Everyone fell as silent as cicadas in the dead of winter.
Du Jue stood quietly to the side, watching coldly as his face flickered with a strange expression.
A Superior Supreme was killed so easily simply because Zhen Ci Bei wanted to. There were basically no grounds for face or past relations!
Bai Wu Xin's body had barely hit the ground when a chorus of gasps rose out.
Zhen Ci Bei and Du Jue turned and looked over. A large hole had appeared on the cliff to their left. It was completely black and squarish, the size of a room. It was not clear how deep it went.
"There's something off, as expected!" Zhen Ci Bei stroked his long beard as a gleam flashed through his eyes, "Let's go, we'll go and take a look!"
***
Underground, Chu Qi Hun looked at Jun Mo Xie as if he'd seen a ghost.
"You won!" The Supreme Assassin Chu said with a sigh. "I'm inferior to you! You're the real King of Assassins! Fully deserved! The name Supreme Assassin will no longer belong to me!"
Chu Qi Hun's voice was mixed with disappointment, shame, admiration, and respect.
Chu Qi Hun had clearly seen everything that had happened, and he understood that he had lost completely. And he'd lost convincingly! On the surface, he had killed two Supreme Masters of the Supreme Golden City and a Superior Supreme from the Illusory Blood Sea. Jun Mo Xie had also killed three and injured one by way of sneak attack; as for Ma Jiang Ming's death at the end, that was not counted into the score. On the surface, Jun Mo Xie had only gained a small edge over Chu Qi Hun, and the difference between them was very minor.
But Chu Qi Hun knew in his heart that he had lost utterly and completely right from the start!
Because the set-up of this entire scenario had been fully designed by Jun Mo Xie! All the chances to perform hits on their targets had only appeared because of Jun Mo Xie's manipulations. Otherwise, such a result would have been nigh impossible!
Chu Qi Hun was good at accessing his opportunities, and grasping them; no matter how small the opportunity was, he would grasp them instinctively, using his elusive techniques to deal a deadly strike! For an assassin, this was seemingly sufficient!
He had always been proud of his talent at grasping even the tiniest opportunity and timing, and he thought that this was all he needed!
But today, he was given a lesson by the youth before him; for an assassin—the best assassin—not only does one need to have a perfect eye for opportunities, one must be able to create an opportunity when there is none!
If Chu Qi Hun was by himself, he would find it hard himself to even escape safely after he sneak attacked one of the eight experts because he would be immediately surrounded by the other seven and tied down!
But Jun Mo Xie was actually able to create a scenario where they had the opportunity to kill all eight of the experts, wiping them out! This kind of methods was bordering on miraculous!
The difference between their methods was completely impossible to describe with just words!
Making use of opportunities was a reactive action, but creating one's own opportunity was a proactive action!
Only by creating one's own opportunities could they grasp it best!
On the other hand, waiting silently for one's opponents to make a mistake was just akin to waiting every day under a tree, in hopes that a hare would kill itself by crashing into the tree trunk!
Chu Qi Hun was sure that even if Ma Jiang Ming and the Ruan brothers did not have any personal conflicts between them, Jun Mo Xie would still be capable of using other methods to divert their attention. Or he would make use of any points of disagreement among their group to draw them into fighting each other!
He was fully capable of that!
But as for himself, he had never thought of things in this way before. Not even once!
Not only had he never tried to orchestrate a suitable scenario to act in, this thought had never even crossed his mind before!
This was the gap between them!
An extremely difficult gap to close!
"Thank you." Jun Mo Xie smiled, not bothering with hypocritical pleasantry.
Because he could clearly feel that Chu Qi Hun was indeed extremely lacking in this aspect. A King of Assassins, a Supreme Assassin, was not something one could assume just by being good at killing people.
There was similarly a vast field of study for this profession.
If there was an open opportunity, then the assassin needed to figure out a way to draw out the largest potential in that opportunity. Even if there were no opportunities to exploit, the assassin must be capable of conjuring the best scenario to take action in! This was what a complete assassin needed to be!
These kind of ideals similarly applied to any other professions. From the three religions and nine schools of thought, to court officials and even street hawkers, wasn't this the same!
Opportunities were something that everybody would encounter every so often.
But where there were no opportunities to be found, an opportunity that one crafted with their own hands would sometimes be even more suitable to oneself!
Thus, when a person found himself or herself at a dead end in life, the correct action was to carve out a path with his or her own efforts.
The more one felt trapped in their life, and the more their "roads" were sealed, and the greater the chance and motivation to forge a blazing path out!
"When I escape from here alive, I will release this news to the world! The Supreme Assassin is no longer Chu Qi Hun!" Chu Qi Hun's voice was low and solemn, but it was also filled with pain. "Since my skills were inferior, being referred to as the Supreme Assassin still would be an insult to me!"
"I don't need the acknowledgement of the common people, so there's no need for you to do that! What does it matter if the world acknowledges me or not?" Jun Mo Xie raised his head and smiled lightly. Then, he continued smugly. "I only need your acknowledgement, and that's enough for me!"
As Jun Mo Xie said this, he felt his heart lighten considerably. He thought consolingly in his heart. This Evil Monarch did not lose our face! His heart actually felt a little sourness as he thought that.
"What a good 'what does it matter if the world acknowledges me!' This sentence truly hit to my heart!" Chu Qi Hun froze momentarily and began to laugh aloud. Now that this matter was settled, he looked at the party of three properly and asked in a serious tone. "I haven't properly enquired until now; what are the three esteemed masters' names?"
The three of them looked at each other with shock when they heard those words. They'd assumed that Chu Qi Hun was aware of their identity long ago, but who would have thought that this fellow actually did not know them at all.
This could only be blamed on Chu Qi Hun's weird nature. This fellow had never properly interacted with anyone his entire life, and did not know to ask others for their names. Before this, the only names he'd committed to his mind were the names of his assassination targets.
Chu Qi Hun always thought that nobody under the heavens was worthy of him remembering their names. There naturally weren't anybody who had enough qualifications to be his friend! Nobody was qualified!
To this former Supreme Assassin, this was the first time he'd opened his mouth to ask for someone's name!
This was a typical example of an old virgin woman getting onto the marriage sedan chair for the first time.
"My name is Jun Mo Xie, this is my mother, Dongfang Wen Xin. This is my wife, surname Mei. I won't be mentioning her full name." Jun Mo Xie introduced with a smile. At the same time, he took the opportunity to take some advantage again.
"You are Jun Mo Xie! And you're from the Dongfang Family?!" Chu Qi Hun gasped aloud in shock as he continued asking. "Are you really the wife of the great general Jun Wu Hui? Lady Wen Xin of the Dongfang Family?"
"This woman is indeed the person you speak of." Dongfang Wen Xin's eyes turned slightly red and she forcefully steadied her emotions. "This woman's ignoble life has been a disgrace to her husband's illustrious name, and I have incurred Senior Chu's ridicule." Suddenly hearing her husband's name from the mouth of others caused her to feel a warm familiarity in her heart. In that moment, Dongfang Wen Xin suddenly felt a sourness in her heart, and she could barely compose herself.
"What are those words, Madam," Chu Qi Hun's face turned serious. "Although Great General Jun is considered a junior by age, he was a heroic and courageous man, both chivalrous and unyielding. This Chu is a cold-blooded killer, and has never admired anymore; however, Jun Wu Hui was the only exception! And the undying love that Madam holds for your husband is enough to shock even the heavens; for the sake of your husband, you would rather sleep for an eternity as a testament to your love! That is enough to cause all people to stand in admiration! It's also enough to cause those wealthy lords who war for greed to feel incomparably ashamed of themselves! A heroic couple like you complements and brings out the best in each other, what disgrace is there to speak of?"
Chu Qi Hun shook his head and sighed longly, "Back then, I had the fortune to meet the Great General Jun once, but it was because someone had offered a price of 30 million silver for me to assassinate him. I investigated him thoroughly, but the more I found out about him, the more admiration I had for this man. Ultimately, I did not take the hit, and gave up on the transaction. That was also the first time that I turned away from a contract hit in my life."
He laughed bitterly and continued, "I, Chu Qi Hun, have always been a cold blooded killer. It didn't matter if one was a loyal minister or a grieving wife; as long as someone was able to afford the silver, I have never once been soft-hearted. But that time, I was completely filled with respect and admiration for Jun Wu Hui. I once infiltrated the army camp and watched him for three days before deciding to just leave."
"This woman thanks Senior Chu on behalf of her late husband for your mercy!" Dongfang Wen Xin stood up and clasped her hands respectfully.
"May I know who the person who commissioned you to assassinate my father? Can Senior tell me his name?" Jun Mo Xie furrowed his brows and said. He cared more about this matter. For some reason, every lead he'd obtained in this case had instead led him into an even more complicated web of mysteries.
"The person who commissioned me back then was the Imperial Teacher of Yu Tang Kingdom, Fei Meng Chen!" Chu Qi Hun hesitated for a moment and said. "I did not accept his contract, and so he's not considered my client. It's not really a big deal to reveal his name."
Although he'd said it like that, Jun Mo Xie understood very clearly that for an assassin to reveal any details of an ex-client was the biggest taboo in the industry! Chu Qi Hun might have claimed that this person was not a true client, but he nevertheless owed Chu Qi Hun a great debt of personal favor at this moment!
"Chu Qi Hun, I was thinking about your movement technique; it seems somewhat strange…" Mei Xue Yan, who was sitting quietly at the side, suddenly said as she looked at Chu Qi Hun suspiciously. A faint killing intent surged from her body. "Do you know of the War for Seizing the Heavens?"
"Venerable Mei has great eyesight." How could Chu Qi Hun still not know who this beauty before him was? Back then, when she fought alone against 30 plus experts, Chu Qi Hun was hiding nearby watching! Toward her, he naturally did not dare to be slow in his reply. "This one's late master had the honor of battling atop the Heavenly Pillar back then. In the end, he fell from the peaks while bearing heavy injuries, but was lucky enough to survive. However, half of his cultivation had been lost, and parts of his body were crippled. After spending a lot of effort to climb back up and recuperating for a long time, he took me in as a disciple after a lucky encounter."
Chu Qi Hun's face carried a slight painful smile as he lowered his head and continued. "Although my late master's cultivation was no longer able to advance, he was a master of the life arts and his lifespan was not a worry. Although he was unable to practice Xuan cultivation any more, he developed an interest in the arts of the strange races."
Chu Qi Hun sighed deeply and continued. "My late master once said that the strange races' greatest threat toward us was their elusive movement techniques. They could hide themselves at will, and it was difficult to differentiate with the naked eye; countless powerful experts with cultivations superior to them had fallen under their unpredictable stealth techniques. It was the same for my late master as well! In the last few hundred years of his life, he had been studying their unique movement techniques…"
"Your teacher was obviously a wise man; did he perhaps manage to find out a way to counter them?" Mei Xue Yan's eyes lit up as she asked anxiously.
TL/N: So many precious life lessons in this chapter!