Although Ninety-One and Eleven had both given up and left, Li Ban did not relax his tense nerves in the slightest.
He kept waiting for the hidden assassin, Bai Shu.
But strangely, after Li Ban killed Number Sixty-Two, the watchful gaze hidden in the shadows vanished too.
He didn't know if Bai Shu had left or had simply stopped watching him.
Li Ban waited a while, figuring his opponent might be biding their time.
But he didn't want to drag it out.
So he looked up and asked the silver-badge assassin on the roof, "There has to be a time limit for this selection, right? After all, if the target dies of old age, it doesn't count as a successful assassination, does it?"
The Copper Badge assassin and the silver-badge assassin on the roof exchanged a few words.
Though they didn't look pleased, they answered Li Ban's question.
They believed Bai Shu could still use an assassin's methods to kill Li Ban.
In a head-on fight, Bai Shu might not be Li Ban's match, but in assassination experience, the veteran was definitely several times his superior.
Still, they couldn't wait forever.
Ultimately, the three examiners set a time limit that was neither too long nor too short.
If Bai Shu couldn't kill Li Ban within that limited time, it would only prove that this highly reputed wooden token assassin wasn't all that special.
While asking the question, Li Ban kept his guard up, paying close attention to his surroundings to avoid an ambush while distracted by the trio on the roof.
This was arguably when Li Ban was most distracted, yet Bai Shu still didn't strike.
Li Ban was waiting for him to make the first move, but what was Bai Shu waiting for?
Time trickled by.
The abandoned village was incredibly quiet.
The refugees trapped in the cobwebs didn't dare make a sound.
They were terrified of drawing Li Ban's attention and getting killed.
Even the young children had their mouths tightly covered by their elders.
As the half-shichen mark drew nearer, another suspicion gradually surfaced in Li Ban's mind.
"Bai Shu hasn't made a move since I came out—could he be one of Zhai Liu's people?"
But on second thought, that didn't seem right.
If Bai Shu really was Zhai Liu's subordinate, why would Zhai Liu bother arranging for him to join the Assassin Hall?
Wouldn't a veteran like Bai Shu draw much less suspicion than he did?
The sky grew darker as the starlight was obscured by drifting clouds.
The wind died down, and absolute silence fell.
The entire abandoned village was so quiet it felt devoid of the living.
Finally, the silver-badge assassin on the roof spoke.
"Time is up. It seems Bai Shu has given up as well."
He raised his hand, hooking a gray Iron Token on his fingertip and holding it straight out over the eaves, letting it dangle high in the air.
"You've shown me quite a unique selection."
The silver-badge assassin's voice was as cold as ice, carrying a chill that seeped straight into the bones.
"As much as I hate to admit it, I have no choice but to give this Iron Token to you now."
"Come and take it—before I change my mind."
His voice grew colder, yet he continued to restrain his temper, ready to reward the successful candidate.
Li Ban stepped forward, walking under the eaves.
The silver-badge assassin's fingertips loosened slightly, looking as if he were about to drop the token.
But at that exact moment, a dim streak of silver shot out from the house directly beneath his feet.
The silver streak hurtled straight for Li Ban's neck.
Just like it had against the assassin who gave up earlier.
Bai Shu hadn't struck for a long time, tricking everyone into thinking he had abandoned the selection.
But Li Ban had never lowered his guard.
After staying in the Death Prison for so long, his nerves were constantly strung to the limit.
Even when the silver-badge assassin declared Bai Shu's forfeit, Li Ban remained on high alert.
The Willow Leaf Blade shot straight for his throat, which was exposed from looking up at the Iron Token.
Li Ban reached back to block it.
Naturally, his hand wasn't faster than the Willow Leaf Blade.
But his awareness was fast enough!
Clack!
For once, the Willow Leaf Blade didn't bounce off the Iron Fish Scale that had instantly shifted to his throat; instead, it pierced directly into the scale.
However, thanks to the Iron Fish Scale's block, the blade failed to hit a vital spot, only slicing through a layer of skin.
A trickle of fresh blood oozed from the wound.
Ignoring the paper-thin blade lodged in his neck, Li Ban smashed through the window frame and leaped into the house.
Inside, a masked figure was just turning to flee.
Judging by her figure, it was actually a woman.
Her Willow Leaf Blade was supposed to use its spinning momentum to cleanly slice through Li Ban's neck.
Yet for some reason, it had gotten stuck at his throat, unable to advance a single inch further.
Seeing this, Bai Shu knew her assassination attempt had failed.
She was absolutely no match for Li Ban in a frontal clash, so she turned and ran without the slightest hesitation.
But Bai Shu had never expected that after narrowly surviving a fatal ambush, Li Ban would jump straight into her hiding spot without a second thought.
Was he not afraid of a secondary ambush at all?
Turning to run, Bai Shu ultimately failed to escape Li Ban's line of sight.
Not sparing his last two uses of Spider Web, Li Ban fired them consecutively, sealing off the two escape routes in front of her.
Immediately after, a streak of silver flew from his palm.
It was his hidden weapon—the Silver Kingfisher!
The Silver Kingfisher didn't fly toward easily guarded vital spots; instead, it buried itself into the woman's slender ankle in the dark.
It entered from the side, stabbing viciously into her Achilles tendon.
"Ugh!"
Bai Shu let out a muffled groan, her body stumbling into a kneel.
But she braced herself and didn't fall, turning to find another way out.
However, Li Ban had already caught up.
His speed was still astonishingly fast. Grabbing the hair coiled at the back of Bai Shu's head, he yanked the Willow Leaf Blade from his own throat without hesitation. Pulling back with his right hand, he violently slashed her delicate carotid artery with his left!
Spurt—
Blood sprayed out, staining the pristine white Spider Web red.
Bai Shu opened her mouth, letting out bubbling gurgles.
She reached back, trying to claw at Li Ban's face, but only grasped thin air.
Watching Bai Shu breathe her last, Li Ban finally dropped her corpse and walked back out of the house.
Returning to the silver-badge assassin, Li Ban bent down and picked up the ignored Iron Token from the ground.
His left hand, which had tightly gripped the Willow Leaf Blade, was bleeding.
Drops of blood fell one by one onto the gray token, dyeing it red.
After he picked up the Iron Token, beads of blood rolled off it, sinking into the dark snow.
Holding the token up, he called out to the silver-badge assassin still standing on the roof.
"Am I an Iron Token assassin now?"
The silver-badge assassin's gaze was unreadable. After a moment of silence, he finally spoke. "You still haven't killed the ignorant peasants who stole the gold beads."
Li Ban laughed. "Your requirements stated that the one with the most gold beads would be promoted. It never said we had to kill them. I imagine the actual selection rules don't include murder as a requirement."
The silver-badge assassin narrowed his eyes. "What if I want to see them killed?"
The curve of Li Ban's lips widened. "That works too. Before, I charged two hundred taels of silver per kill. Now that I've been promoted to an Iron Token, it should be at least four hundred, right? Ten people... no, eleven people. Four thousand four hundred taels."
He raised his still-bleeding left hand toward the silver-badge assassin.
"Thank you for your patronage, please pay upfront. I am... very expensive."
The silver-badge assassin's eyes turned dangerous.
This Number Ninety-Seven hadn't followed the selection rules he set from the very beginning.
Yet it was true that he had made up the rule about killing the peasants himself.
It didn't actually need to be followed.
And as an examiner, he wasn't supposed to interfere with the normal struggles of the selection in the first place.
So he had held back all this time.
But now...
"That's right. From now on, you are an Iron Token assassin."
[Obtained 2nd Tier hidden identity, "Iron Token Assassin".]
He had finally received confirmation from the mission assistance system.
"Then I'll be leaving," Li Ban said, pocketing the Iron Token.
His left hand throbbed with pain, and as his adrenaline receded, exhaustion washed over his tension-numbed nerves.
He needed to head back and bandage his wounds properly.
"Wait," the silver-badge assassin called out, stopping him. "You might not be aware, but although a new Iron Token has been chosen..."
"—if I am unsatisfied with the results of the selection, I can also take the token back. Or—"
He slowly drew the flexible sword wrapped around his waist.
The blade was pitch-black and unreflective, vibrating faintly in the air.
"Kill you."
Li Ban took a half-step back, his brows furrowing as his gaze sharpened.
If this was a 4th Tier silver-badge assassin, he had no confidence in killing someone so far above his own level.
His only chance was combining Invisibility with the Blazing Flame Art.
But he would only get one shot.
If the opponent was on guard, he wouldn't get a second chance to strike.
The entire abandoned village fell quiet once more.
Under the starry sky, it felt as though only Li Ban and the silver-badge assassin were left.
The taut string was on the verge of snapping.
Suddenly!
"Is the selection over?"
A slightly arrogant voice drifted from the direction of the village entrance.
Li Ban, the silver-badge assassin, and the two Copper Badge assassins beside him all turned to look at the source of the voice.
A woman wearing a green robe and a veiled hat appeared silently.
She walked across the snow-covered ground in the dark, yet left no footprints behind.
It was as if she were floating rather than walking.
When she arrived in front of Li Ban, she suddenly took off her hat, revealing a pair of fluffy ears and a small, round face.
"If it's over, then... I'll be taking him."
In the darkness, Cat Girl blinked at Li Ban, then looked up at the silver-badge assassin on the roof.
"Qiu She, do you have a problem with that?"
Qiu She, who was standing in the middle of the roof, jumped straight down.
"Cat Girl, I'm the one in charge of this selection."
Cat Girl cast a sidelong glance at him with her slit pupils and said carelessly, "I know, which is why I asked if the selection was over."
Qiu She took a deep breath. "Therefore, the one who was selected should be led by me."
Cat Girl tilted her head. "Weren't you unsatisfied? Give him to me, it's perfect. I just got back and don't have anyone under me yet."
Li Ban swore he could hear Qiu She grinding his teeth.
"I just wanted to kill his arrogance. I never said I was truly unsatisfied."
"Is that so? Well, I rather like his arrogance, so there's no need for you to kill it."
Qiu She knew he couldn't win against Cat Girl by force, so he brought out the hall master of the Assassin Hall.
"But the hall master won't agree—"
"Let Cat Girl have him this time." A voice rang out from the darkness. It was also a woman.
Only her tone was deeper than most.
Qiu She froze, blurting out, "Hall Master? Why are you here?"
The hall master hidden in the dark didn't answer his question. She merely said, "The next promoted Iron Token will go to you."
Qiu She knew there was nothing more he could say. He simply bowed toward the source of the voice and cupped his fists.
"Yes, Hall Master."
Cat Girl turned and said to Li Ban, "Let's go."
Li Ban glanced at Qiu She, but the assassin refused to meet his eyes.
Taking two steps back, he finally turned and followed Cat Girl.
Watching the two of them leave, and hearing no further sound from the hall master, the two Copper Badge assassins finally jumped down from the roof.
One of them whispered to Qiu She, "Boss, did the hall master leave?"
Still harboring some resentment, Qiu She just gave a haphazard nod.
Seeing his superior like this, the other Copper Badge assassin hurriedly tried to console him. "The previous hall master must have gone senile to let a woman inherit the Assassin Hall!"
Qiu She snapped his head up and glared at the speaker. "If you were stronger than her, you'd have the right to say that! But you couldn't even beat one of her toes, so what right do you have to run your mouth? This is the Assassin Hall, not some alleyway market, and what the hell makes you think you can gossip like an old hag?"
The flexible sword in Qiu She's hand trembled madly as he pointed it at the Copper Badge assassin, looking as if he wanted to strike him down.
A look of terror instantly washed over the subordinate's face, and he begged for mercy over and over. In the end, Qiu She lowered his sword. "No! I'm expensive too, I can't kill you for free!"
The other Copper Badge assassin tried to change the subject. "Sir, what should we do with these refugees still caught in the webs?"
Qiu She stared coldly at the eleven people curled up in balls on the ground from the freezing cold.
"Leave them to fend for themselves! Am I really not worth four thousand four hundred taels of silver?"
The three of them left, abandoning the corpse and the trapped refugees.
Not long after, several refugees who had hidden far away ran over, only to find that the eleven trapped in the cobwebs had already gotten free.
"How... did you guys get out?"
"Uncle," the youngest child said, his nose running, "it was so cold that the spiderwebs turned brittle."
He waved a strand of cobweb frozen stiff in his hand, still oblivious to what had actually happened.
Upon leaving the abandoned village, Li Ban glanced back at the refugees.
He had done all he could. If he did any more, the silver-badge assassin might have realized he valued their lives, giving the examiner an excuse to slaughter them just to vent his anger.
As long as the silver-badge assassin and his lackeys didn't act, these people would survive tonight's disaster.
After walking for a stretch, Li Ban finally spoke in a low voice. "Is it safe to talk?"
Without looking back, Cat Girl tossed over a roll of bandages and a bottle of medicine.
"Now that you're an assassin, remember to always carry wound medicine on you."
Li Ban caught the items and looked down at his palm.
The gash had looked gruesome at first, but the bleeding had already stopped.
The stat boosts from six elements—four of which had reached 2nd Tier full spiritual rhinoceros—were nothing to scoff at.
An injury like this didn't even need bandaging.
Still, he applied the medicine and wrapped the bandages around his hand anyway.
Standard wound medicine usually had a pungent smell, but this bottle was almost odorless.
It stung a little at first contact before quickly turning into a soothing coolness.
Suddenly, a figure appeared ahead, also dressed in black night-traveling clothes.
Her face was indiscernible, but she was tall—an inch taller than Li Ban himself.
Yet he could still make out her slender shoulders and the slight rise and fall of her chest.
A string of golden bells hung from her waist. Each was only the size of a thumb and adorned with intricate patterns, clearly the work of a master craftsman.
She walked over slowly. The bells swayed constantly, but didn't make a single sound.
"Is this the assassin you recommended? What's your relationship with him?"
Judging by the voice, it was none other than the hall master who had spoken from the darkness earlier.
Cat Girl replied calmly, "He saved my life."
"He saved your life, and you repay him by dragging him into the Assassin Hall? Are you sure that's not biting the hand that fed you?"
"Of course not." Cat Girl raised her chin like a proud lioness. "What kind of future could he have rotting in that hellhole of a Death Prison?"
"Heh. That does sound like something you'd say." The woman suddenly pulled down her black face veil, revealing her features.
Li Ban immediately stared, dumbfounded.
Her face was covered in a layer of fluorescence meant to obscure her true appearance, but Li Ban's "Right Eye" combined with his Flute Sound allowed him to pierce right through the disguise.
This Assassin Hall master... was incredibly beautiful!
Her beauty was surreal, almost as if she were modeled in 3D animation.
Her skin, in particular, was so fair and flawless it looked like jelly.
However, as he kept staring, Li Ban began to feel that something was off.
This female hall master looked somewhat familiar.
"Hey! Have you stared enough?" Cat Girl coldly interrupted his thoughts.
The hall master smiled brightly, radiant as the glowing moon.
She pulled her veil back up. "Alright, Cat Girl. Now that you're back, get to work as soon as possible. The Assassin Hall can't run without you."
"He just got promoted to an Iron Token!" Cat Girl said, dissatisfied.
The hall master turned, her silhouette vanishing into the darkness as her faint voice lingered. "With you escorting him, he's bound to reach a Copper Badge at the very least. I'm just giving him an early stamp of approval."
The hall master completely disappeared into the darkened mountain forest.
"Still haven't stared enough?"
Cat Girl snapped the spacing-out Li Ban back to reality once more.
Her icy tone held a trace of something that hadn't been there before... a tiny hint of coquettish pouting?
Only then did Li Ban tell her, "I was just wondering what she meant by 'giving an early stamp of approval'."
Cat Girl's cheeks puffed out, and her cat ears stood straight up. "Tell me! How do you feel about Yan Jiu right now?"
"Yan Jiu? The hall master?"
"Yes! Her!"
Yan Jiu... Zhai Liu?!
Li Ban finally remembered who she resembled.
She actually looked quite a bit like Zhai Liu, the person locked in the Death Prison.
Both of them possessed a surreal beauty.
But perhaps because Li Ban hadn't seen Zhai Liu in so long, it wasn't until he heard Yan Jiu's number-bearing name that he made the connection between their similar appearances.
Seeing Li Ban plunge back into deep thought, Cat Girl suddenly grabbed him by the collar.
"Have you fallen in love with her?"
"What? Cough, cough, cough!"
Li Ban was so startled that he choked on his own saliva and immediately started coughing.
Cat Girl sheepishly let go of his collar.
"Yan Jiu's face is fused with a mental-type element. If you were affected by it, a suggestion might have been planted in your mind. You'd want to pledge your loyalty to her, or even think you've fallen in love with her, making you willing to die for her unconditionally!"
"Such a terrifying element?" Li Ban's expression cooled. Having one's mind controlled was no joke. He quickly did a self-check.
He confirmed that he hadn't been affected. He had only spaced out earlier because he found her beauty so surreal, and her face somewhat resembled that mysterious Zhai Liu.
"I wasn't affected," he said with certainty.
It seemed Cat Girl was just nervous that Yan Jiu had messed with his mind.
Cat Girl stood on her tiptoes, staring into Li Ban's eyes for a moment.
Her slit pupils gradually turned round.
Her puffed-out cheeks deflated, and she poked her index finger into her own dimple.
"That's good. I was thinking, since you have that thing, how could you be so easily bewitched by her."
"Don't worry," Li Ban said, suddenly raising his hand and giving Cat Girl's ear a squeeze.
It felt absolutely amazing!
Having been an avid virtual cat-petter in his past life, Li Ban had been dying to do this for ages.
Especially since her nutrition had improved after leaving the Death Prison, making the fur on her ears incredibly sleek and soft.
In the darkness, Cat Girl's face instantly flushed red.