Li Ban was about to step forward and deliver the finishing blow when he realized a hidden figure was ambushing him from behind.
A chill ran down the back of his neck. He immediately shifted the Iron Fish Scale. With a sharp clink, he blocked the ambush.
"He has protection!" the failed assassin immediately warned his partner.
At the same time, the enemy who had just plummeted stiffly suddenly recovered. Hearing his partner's warning, he didn't hesitate. He flipped mid-air, raised a bizarre short sword, and thrust it toward Li Ban.
Seeing the chilling aura radiating from the opponent's rapier, Li Ban hastily dodged.
Cat Girl, having just finished off her opponent, rushed over from a distance.
She moved incredibly fast, on the verge of joining the battle.
The rapier-wielding enemy immediately said, "Hold off Cat Girl. I'll kill Good Guy first."
The assassin who had failed the sneak attack had no choice but to turn and intercept Cat Girl.
"Assassins from the Assassin Hall?" Hearing his own codename, Li Ban dodged to the side again.
Assassins from the Assassin Hall were difficult to deal with, especially since the person in front of him seemed to be a higher Tier.
Li Ban reached for a small gourd at his waist.
But the enemy was too fast. The moment Li Ban's hand brushed the gourd, the opponent's sword shadow was already upon him.
Catching a glimpse of his own shadow out of the corner of his eye, Li Ban immediately dove into it.
The assassin's rapier struck empty air. Reversing his grip, he stabbed directly into the shadow on the ground.
Hiding in a shadow did not mean one was completely immune to blades.
Seeing this, Li Ban instantly shifted into a different shadow.
However, his strength could not compare to Zhai Liu's. His transitions between shadows were not nearly as smooth, leaving his silhouette faintly visible in the darkness.
Furthermore, the transitions cost him time.
After using the shadows to put some distance between them, Li Ban emerged and bolted deeper into the mountain forest.
The rapier-wielding assassin gave a sinister sneer. His legs blurred into afterimages as he gave chase at blinding speed.
Cat Girl had just briefly clashed with the other assassin. Seeing Li Ban enter the woods, she tried to follow, but her path was blocked.
The assassin she had just bypassed threw his arms wide, striking a pose as if embracing the air.
In an instant, the wild grass in front of and to either side of Cat Girl came alive, surging together to stop her from chasing into the forest.
"What is this?" Cat Girl leaped away, springing onto a nearby tree to use its trunk to get past.
Several green leaves seemed shaken loose by her movements, but they drifted for only a split second before transforming into green blurs, shooting toward her like sharp knives.
Cat Girl frantically changed direction, vaulting to another tree.
But even more leaves shot toward her.
Thwack, thwack, thwack—thwack, thwack, thwack—
The leaves, now transformed into hidden weapons, embedded themselves into the trunk, practically grazing Cat Girl's heels.
Even more leaves were already waiting at her next landing spot, eyeing her like predators.
Mid-air, Cat Girl suddenly whipped her tail, flipping her entire body around to pounce on the assassin behind her.
Startled, he hurriedly raised an arm to block.
Cat Girl's claws sank mercilessly into his arm.
It felt as effortless as plunging into old wood, yet not a single drop of blood flowed out.
With one of the enemy's arms pinned, Cat Girl used her other hand to thrust viciously upward at his jaw.
She refused to believe his head was also immune to damage.
Sure enough, the enemy fought back with all his might, throwing a knee strike and a hook punch to stop her fatal blow.
Simultaneously, the arm Cat Girl had pierced began frantically sprouting branches, wrapping around to bind her hand in return.
But Cat Girl was both agile and fast. Her arm bent as if it had no bones, winding past his defenses and instantly piercing his throat.
However, her nails had barely sunk an inch deep when she realized the texture felt wrong. She quickly retreated, jumping back onto the nearby tree. She hung in mid-air with one hand grasping a branch, her body swaying gently.
"Pah!" She turned her head, spitting out the blood welling up in her mouth, then looked back at the enemy who hadn't given chase. "So the famous Gold Badge assassin Mountain Eagle is actually a shorty. I'm definitely announcing this to the world."
"Hmph!"
The cold snort came from Mountain Eagle's abdomen.
"Once I kill you, no one will know."
Cat Girl giggled, her mouth full of blood. "Now that I know where your vitals are, you can't kill me."
Mountain Eagle blocked his abdomen with his arm, which had morphed into twisted branches. "I admit I'm no match for you, but once Iron Thorn finishes off Good Guy and comes back, you won't be a match for the two of us."
Cat Girl scratched her cheek with her nails. "Iron Thorn, a 5th Tier, going after a 3rd Tier. Truly shameless."
Mountain Eagle wasn't in a hurry. After all, Cat Girl was insulting Iron Thorn, and his only mission was to stall her until Iron Thorn returned.
She was, after all, the cream of the crop among Gold Badge assassins. The title of the "Undying Cat Girl" was even more renowned than his own.
He focused only on stopping her from running off to save Li Ban. "You and Good Guy are already on the Hall Master's kill order. Against traitors to the Assassin Hall, any method is justified."
He spoke in a muffled voice, "Cat Girl, you've really fallen low, running over here just to protect a bronze badge assassin."
"Boohoo—my Good Guy!" Cat Girl fake-cried theatrically, then suddenly widened her sparkling eyes. "Then I'll just kill you first, and then go team up with Good Guy to kill Iron Thorn!"
Mountain Eagle found this amusing. "Kill me first? Fine. Let's see if I fall first, or if your Good Guy dies first!"
Cat Girl scoffed lightly. "I found you!"
With that, completely ignoring the towering Mountain Eagle in front of her, she spun around and lunged at the trunk of another large tree.
Li Ban's movement speed far exceeded that of a typical 3rd Tier Spirit Cultivator.
But he still didn't make it far before the enemy caught up to him.
The two stood on a hillside surrounded by dense woods; the mule cart in the distance was already out of sight.
Li Ban felt an unnatural gust of wind behind him, accompanied by a small bird's chirp. He immediately lunged forward, grabbed a tree trunk, and swung around to face his enemy.
The enemy had just slashed downward with his sword. Seeing Li Ban use his momentum to turn around, he immediately raised his short sword and thrust at him again.
Li Ban also thrust a palm strike toward his opponent.
However, with his thumb tucked in, he was gripping an unstoppered gourd tightly in his palm.
His palm braked sharply in mid-air. Carried by momentum, a stream of clear liquid spurted from the gourd's mouth, reeking of sharp alcohol.
A trail of azure flames followed the spray, instantly igniting the alcohol in the air before turning into a dancing fire demon that pounced at Iron Thorn.
Horrified, all that remained in the opponent's eyes was searing heat.
He tried to turn and dodge, but it was too late. He was blasted head-on by the flames.
In an instant, his clothes and hair caught fire, and large patches of his skin blackened to a crisp.
However, seeing that he couldn't dodge, the assassin abandoned defense completely. Raising his rapier, he charged straight through the wall of fire.
Li Ban's heart skipped a beat at the sheer ruthlessness of the man plowing right through the flames.
Given the opponent's strength and speed, this was definitely not a 4th Tier assassin.
'To actually send a Gold Badge assassin to hunt me down? They think that highly of me? Didn't they say Yan Jiu was on the run and had no time for anyone else?'
Not many people knew that Li Ban had carried out the assassination of Wan Chengming on Yan Jiu's orders.
But there were still others who knew Li Ban's true identity. If Yan Jiu had ordered a hit on Good Guy, the Assassin Hall could indeed track down Li Ban's whereabouts.
'The efficiency of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda really is lacking. How could they let the Assassin Hall run so rampant?'
Complaints aside, he still had a fight to win.
Seeing the enemy's rapier break through the flames and head straight for his heart, Li Ban prepared to cast Mental Piercing to stop him first.
However, the assassin bathed in fire suddenly let out a deafening roar.
"Hah!"
Li Ban's brain buzzed violently. He was instantly hit with intense dizziness, his vision splitting into double images.
He could even sense that if he hadn't possessed the Flute Sound, that shout might have knocked him out cold right then and there.
As expected of a Gold Badge assassin.
He could endure pain ordinary people could not and still launch a mental attack while in that state.
Spirit Practitioners with mental abilities were rare; this might have been an opponent the Assassin Hall specifically hand-picked for Li Ban.
Li Ban hurriedly spread his feet, barely steadying his center of gravity, and raised his arm to block the enemy's rapier.
But this time, the Iron Fish Scale on his arm didn't let out a sharp clink. Instead, there was a dull thud, and in the blink of an eye, the rapier pierced right into his arm.
This was followed by a grating friction noise. The enemy's rapier actually pressed down on Li Ban's arm, continuing its deadly trajectory toward his heart.
[Element "Iron Fish Scale" damaged.]
Li Ban felt the spiritual rhinoceros inside his body fall into momentary chaos, pressing heavily on his chest and making it hard to breathe.
It seemed that a damaged element would also have a huge impact on its wielder.
He quickly swallowed the discomfort and activated Mental Piercing again.
This time, he mobilized almost all the spiritual rhinoceros within the Flute Sound element.
Upon unleashing the strike, the enemy completely stiffened, and the rapier about to pierce his chest finally stopped.
Fighting through the pain, Li Ban dodged out of fatal range. He then raised his hand, aimed squarely at the assassin's face, and unleashed the Blazing Flame Art once more.
He poured everything into this attack as well.
The azure flames blasted toward the enemy's head like a massive cannon.
The man barely managed to tilt his head, but only evaded half the blow.
Because he hadn't had a single second to extinguish the fire on his body, half of him was already engulfed in flames.
"Ah!!!"
The assassin finally couldn't hold back his cries of agony.
But to Li Ban's shock, instead of retreating, the opponent charged forward.
They were already at close quarters, and the enemy was restricting Li Ban's left arm with the rapier. Perhaps realizing he couldn't kill Li Ban with his blade, the man threw his entire flaming body at him, wanting to ignite Li Ban with his own fire.
Having the ability to unleash flames didn't mean one was immune to them.
Unable to dodge, Li Ban felt a wave of searing heat wash over him. But before he could even register the agonizing pain of burning flesh, he suddenly heard the system's monotonous voice.
[The "Blazing Flame Art" has acquired a second ability: Flame Skin.]
The Blazing Flame Art had sublimated!
Instantly, all the pain vanished. The flames automatically spread across Li Ban's entire body like flowing water.
He reacted immediately. No longer dodging, he reached out and locked his grip on the enemy.
These two opponents who had just been fighting to the death were now hugging each other like old friends reuniting after years apart.
The enemy had wanted to see who could outlast the other, never expecting Li Ban to outright cheat the system.
The assassin couldn't take it anymore and unleashed a deafening roar of agony.
The sonic wave pierced Li Ban's brain, immediately causing his ears to bleed.
But the Flute Sound's passive ability shielded him from the bulk of the attack.
He didn't pass out. Instead, using his free right hand, he hammered a barrage of fierce iron palm strikes into the enemy's burning chest.
The skin, already burnt crisp, flaked and peeled away under Li Ban's iron palms. He heard the sickening crunch of breaking bones, the squelch of crushed organs, and the spurting of blood.
Palm after palm, strike after strike, every blow aimed straight at the opponent's vitals.
The struggling assassin suddenly let go and was sent flying by a follow-up palm strike.
Li Ban took a step back and caught his breath. To his surprise, a Throwing Axe was buried into the back of the fallen assassin's head.
It was the exact same axe he had thrown earlier.
Looking up, he saw Cat Girl standing a short distance away.
He had thought he'd beaten the assassin to death himself, but it turned out Cat Girl had chopped him down first.
Still, even if she hadn't shown up, he had been on the verge of winning anyway.
After all, the smell of cooking meat had already turned into the stench of charred flesh.
Cat Girl hopped over to Li Ban in a few quick bounds. Staring through the flames, she looked him up and down with wide eyes.
"Are you... almost cooked?"
She had originally come to rescue him, but seeing Li Ban's calm demeanor—completely devoid of pain—she figured he hadn't been set on fire against his will.
Li Ban withdrew the flames covering his body.
The fire seeped back into his skin, leaving behind not a single wisp of smoke.
After the Blazing Flame Art had sublimated and acquired the Flame Skin ability, Li Ban could do much more than just shoot fire from his hands.
His entire body could burst into flame, and he was completely immune to its heat.
It was just a little hard on his clothes.
He tugged at the trousers he had barely managed to save; his upper body was now completely bare.
"I'm fine."