The guard ordered the numbers from small to big, then escorted the three of them up to the stone door at the cliff. They entered to find that there was nothing in there whatsoever but stone walls.
“This is balance training. In a moment, I’ll leave and shut the stone doors behind me. Then, I’ll press the secret switch to start the training. Three hours later, it will shut down,” answered a strong guard in a respectful tone of voice.
“Yes, I understand,” replied Liu Rushuang lifelessly.
The guard glanced at the three people who looked ready to train, then walked out.
After the stone doors shut, the floor suddenly withdrew from both sides. A stone column appeared in the center and Liu Rushuang jumped onto it, calm and composed.
Number Three and Number Eighteen copied Liu Rushuang and stood on top of the two other stone columns that revealed itself from the ground.
After the stone floor completely withdrew, they realised that there were just three pillars beneath them. They stood on one column each.
The tip of the stone column was just half a foot long, so a normal person wouldn’t be able to last long on top before falling off. However, as assassins, the three of them found this quite simple – or so they thought.
A second later, they changed their minds as countless sharp blades suddenly appeared beneath the columns, causing them to start swaying. Although they only swayed slightly, it was enough to make under-skilled martial artists fall and get ultimately pierced by blades.
“Ah!” Abruptly yelped Number Eighteen, who was only fourteen years old. He leant back and looked as though he was on the verge of falling.
Liu Rushuang quickly used the white satin fabric around her waist to roll Number Eighteen right back up. “Be careful. Next time you fall, I may not be able to save you,” she said coldly.
“Thank you milday!” Thanked Number Eighteen who was pale white from fear, as he stood firmly in front of Liu Rushuang.
Liu Rushuang smiled wickedly. Fortunately, she prepared herself as best she could before she arrived. Otherwise, there was no way she could have pulled him up from over two feet away.
Just like that, with Liu Rushuang’s help, the three of them passed this stage with several close calls.
On the second day, the guard led three of them to another stone room, where they trained in agility.
After the stone doors shut behind them, a number of blades shot sporadically from the walls and after every hour, the number of shooting blades increased and sped up.
An hour later, Number Eighteen accidentally got cut by a blade in three places and Number Three was hit in two places. Fortunately, they weren’t fatal blows.
Liu Rushuang emerged unscathed.
On the third day, the guard escorted the three of them to train their endurance.
After the doors shut, three iron chains appeared mid-air and countless sharp blades emerged from the ground.
The three of them grasped onto the thick iron chains with both hands, and stopped themselves from falling.
The three of them passed this stage.
Their fourth day focused on strength training. The three of them reached an incline, where giant boulders rolled down towards them. Here, they had to push the giant boulders upward.
No matter how hard Number Thirteen tried, he couldn’t budge the boulder at all. In fact, the giant boulder would always slightly fall with the incline.
Liu Rushuang couldn’t help but secretly curse clan master Ming Ye for taking things too far. Then, she reached her right arm out and conjured her inner breath to help Number Eighteen.
They passed the final stage.
Over ten days later, Beiming’s political marriage procession of hundreds of majestic-looking people entered the Capital through the southern main gates.
Ouyang Yaoyi’s hair was a mess, her eyes were lifeless, she looked significantly skinnier, and she limped with each step she took. In fact, passersby from Beiming took Ouyang Yaoyi for a crazy deranged woman.