Chapter 1246: Surprise Attack
BOOOOMMMM!
A great explosion reverberated across the land, and it could even be seen from the temple.
The guards at the temple, who were already on high alert, saw the shockwave rapidly approaching the temple with an ear-piercing booming sound.
A powerful gust of wind swept through the temple complex, damaging several structures and throwing many people off their feet, causing numerous injuries.
Although it was a little late, the temple’s defensive formation finally activated after detecting what it believed to be an attack. A transparent white dome instantly covered the entire temple complex.
The sound of the explosion could also be heard in the city, and the shockwave reached the city walls. The guards thought they were under attack, which caused a brief panic among them.
Breuze, who had already been flying toward the temple, stopped in midair and stared at the massive explosion in the distance.
The explosion created a gigantic mushroom cloud of flames that stretched into the sky, and he could sense various laws lingering within it.
He could not help but have a bad feeling about this.
’What happened? Did that explosion come from the place said to be the hideout? I can’t sense Crelise and her group’s presence either,’ he thought.
He and several of his subordinates immediately flew toward the center of the explosion.
The moment he arrived, he could see just how terrifying the explosion truly was.
The explosion itself had obliterated everything within a hundred-kilometer radius, but the most terrifying thing was not the destructive power of the explosion.
It was the remnants of the various laws still lingering in the air.
Besides sensing the peculiar death energy, which was a sign that many people had just died here, Breuze could also sense powerful death laws and death energy that should not have appeared in the explosion.
The death laws he sensed were shaped unnaturally. They felt artificial, the result of someone’s comprehension when unleashing a technique.
It was as if the explosion itself contained death laws, mixed together with other laws such as space laws and fire laws.
His eyes trembled as he sensed this.
His mind arrived at a conclusion.
’Someone comprehended death laws, and they used them in this explosion.’
He gritted his teeth.
With the chaotic space fluctuations and the powerful death laws mixed within the explosion, he feared that Crelise and her group were most likely already gone.
The death energy he sensed was strong, and combined with the terrifying explosion, he doubted that Crelise or anyone in this area could have survived if they had been caught off guard.
Another thing he sensed from the explosion was the strong remnant energy left behind by the followers of God Tarius.
There was no mistake.
It was clearly the energy of God Tarius’ followers, and it even resembled the energy lingering within the wounds of all the assassins’ victims.
Fury rose within his heart.
However, before he could reveal more of his anger, his danger sense suddenly tingled.
His senses instantly detected something appearing right behind him, and his mind worked in that split second to evade whatever was there.
Breuze tilted his head and rapidly retreated. At that very moment, a dagger swept past where his neck had been. Had he been even slightly slower, he would have been decapitated.
He gritted his teeth as he turned to look behind him.
He was astonished to see a black-robed figure wearing a mask whose features could not be identified even with his spiritual sense.
His subordinates also looked shocked, as though they had never expected someone to suddenly appear behind their lord.
Breuze’s heart shook at how stealthy this figure was.
He had not sensed anything until the moment this person appeared right behind him.
He, a god, had actually been ambushed in such a manner in the Second Heaven.
He felt angry and humiliated, but he did not instantly lash out and counterattack. After experiencing the figure’s stealth ability firsthand, he finally concluded that this man was truly dangerous, even to him.
Even without saying anything, he knew that this figure must be the assassin who had already killed many of his subordinates.
He could not sense the figure’s cultivation or presence with his spiritual sense, even though he could clearly see him standing right in front of him.
’What a terrifying concealment technique. Even I cannot sense anything from this person when he is right in front of me,’ he thought.
The masked figure did not follow up with another attack and instead merely stared at Breuze.
The others also refrained from attacking, wary of the assassin’s strength and mysterious abilities.
"You must be the assassin who has already killed many of my people. You have made a grave mistake by killing them and attempting to kill me."
Breuze’s aura erupted. Without saying anything further, he immediately took control of the space around the assassin.
He condensed the surrounding space and turned it into a spatial prison, ensuring that the figure would not be able to escape.
However, the masked figure did nothing, as though he did not care what Breuze intended to do.
He simply continued staring at Breuze, causing Breuze to feel that something was wrong with this assassin.
Seeing the assassin offer no resistance only made him more wary.
At that moment, he decided to kill him.
"I can still obtain information from your corpse."
The spatial prison suddenly ignited with blue flames.
The terrifying heat caused the space around the prison to crack and begin collapsing.
"My lord!"
From the distance, Icorus flew toward them with many members of his group following behind him.
Breuze did not look at Icorus and instead kept his focus on the burning spatial prison.
He then unleashed death energy into his palm, and a few seconds later, he extinguished the flames.
However, the moment the flames disappeared, he was stunned to discover that the masked figure had already vanished.
’He wasn’t burned to ashes, was he?’
Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine.
At that moment, he sensed someone appear right beside him.
His palm, already coated with death energy, instantly moved to attack the figure.
The moment he caught sight of the figure, he recognized that it was the assassin who had been trapped inside his spatial prison.
However, the figure disappeared once again.
At the same time, a wave of darkness surged in from the side, attempting to engulf the assassin.
The darkness came from Icorus, but he too was stunned when the masked figure vanished before the attack could reach him.
"Form groups of four and stand back to back! Do not give that assassin a chance to attack your blind spots!" Breuze shouted.
At once, all of his subordinates formed groups with four people in each formation.
Each person guarded the others’ blind spots, and every face was filled with tension.
They maintained that position for more than a minute, yet the assassin never appeared again.
Even so, none of them lowered their guard.
As long as Breuze did not order them to relax, they would continue maintaining their defensive formation.
Breuze’s spiritual sense continuously scanned the surrounding area, searching for even the slightest abnormality in space.
He had already concluded that this assassin might truly be someone from the Higher Heavens.
The way the assassin seemed capable of toying with even him was simply too unbelievable.
This assassin might even be a god like himself.
He glanced to both sides, behind him, below him, and toward the sky.
His body remained tense as he did not want to miss even the smallest detail.
Two minutes passed.
Then five minutes.
After six minutes passed without anything happening, Breuze began to think that the assassin had already escaped.
The thought caused him to grit his teeth in fury.
He looked toward all of his subordinates.
"That assassin must have already escaped! Search for that bastard nearby! Be careful of his spatial techniques. His space laws might be on par with mine or even surpass them! Do not stray too far from one another!" he shouted.
"Yes, my lord!" his subordinates replied before spreading out in groups and beginning their search.
Breuze then turned to look at the massive mushroom cloud, the aftermath of the explosion that continued to rise higher and higher into the sky.
He swept his hand through the air, and a powerful gust of wind scattered the smoke until it completely disappeared.
The moment the smoke cleared, what appeared before him was a crater with a diameter of a hundred kilometers.
His eyes coldly surveyed the destruction and the lingering death energy that filled the area.
Many high-level cultivators had died here, and Crelise was among them. He could sense the remnants of her energy lingering in one spot.
"Your Excellency!"
Suddenly, a man’s shout came from the distance, causing Breuze to turn toward the figure rapidly flying in his direction.
Judging from his attire, he was a member of the temple, and he appeared to be in a panic.
Breuze frowned as the man hurried toward him.
The moment the man arrived, Breuze immediately asked,
"What is it?"
"The temple... the temple is under attack, Your Excellency!" the man replied in panic.
Breuze’s eyes widened in shock before he instantly dashed toward the temple. Several of his subordinates also rushed back.
People were already flooding out of the temple complex in panic, as though they were trying to escape from something terrifying.
The moment Breuze arrived at the temple and checked the situation, he could sense several corpses belonging to temple members.
All of them were Immortal Saint and Immortal Overlord cultivators. They were high-ranking members of the temple.
Breuze then entered the dome building located at the center of the temple complex.
The moment he stepped inside, he froze, and his eyes instantly turned cold.
His aura burst forth with terrifying momentum, sending everything nearby flying away. He clenched his jaw so tightly that the sound of his teeth grinding could be heard throughout the hall.
What he saw made him unable to hold back his fury any longer.
"That fucking bastard! I will kill that assassin!" he roared.
Within his sight were not only the corpses of several temple members but also a massive statue that had lost its head.
The statue of his god had been decapitated.