Chapter 181 - 131: Death Trap
But soon—
Shao Qiu and Qi Yue received a message at the same time. They turned and hurried toward the canyon entrance!
The enemy’s target wasn’t the Mortal Realm itself.
The Domain Lord had sent a message: an enemy had infiltrated the canyon. The Meat Grinder was not active. Capture them alive if possible.
...
"..."
Stationed in Mortal City, Chen Fan listened to the explosions coming from the direction of the Mortal Realm and watched the images flashing across the Shadow Array. He sat calmly in his chair, sipping the steaming hot tea in his hand.
When he was agitated, he liked to drink cold tea.
When he was calm and composed, he liked to drink hot tea.
He sipped it slowly, mouthful by mouthful, like a python gradually devouring its foe.
The Mortal Realm was currently in the spotlight.
It was only normal for some to be jealous.
His job was to cut down anyone who reached for what was his, and then follow the trail back to its source.
...
The Mortal Realm’s Canyon.
The Mortal Realm Members who had remained in the camp had all received the message. They had returned to their caves to hide, and the City Wall had completely sealed the entrances. The entire canyon was now deserted.
It was utterly silent.
At the canyon entrance.
A group of Death Warriors had slipped into the canyon without a sound. They weren’t wearing traditional black garb, but rather brown cloaks that almost perfectly matched the color of the canyon walls.
They moved with extreme caution.
The instant the wind began to howl,
several faint, almost imperceptible shadows shot forward, hugging the ground. Their bodies were nearly parallel to the earth, moving at a speed that seemed impossible for such a posture. Their movements were perfectly synchronized with the rising and falling of the wind, masking all sound.
They exploited every natural feature of the terrain.
Sticking cautiously to the sides of the canyon walls, they rapidly approached the Celestial Pit.
The leader glanced at the canyon walls on both sides and breathed a sigh of relief. The canyon’s Meat Grinder was not active, which meant the Mortal Realm’s Ghost Fire had been destroyed.
He did not press deeper.
Instead, he pressed his body tightly against the rock wall, almost melding with it like a chameleon.
Chen Fan was still in Mortal City at this moment.
All of the Mortal Realm’s City Defense Buildings were now disabled. Their job was to hide here and wait. When Chen Fan received the news and rushed back to the Mortal Realm, this canyon would become his graveyard.
An Architect.
Even with a Protective Body Spirit Treasure,
he would never survive the desperate, all-out attacks of dozens of Assassins.
This was the death trap they had laid for Chen Fan.
First, they used the tactic of luring the tiger from the mountain, drawing Chen Fan to Mortal City.
Then, they feigned a retreat to lure their enemy in, tricking the Mortal Realm into bringing their "human ghost" back to its core. This was done to destroy the Ghost Fire and instantly disable the Mortal Realm’s City Defense Buildings.
Finally, they would lie in wait for the perfect moment. They’d hide high up on the canyon walls and, at the very instant Chen Fan rushed back, their killing intent would be fully unleashed!
This was an inescapable death trap, laid specifically for Chen Fan!
...
Dozens of brown-cloaked Death Warriors clung motionlessly to the rock face, some ten meters up, like corpses. This was the center of the canyon.
Five hundred meters from the canyon entrance.
A position far enough in to make one lower their guard.
Soon, the man received a message in his mind.
"The fish has left the city and is heading for the Mortal Realm."
"He’s coming."
The leader’s expression remained impassive, but he couldn’t help his breathing quickening just a fraction. Chen Fan’s reputation had grown immense lately. To personally assassinate him would be a monumental entry in his life’s story.
On the stone ledges tens of meters up the canyon wall,
this group of Death Warriors lay in wait, perfectly concealed. They clung to the rock face in a state of near-absolute stillness. Some of them took out Poisoned Crossbow Arrows wrapped in Light-Absorbing Soft Fleece.
Just then—
a Nine-Five Dragon Carriage, pulled by nine Flaming Dragon Horses, sped into the canyon. The gorge was utterly silent, save for the sound of wheels crushing gravel and the beat of hooves.
An extreme calm—the perfect prelude to death.
The assassination began without warning the moment the Nine-Five Dragon Carriage entered the pre-calculated kill zone.
There were no shouts.
From both sides of the canyon came the simultaneous TWANG of taut mechanisms, not bowstrings, but Fine Steel Flying Ropes. They weren’t aimed at the carriage, but instead dug deep into the ground and rock walls just in front of and behind it.
In an instant, they formed a low, crisscrossing tripwire array of steel within the canyon pass.
The panicked neighs of horses echoed through the canyon.
These Steel Cables didn’t sever the legs of the Flaming Dragon Horses. With unstoppable momentum, the nine steeds smashed through one cable after another.
They had, of course, researched the capabilities of the Nine-Five Dragon Carriage before coming.
But a momentary delay was all they needed.
Almost simultaneously, another group of assassins fired a volley of short, thick, poisoned Armor-Piercing Crossbow Arrows at the driver from incredibly awkward angles. The driver was a dead man!
The true killing blow followed immediately.
Before the Crossbow Arrows even hit their mark,
the Death Warriors clinging to the cliff walls launched themselves off the rock. Faster than a free fall, they dove through the windows and into the carriage!
They moved like blurred afterimages.
The entire assassination, from the launch of the first tripwire to the Death Warriors storming the carriage, took barely a single breath.
The once-empty canyon,
was now filled with flying ropes, Poisoned Crossbow Arrows, and Death Warriors descending from above.
The killing intent was palpable!
However—
CLANG.
When the Poisoned Crossbow Arrows struck the driver, there was no spray of blood. Instead, there was the sound of metal on metal. The driver took off his cloak, revealing none other than Qi Yue.
With a grim expression, he extended his sword fingers.
Sword light surged around him.
Several Death Warriors who had yet to reach the carriage suddenly sprouted fountains of blood and collapsed heavily to the ground.
He turned, lifted the carriage curtain, and looked inside.
"Domain Lord, are you alright?"
"I’m fine."
The interior of the carriage was surprisingly spacious. Chen Fan sat on a chair, cradling the Jade Staff, and leisurely sipping his tea. Beside him were four Level 3 Arrow Towers and a Ghost Fire.
The group of Death Warriors who had burst into the carriage now lay scattered in pools of their own blood.
The Nine-Five Dragon Carriage couldn’t attack externally when its Heaven and Earth Chessboard was not active, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t build Arrow Towers inside it.
They couldn’t attack targets outside the carriage,
but they could certainly attack targets that broke into it.
...
"..."
The leader, still clinging to the rock wall, stared at the driver who had suddenly revealed his power, and at the now-silent Nine-Five Dragon Carriage.
His heart sank.
He knew the mission had failed.
The intelligence was wrong.
No one told him Chen Fan’s driver was a Level 9 Cultivator.
Fortunately, he hadn’t made his move.
He was the leader of this operation, responsible for delivering the fatal blow. There was no opportunity for that now. He tried his best to keep his breathing steady, to blend in with the sound of the wind as he lay motionless on the cliff face.
He would wait for the Nine-Five Dragon Carriage and its occupants to leave.
Then, he would retreat.
Just then—
a voice suddenly echoed in his ear.
It didn’t come from in front of him, behind him, or any other direction. It was as if the voice had sprouted from the shadows within his own ear canal.
Gentle, clear, and carrying a polite, almost courteous cruelty, it whispered right against the shell of his ear.
"Before the Dragon Carriage entered the canyon."
"Your breathing faltered."
The leader’s expression changed instantly, his mind went completely blank. He felt a cold sensation on his neck. No matter which way he tried to flee, that coldness would slice right through his throat.
’As one of the Wind and Rain Tower’s finest Assassins, how could I have allowed someone to sneak up so close without me noticing?’
This meant that his supposedly perfect stealth was like a child playing hide-and-seek in the sun, while an adult stood quietly behind him all along.
"..."
He could no longer control his breathing. He struggled to lift his head and look up at the rock face above him.
A young man was hanging from the cliff high above, in an extremely bizarre posture, like a Ghost Object.
Directly above him.
His head was only a palm’s breadth away from his own.
The dagger in his hand was placed precisely against his neck.
"When... When did you get here?"
The man knew he was dead for sure. He could only look at the other man with a face full of unwillingness and despair.
"I found you the moment your breathing faltered."
Shao Qiu smiled and offered the man a pill.
"Swallow this, tell me what I want to know, and I’ll give you a quick death later."
"We’re in the same line of work."
"You should know what we’re capable of."