Late at night, the chilly wind roared outside.
In the room, Lin Xun was cultivating with his knees crossed. After 10 days of diligent practice and with the help of various elixirs, Lin Xun had completed the cultivation on the fifth level of Martial Realm. And his spiritual power was so pure that it was like transparent liquid and contained dreadful and incomparable strength.
Although the four spiritual vortexes on the Heart Vessel and Four Acupoints could refine the quality of his spiritual power nonstop, one question ensued – the amount of spiritual power in his body would be lessened after refining.
Therefore, if Lin Xun wanted to reach the Mastery level, he had to practice harder and consume more spiritual power than others.
Luckily, every other day large quantities of spoils would be sent to him, which contained lots of spiritual herbs beneficial for promoting cultivation, leaving Lin Xun no worries about the big consumption of spiritual power.
“I’m about to break through……”
After cultivation, Lin Xun could feel the change of his Qi and knew clearly that he was just one step away from the sixth level of Martial Realm.
Besides diligent practice, one more important reason for all this was that his bodily cultivation became stronger and stronger every day.
The cultivation for the ninth level of Martial Realm was a process of refining the body and nourishing the soul. Refining and strengthening the body were not isolated but would again benefit internal cultivation.
Likewise, promoting internal cultivation would contribute to bodily cultivation.
Take Marrow Washing of the fifth level of Martial Realm as an example. By strengthening the body, one could refine his tendons and bones and unclog his bones and marrow so as to promote inner cultivation more smoothly.
And again, promoting internal cultivation could also improve the functions of the body and unlock more of its potentials, helping overcome all obstacles in elevating bodily cultivation.
All in all, refining the body externally and promoting the spiritual power internally took place in the same body and were inseparably interconnected.
When practicing to increase spiritual power, some offsprings of big families always chose a certain method to refine their body, so as to temper the base of Dao and promote cultivation – kill two birds with the same stone.
Although Lin Xun didn’t employ any method to refine his body, practicing in the Mille-waterfalls of Spiritual Tattoo Battlefield had immeasurable benefits in that regard.
Naturally, all of these greatly contributed to the promotion of his spiritual power.
But all of a sudden, Lin Xun was awakened.
Shia Zhi who was lying in bed opened her eyes and whispered: "Someone was lurking towards our courtyard."
He was shocked, got up quickly and hid himself.
It was already late at night, and the area around Courtyard 49 was very quiet except wild dogs and cats in twos and threes barking and mewing.
"How many?" Lin Xun asked in low voice. And at the same time, he spread out his perception but didn’t capture any trace of the intruders. Obviously, they either were proficient in stealth or didn’t come that close yet.
"Three." After saying this, Shia Zhi got up, dressed in an orderly manner, and got off the bed with that over 3-meter long bone spear in her hand.
This bone spear was very special, giving out faint cold starry light in the darkness, making it look mysterious and stern.
Lin Xun had carefully examined it and was sure that it was a spiritual weapon, but he couldn’t look deeper into the spiritual tattoos on it.
According to Shia Zhi, this spear was hers as long as she could remember, and she also did not know its origin. What’s more, when it was not used, the spear would disappear in no time as long as Shia Zhi wanted.
This made it even more mysterious. Even Lin Xun couldn't imagine what kind of spiritual weapon could be so magical. That was once in a blue moon weapon.
"They are getting closer. I’m gonna go out to check."
Leaving no chance for Lin Xun to stop her, Shia Zhi opened the door and vanished silently in the darkness. All traces of her breath disappeared.
Lin Xun frowned, took a deep breath and then got out of the room like an agile palm civet, hiding in the darkness of the courtyard.
……
Outside the courtyard.
"Hey guys, it’s just a kid at fifth level of Martial Realm! Do we really have to be so careful?" A man with a narrow long face smirked frivolously.
“Du Shiao, you wanna do it all by yourself?”
In the shadow of a nearby alley stood a woman in a tight black leather skirt whose snowy and plump slender legs were so straight and seductive; above the slim waist was her breasts so full that they seemed about to explode; and the plump red lips also stood out in the darkness.
Next to the woman, there was a woebegone old man with his hands on the back, observing the time of the day from time to time by looking at the sky. His appearance was so plain and ordinary.
The man who was called Du Shiao laughed, "I am not interested in kiddos but fond of sexy women like you." He licked his mouth with unrestrained greed in his covetous eyes.
"Really? Wanna play some games now?" The woman flirted with a smile on her face and deliberately raised her full and snowy breasts, but her eyes looked cold and chilly.
"Hey, I don't want to die. Who doesn't know that getting on your bed means having no chance to see the sun rise again?"
Du Shiao shook his head, looked at her plump breasts bluntly and said with fascination, “Wow, it has just been a few days, but your breasts are much bigger than before. Seems like some toy boys fell into your snare again.”
“Are you a real man? Have no gut to do anything else but staring even when I ask you to.” The widow in black was not angry but said disdainfully.
“Do you really think I do not dare?” Du Shiao asked with a sullen face.
“Enough!”
That woebegone old man rebuked. His voice was hard and dry, but also unquestionable. "If this is really an easy target, then there is no need to demand the three of us to come together."
They were shocked for the old man had never told lies. If he said so, then it definitely meant this was a really challenging task.
“Move!”
The old man moved so quickly like an old bat. Sliding in the air, he leaped onto the courtyard wall quietly and then disappeared.
He was so good at Qing Gong (The ability to lighten the body and move with great agility and swiftness.) that he didn’t make a noise when landing on the ground. Clearly, he had practiced this for many years.
As for the black widow, with a wave of her hand, a soft whip appeared in midair from nowhere and wrapped around one corner of the eaves. Then next moment, she bounced up and jumped into the courtyard.
While Du Shiao looked careless but once he made the move, he was extremely agile. He clung to the wall with his hands like a gecko, seemingly slow but disappeared in a blink of an eye.
The courtyard was pitch-dark and the whistling wind made the old locust tree keep swaying and rustling, making the atmosphere so quiet and terrifying.
The barking and mewing of wild dogs and cats stopped without being realized. It seemed that they sensed the dangers hidden in the darkness and fled with their tails between their legs.
When the three of them entered the courtyard, they went forward in a shape of a triangle. They had rich practical experiences and carried out many assassination missions. But the time they entered the dark courtyard, a dreadful feeling welled up from their hearts.
It seemed that someone was watching them in the darkness.
“There’s something wrong. I can search an area with a radius of about 16 meters with my soul power. I’m sure that there is no one in that room.”
The black widow reported suddenly in an extremely low voice, but the two people next to her heard it clearly. “In other words, till now I still don’t know their position.” Her expression became really solemn. Assassination meant attacking and killing by surprise. But now, she even had no clue of where her target was which made things much more complicated and dangerous.
“Could it be something wrong with the intelligence?” Du Shiao asked with his eyes looking sharp and cold.
“Not possible. The source of the intelligence is reliable and our target has been here for ten days and never gone out.” The old man looked sulky and his eyes revealed his astonishment and doubts. He then continued, “In my view, the target may have detected our plan and dodged our probing ahead of time.”
“What?” Du Shiao was shocked. And meanwhile the black widow stopped suddenly without giving any cues.
A whooshing sound was suddenly heard in the wind.
“Watch out!”
The old man’s expression changed suddenly. He quickly deployed all the strength he had, and, with a wave and grasp of his hand, placed a bronze shield in front of him.
The other two did not react any less slowly, and took out their weapons to defend themselves.
Boom!
There came a clashing sound like that of thunders, so loud that their eardrums were about to burst. The bronze shield in the hands of the old man suddenly broken into pieces and splashed all around, like it was made of paper. And the old man was also knocked off violently.
At this time, the tact of this old man came into play. He got up in a blink of an eye and slid from one side like a terrified bat.
The black widow and Du Shiao also realized that the situation was against them. One threw out her long whip to coil around the branches of that old locust tree and bounced out like a shooting star. And the other one directly rolled and flew out like a bird.
Bang!
A bone spear was inserted deeply into the position where they were, leaving a big hole behind on the ground.
The three of them were astonished and panic-stricken. Could this kind of power belong to a young man at the fifth level of Martial Realm?
It was a trap!
They were trapped!
They simultaneously thought that judging from this strike which made them so terrifying, the power of the person fighting with them was dreadful.
They must withdraw!
The three had been teamed up for years, and had a tacit understanding of each other. They gave up their actions without hesitation and tried to rush out.
For them, the dark courtyard and the fierce wind was now so horrible, and a chilling cold feeling welled up uncontrollably from their hearts.
So many dangers hid in the darkness and it was a well-prepared ambush.
Bang!
There came a sudden scream. As if being hit by a cannonball, the old man was knocked up to the air, hitting so hard on the wall that it collapsed. He died immediately.
“Run! Quickly!”
Du Shiao completely panicked, but at this very moment a navy-blue blade blocked his way, which was so dazzling in the darkness.
“It is surely a trap! The target is not alone!”
Du Shiao gave a shout and brandished forward violently with a long bore spine.
Bang, bang, bang!
The clashing sounds kept coming and sparks due to crashing weapons splashed around in the dark courtyard.
Du Shiao was losing!
The black widow knew that Du Shiao was behind the eight ball without having to look back, but she couldn’t do much to help. With the old man dead and Du Shiao standing no chance to survive, her top priority now was to escape!
As long as she could flee from this dark and dreadful courtyard, the black widow had faith in herself that she could fight her way out and survive.
With a sway in the air, she got out of that courtyard and felt slightly relaxed in the heart.
This action was definitely the most dangerous one in recent years. Until now, they had not seen even the shadow of the people they fought with. Such a trap just gave her a chill.
“You are just gonna walk away while all your partners are staying?”
Suddenly a calm voice rose which sounded so clear and intangible in the darkness.
The black widow was hit by depression.