The Heavenly Wandering Sword

Chapter 16

Li Jian examined her carefully and saw that she was of the Dao Seeking realm. Had their information been incorrect? Or was she perhaps just more powerful than the spirit realm guild leader? “Sister is so powerful, it’s very believable that you answer to the guild leader. I was in truth, hoping to meet him directly.” She tilted her head and shook her head, her long black hair in a tightly wound pony tail behind her head shimmering slightly. “The guild leader does not come out to meet customers, this is strictly done by myself. I hope senior will not be offended.”

Li Jian looked at this and thought to himself that his plan was not going as planned. Someone in the Dao seeking realm was powerful of course, but really mortal realms meant very little to him. He was thinking instead of how much more convoluted this had become. He had hoped the guild leader would come out and he would just kill him and then kill the rest of the tavern before leaving. This complicated things a bit. He sighed and smiled at the woman, picking up the cup of wine and sipped from it and then casually sent out a bit of sword force to paralyze her acupuncture points. The woman’s face tightened, her jaws clenching as she was frozen in place.

“You assassins, always have to make things so complicated, and so mysterious. No wonder society doesn’t accept you.” He could see the woman’s eyes becoming angrier and he frankly just did not care. He was now in a bad mood. “If your damn guild leader would just come out, you would have made my life easier. Now I can’t even finish this duck, I have to go straight to work.” He sighed to himself and called out for the host. The host appeared quickly; a bit confused as the guild’s Angel of Death was with him. She seemed to sit there wordlessly as he approached, Li Jian looking over to him with a bored expression. “I hope you can give me some good news. Where is the guild leader?” The host froze and looked over at the Ling Xin who could only dart at him with her eyes, and that’s when he realized what was going on.

“We’re under attack.” The host let out a yell and then out of the shadows, more than four dozen assassins appeared, all having been hidden. To be honest, Li Jian thought the tavern just had spiritual talisman all around the place, the comparatively low spiritual power of the assassins seemingly suited to be powerful talisman in his eyes. “Honoured host, I hope you will be cooperative. I still have a lot of things to do today so I would like to kill your guild leader and get it over with.” The host looked at him shocked, thinking perhaps that an idiot had stumbled in. With four dozen assassins all ready to slit his throat, he dared to be so impudent.

“You can ask for him in hell!” The host snarled as he launched an attack, daggers appearing in his hands as he dove towards Li Jian. “You will not be receiving a good review from me at the restauranteur’s town hall.” Li Jian said, flicking a finger and sending the host flying. He poured a cup of wine for the paralyzed Ling Xin in front of him. “Don’t be shy sister, have a drink with me. Perhaps you might make my day more cheerful?”

The host flew into a table, shattering it from the force of Li Jian’s flick. The assassins all launched themselves at him, each pulling out daggers or short swords. “People put on a black outfit and want to call themselves assassins.” He shook his head and looked at the enraged but paralyzed Ling Xin and toasted his cup towards her. “Please watch the lesson carefully. This is what assassination looks like.” Turning his head to look over at the almost fifty assassins flying towards him, he placed his hand on his sword handle and drew the blade only an inch out of his sheath. “Void Sword Art: Shadow Kill.” In half a breath, swords erupted from every shadow in the Inn, the assassins all frozen in place or pinned in place by hundreds of shadow swords. The paralyzed woman in front of him tried to gasp but of course, she could not. Her eyes however widened at the scene that she could see.

“Oh you can’t really see can you. I am being rude.” He sent a sharp sword intent through to pin her meridians, stopping any and all flow of spiritual force in her body before using a chop stick to hit her acupuncture points again, letting her move again. She could only stare at the scene in front of her, almost fifty assassins killed by a single move. She tried to escape but found that she could not, all of her spiritual energy completely pinned in place. “Who are you? What did you do to me?” Li Jian chewed on a piece of duck before suddenly dropping the piece of meat. “Did you just realize what you have done?” She asked him, starting to grin. He nodded furiously. “I think I just killed the cook.” She gaped at him, Li Jian swearing under his breath. He really wanted the cook to work for him.

“Now I am in a worse mood junior sister.” The host got up and stirred before looking up and froze. The entire inn was filled with bodies pinned in the air. “Oh pardon me, I am being rude.” Li Jian waved a finger and the shadow swords dissipated, the bodies of the various assassins falling to the ground. The host stuttered for a moment as he looked. “Go fetch your guild leader, honoured host. Other wise I might actually burn this village to the ground.” The host quickly ran off into the back, disappearing from view. Li Jian however kept a track of him, noting that the host was running downstairs. He cursed himself for not having done so earlier.

“The reason I kept you alive Ling Xin is because I can sense the slave mark on you.” Ling Xin stiffened at his mentioning of the slave mark and glared at him. “Another perverted man who sees opportunity?” Li Jian looked at her and frowned. “Sister does it seem like I need a slave mark if I was another perverted man?” She stared at him and tilted her head slightly, conceding the point. “As I was saying. I have been trying to understand something so please answer me truthfully. Don’t lie to me, I’ll cripple your cultivation and sell you if you do. I know you would hate that.”

She stiffened, this threat clearly something that did not seem like the best outcome to her. “You are obviously an accomplished assassin at the Dao Seeking realm but you work for someone in the Spiritual Realm? The slave mark explains a lot I think but I need a better explanation.” She stared at him for a moment longer before speaking. “The Angel of Death starts from the child bought from an orphanage, usually destined for a brothel. From a young age, the small child is trained and forced to cultivate their skills and subjected to countless cruelties. From a batch of a thousand child, one Angel of Death is trained. The Angel of Death in training spends her years serving the guild leader. In anyway he orders.” The last part seemed to be particularly disgusting to her. “Then when the Angel of Death is killed, the young girl replaces her. She is branded with a slave mark bound to the guild leader and becomes his eternal servant, until her imminent death.”

He whistled sharply and shook his head. “You assassins are a dark group of people aren’t you?” She just glared at him silently. He nodded at her and picked at a piece of duck. “So let me ask you, what would you do if I removed the slave mark?” She looked at him and smirked at him. “You might be powerful, but you cannot simply just remove a slave mark. It takes the spiritual force and cultivation of an Immortal cultivator. The previous Angel of Death was an Immortal realm cultivator, and her life force was the sacrifice to set this slave mark.” He just frowned at her and waved a hand. “Do you assassins always have to be so dark? Sacrifice this, slave mark that. It gets so repetitive. Want to place a bet?” She just glared at him. “If you can remove the slave mark, I will devote my life in service to you.” He just frowned at her again. “Why still so dark? If I remove the slave mark, you’ll just be a voluntary slave to me?”

She looked at him, this time the defiance gone out of her eyes as sadness took over. “With the slave mark, I am not a human being. I am only a weapon at the disposal of the guild, and whatever else at the hands of the guild leader. Whatever you have me do in service to you, would be infinitely better than being under this slave mark.”

He nodded and looked over, calling out for the host. “What’s taking you so long honoured host?” He could sense that the host was coming back up. “There he is guild leader, he’s the one that killed so many of our brothers.” Li Jian turned his head and stood a man with a mask of a black skull covering his face, the aura of a spiritual realm cultivator radiating from his being. “Who here is seeking out the Assassin King?”