped out first. In a pure contest of assassination, plenty of you are better than I am."
He spoke with absolute candor. "And you don't need to think about hiding again. I won't give you the chance. Either forfeit, or die."
Number Eleven let out a long sigh, shouting with a final shred of hope, "Baishu! If you don't agree to team up with me now, I'll have to forfeit. Don't try to ambush me from the shadows!"
Baishu still remained totally silent.
Number Eleven glanced at the three assassins on the roof. The silver token assassin was already looking very displeased.
He couldn't help but laugh, gloating slightly at Li Ban. "I wish you luck in your promotion this time. But forcing the selection officer's hand like this... even if you are promoted, your days ahead won't be easy. I hope to see your head hanging in the Black Market someday."
With that, Number Eleven let go of any lingering reluctance. He unhooked the wooden token from his waist, dropped it to the dirt, and walked out along the same path Number Ninety-One had taken.
Throughout the entire sequence, the assassin codenamed Baishu never made a move.