Within the Blood River City, under the cover of the darkness, four silhouettes moved quietly through the night.

When the four silhouettes arrived outside the city, they did not stop and continued onwards. But as they continued to move, an encampment site lit with light soon came into view, just like a bright torch in the darkness.

“Young mistress, that is the encampment site of the army.” Said Avaleigh.

Nodding, Yvette reviewed the information that had been gathered during the past few days before pointing towards a direction.

“Based on the information, that location will allow us to have the clearest view of the camp.” Saying thus, Yvette took the lead and stealthily moved towards the location.

Soon, they reached the location of the information, a small hill a few hundred meters away from the encampment.

Arriving there, Yvette took out a tool from her spatial pouch put it near her eye.

The item was revealed to be a hand-held telescope. But unlike ordinary ones, the glasses of the telescope were covered in inscriptions. This telescope is an item which Yvette had long requested from the clan branch to help with reconnaissance, which they willingly handed away.

After some time, Yvette put away the telescope.

“There has not been many changes.” Said Yvette, “Our movement will prioritize stealth, forsake speed if you must, but we will retreat on the spot once we are discovered.”

Without waiting for a reply, Yvette leaped and moved towards the camp. Behind her, Daiyu and the two female guards followed closely.

Although Yvette had her vitality damaged after the sprout took root within her dantian, with the enhancement of her Yin-Yang Qi, she could be compared with early Qi Condensing stage cultivators.

Not only that, but the loss of her vitality had only greatly weakened her endurance and strength. Aside from that, she still retained and even improved, her other physical traits.

From each step she took, not a sound could be heard and not much strength was used. Ever since she had determined her future path, Yvette had long forgone the reliance on body strength and instead tried to gain more advantage of what she had.

Although Daiyu and the two female guards were surprised by her capabilities, none of them had the slightest idea of asking about her current cultivation.

Within the group of four, Daiyu was the slowest with her early Body Refining stage cultivation. Even then, her strong body forged by Yin Qi accompanied by her formidable Qi from the Violet Moon Cultivation Technique allowed her to be able to follow the group, albeit barely.

Meanwhile, the two female guards could only stare dazedly at the two young girls. Regarding Yvette, their young mistress, they could not pinpoint the level of her cultivation. Even then, they did not dare to think that she had already reached the Qi Condensing stage and only thought that she had reached the late Body Refining stage using external means and had exquisite footwork technique.

Meanwhile, Daiyu who could clearly be seen to have the early Body Refining stage cultivation was even more surprising with as she could catch up to the purely by her strength even when her body did not seem different in comparison to others her age.

This is because the body refining process of the Violet Moon technique relies on strengthening the body inside-out, making her outer appearance no different than others. But if anyone examined her body, they would find it filled with cold Yin Qi, making the insides of her body forever filled with coldness. Yet in exchange, it made her whole body as strong as a thousand-year-old ice but still filled with its usual flexibility.

When the group neared the camp, they reduced their speed and moved slowly within the shadows.

Following the information that had been gathered, they only moved once the patrols changed shifts, which is when their guard is the laxest, to slip past the guards.

Even when a chance to slip through appeared, if there was even the slightest uncertainty, Yvette would not hesitate to give up the chance and wait for another one to come.

In such a way, a few hours were spent for the group to finally arrive near the supposed tent of the army’s general.

Unlike the other locations within the camp, there was not a single guard stationed.

Though Yvette held her suspicions, she ignored it and examined her surroundings.

After doing so, she pointed towards three inconspicuous locations and handed the three a piece of the illusionary formation each.

“Once you have placed them down, you all must directly rush to the tent.” Instructed Yvette quietly, “Avaleigh will attack first and hold his attention, Avaley and Daiyu will find a chance to cut through his defenses, while I will assist your attack and retreat.”

Standing up, Yvette continued, “And remember, your lives takes precedence, retreat once anyone notices or when your life is in danger.”

Saying thus, Yvette walked towards another inconspicuous location. Without a word, the three also walked away to place their formation pieces.

Once Yvette reached her set location, she took out a piece of stone engraved with formations and placed it down before channeling her Qi into it in a certain pattern. Following that, the formation lit up and silently searched for the other three formation pieces.

Not long after, a barely noticeable ripple of energy came from the formation rock and three other locations. Following that, a formation wall was unnoticeably erected with the four locations as the edges. And then, without anyone outside noticing, the illusion formation was set up, causing not a single sound to be able to escape from the area and making the area much less noticeable by reducing its presence.

Seeing that the formation had been successfully set up, Yvette held no more worries and quickly rushed towards the supposed tent of the army’s general, Henric.

Meanwhile, Daiyu and the two guards had arrived near Henric’s tent and prepared to wait for their young mistress to arrive.

But before having time to prepare anything, a silhouette leaped out of the tent and struck down at them.

As the strongest one in the group, Avaleigh struck out first with her sword to repel the enemy and said to the other two, “Follow the young mistress’ strategy, strike when there is an opportunity.”

But as she was distracted, she felt the weight bearing down on her become heavier accompanied by a deep growl.

“Intruder… kill!”

Turning her attention back to the assailant, Avaleigh met eyes with a pair of crimson eyes filled with savagery, wielding an army saber against her sword. But she did not feel intimidated and instead calmly parried the saber before distancing herself from him.

But without giving her a chance to rest, Henric kept close to her and swung his saber at her heavily.

Following the usual fighting method of females within the Aasmany Clan, Avaleigh prioritized a soft fighting method where she would dodge or repel every strike using her sword while patiently seeking a chance to break his defenses.

Meanwhile, Henric’s fighting method was filled with savagery and wildness, as if he was a wild beast. The sight of this caused Avaleigh and the other two observers to crease their brow, as according to the information that had been gathered, Henric was a person filled with calmness, which is how he was able to rise to be the army general even with his commoner background.

Not only that, from the information they found, Henric was supposed to be in the middle Qi Condensing stage, but the power he showed was almost at the level of late Qi Condensing stage, making it even harder for Avaleigh who was still at the early Qi Condensing stage to handle him.

Each time Henric swung his saber, the wind screamed from the force of his strike. Not only that, but with the passing of time, his strike became faster and stronger, making it harder for Avaleigh to dodge and repel his attacks, causing a few cuts to appear over her skin, dying it red with blood.

Finally, Avaleigh was about to land a strike through an opening in Henric’s defenses. But at that moment, the speed of Henric’s saber suddenly increased and neared Avaleigh. With the speed of the swing, Avaley and Daiyu both knew that they would not be quick enough to stop the attack.

Yet Avaleigh who was under the threat of this strike did not hold the slightest worry and instead increased the speed of her attack, intending to land a heavier damage on Henric.

DING

Just as the strike was about to land on Avaleigh, a sound of ringing metals resounded.

Taking a clearer look, Avaleigh saw a black metallic piece striking against the saber. And followed by that, a graceful yet authoritative voice came from behind her.

“Daiyu, Avaley, aim at his back.” Followed by those words, two figures appeared behind Henric and struck down to his back with their weapon, causing his body to stagger forward.

But instead of the sound of flesh being pierced, the sound of ringing metal instead resounded.

Noticing this abnormality, the four of them creased their brows. Looking towards the place where the two strikes landed, Yvette noticed that under the two rips on his clothes was the metallic luster of an armor.

Seeing this, she told the three, “He is wearing an armor.” And waved the war fan in her hand, sending a group of black, glimmering daggers flying towards Henric and attacking him chaotically, drawing his attention.

Hearing her words, the three nodded without needing more instructions and charged forward in different directions. But this time, the three used different methods to attack.

Avaleigh who arrived first slashed with her sword. But unlike before where she passively dealt against Henric, she swung down her sword heavily with its blunt side, using it to hamper Henric’s movements.

Meanwhile, Avaley used every opportunity she could find to attack Henric with her saber through the gaps of his armor, resulting in small cuts all over Henric’s body that was not covered by his armor.

On the other hand, Daiyu who was the slowest took out her rapier and attacked each time she found an opening. Of course, with her lack of fighting experience, the amount of her attack is negligible in comparison to Avaley’s. And even then, few of them actually hurt Henric.

Even so, Daiyu kept on attacking, increasing her battle experience with every passing moment.

But Henric, the target of all those attacks, was not some mindless beast.

Soon enough, he realized the danger he was in and raised his saber, ignoring the attacks aimed towards him.

Then, under the dumbstruck gazes of the four, Henric stabbed his saber into his stomach, causing blood to spurt and flow out.

Then, without giving a chance for any of them to react, Henric’s upper clothes was suddenly torn away by a gust of energy from the inside, revealing a chest plate which covered his whole upper body while emitting a blood red light. But weirdly, the saber did not meet obstruction from the chest plate and instead seemed to smoothly cut through, or maybe even phase through the chest plate.

As Yvette kept on observing, a sense of disgust filled Yvette as she looked at the now blood red armor. Following this, her eyes turned determined.

“Attack him and keep watch over his armor, kill him if you must.” The moment the word ‘kill’ left her, Yvette’s voice hardened, forcing down all feelings she held as she waved her fan, aiming for Henric’s vital areas.

Without a shred of hesitation, the three struck towards Henric, also targeting his vital areas such as the heart and head.

Yet what they did not expect was that the moment their weapons were about to come in contact with him, he suddenly tilted his head upwards and made a beastly roar.

Although the roar did not cause the four to be intimidated, they felt the blood within their bodies suddenly going out of their control, forcing them to stop and focus on suppressing it. The effect was most apparent on Yvette who had the weakest physical body as her face turned unnaturally red while a trickle of blood flowed down the age of her pale lips.

But without giving them a chance to rest, Henric whose face had long become warped akin to a beast suddenly growled and rushed towards the nearest person with speed incomparable to before. Yet at the same time, he discarded his army saber, showing that although his prowess has increased, his last shred of intelligence had also disappeared.

Looking straight forward with a pair of calm eyes, Daiyu, who became the target of Henric, did not show a shred of fear and instead forcefully raised her rapier in an attempt to block the fist aimed right at her.

Although she managed to raise her rapier, she knew that the strength in her arms would not be able to block much of the blow. Even then, her determined face did not hold the slightest fear as it faced the incoming attack.

The moment the fist was just a meter away from her, afterimages suddenly flashed next to the arm before it suddenly froze.

Turning his head and growling towards the source, Henric’s beastly crimson eyes searched for the one who attacked him, only for him to suddenly feel something piercing him from the side, pushing him towards the direction he was looked at.

Although Henric failed to find his assailant, Daiyu who was observing from the side saw that it was her lady, Yvette. Although she felt gratified to be saved, seeing the pale-faced Yvette perspiring as she moved caused a sense of worry to appear in her heart.

In actuality, Yvette had recovered the control over her blood long ago.

A moment after Yvette lost control over her blood, the Yin-Yang Sprout within her dantian had suddenly swayed and glowed with a white-black light, taking control over her blood and calming it.

In the end, Yvette who faced the heaviest damage against the roar was also the first to recover from its effects.

Even then, Yvette did not have time to recover and was not in a good shape to fight. But when she noticed that Henric was about to make his move, Yvette did not hesitate to rush forward.

In the end, she managed to intercept him and used her barely consummate acupuncture technique to stop his attack.

Originally, with his muscles enhanced and her strength reduced from losing control over her blood, even piercing Henric’s muscle defenses would be a miracle. But using her Qi to supplement her body strength, she managed to gain enough strength to strike his acupoints while he was focused on attacking Daiyu.

Then, to make him no longer be able to attack the others, she used her fan daggers to force him away.

Once she managed to move him away to get rid of other unwanted possibilities, Yvette finally unrestrainedly rushed towards Henric.

Unlike before, Daiyu and her two guards can no longer help her attack Henric, leaving her to take up the responsibilities of defeating him on herself, until they are able to recover.

With her recent breakthrough, Yvette managed to improve her mental prowess. Taking advantage of this, she waved her fan.

If the daggers of the war fans worked just like the ammunition of a cannon, then the fan is the cannon itself. Using it as a catalyst, Yvette had an easier time controlling the groups of black daggers, putting less burden on her mind.

Followed by the movement of the fan, the group of flying daggers also flew in the same direction, acting like a guided school of fish as they rapidly approached Henric. Seeing this, Henric who had lost his rationality released a roar as he wildly rushed towards the daggers like a mindless beast.

Meanwhile, Yvette who had long moved to Henric’s blind spot took out a normal dagger she kept in her spatial pouch. Naturally, she held no expertise of holding a dagger and although her grip is correct, an expert would notice many holes in her stance.

But knowing that her acupuncture technique has not reached its consummate level and would hardly work on moving targets, she was forced to use a cruder method to attack.

But using the medical knowledge she had gained from reading countless medical books within the clan’s Pavilion of Knowledge, Yvette did not hesitate and charged forward.

Soon enough, she chose the most vulnerable part of Henric’s body she could find.

Finding her target, she lowered her stance as she moved and poured her Qi into the dagger in her hand, causing it to crack, yet be filled with sharpness.

Then, as Henric was about to collide with the wave of daggers, the dagger in Yvette’s hand turned into a blur and swept through Henric’s legs, cutting through the back of his knees.

Feeling the pain coming from his legs, Henric suddenly roared in pain, turned and swept one of his legs towards Yvette.

But by that time, Yvette had long leaped back and made a distance between them.

Ignoring the daggers flying towards him, Henric turned and stood there, snarling furiously towards Yvette. Yet the moment the wave of daggers collided with his armor, only the sound of metal colliding resounded, while the daggers which did not only managed to make small cuts on his skins.

Even then, the blood which leaked from those wounds flowed unnaturally into the blood red armor, nourishing it and causing the blood red light to become stronger, once again affecting the blood within Yvette and the others.

But this time, the Yin-Yang Sprout reacted instantly and suppressed the raging blood flow.

In the end, Yvette was forced to give up on her initial plan on slowly weakening Henric.

Once again, Yvette pulled out another dagger and held it before her chest. At the same time, Henric who had been standing there silently, glaring at her, suddenly let out a roar and charged towards her with each step bringing him forward by a large distance.

Similarly, Yvette also charged forward, as if intending to bring Henric down with her. But different from Henric’s large strides, Yvette’s steps were filled not large but kept the wastage of energy at a minimum level.

The sight of the two rushing towards each other gave off the feeling of futility, just like an egg thrown at a stone. But this time, the stone is rushing towards the egg while the egg seemed to move at a leisurely pace in comparison.

On the sideline, the two female guards, Avaleigh and Avaley watched this scene with an anxious face. And although Daiyu still kept a calm face, her eyes filled with worry betrayed her inner feelings. Even though the three wanted to move their bodies, the force of the blood inside their bodies made them incapable of doing large movements. And even if they did manage to move, they knew that with the speed and distance, it would be far too late by the time they reached them.

Suddenly, just as Yvette and Henric were about to collide with each other, a burst of coldness suddenly came from Yvette while her gold and red pupils took on a silver shade, turning unfocused.

But to Henric who had lost all his sense of reason, to the point of madness, his body was burning hot, fueling his rage and bloodlust.

Then, as the two were about to come into contact with each other, something which made Henric, Daiyu, Avaleigh, and Avaley to doubt their eyes came about.

The moment they were about to collide, the space around Yvette darkened, as if it was blinking. And in the next moment, she instantaneously disappeared from their view.

Just as Henric was about to stop his movement out of confusion, he felt a chill from behind his neck. Although Henric had long lost his sense of reason, his battle instincts had instead improved. in result of this, he placed more trust on his instincts and reflexively tried to lower his body.

But before he could, the space in which Yvette stood in before once again darkened momentarily before brightening once again. And in that exact moment, Yvette appeared from the void, turned her body and leaped towards Henric, stabbing her Qi filled dagger into the back of his neck.

By the time he realized it, Henric could only let out a muffled roar while shaking his body, attempting to shake off the source of his pains.

Moments after he did so, he felt the dagger coming out of his body. But before he could feel relieved, he felt another sharp pain coming from his neck, causing him to involuntarily let out another muffled roar.

Out of desperation, he pushed his body back, attempting to flatten the source of his pains on his back.

The moment she realized his intent, Yvette once again pulled out and stabbed Henric’s neck with her dagger before leaping away from his back.

Yet at that moment, Henric suddenly let out a deep muffled roar and swung his arm.

Meanwhile, a feeling of dread filled Yvette. In reaction to this, she barely turned her body and used her arms to raise a guard towards Henric. Although she also wanted to call onto her fan daggers, she knew that they would not be able to arrive on time to protect her.

Then, the moment Yvette managed to raise her arms to guard, Henric’s fist came straight before her arms. Although Henric only managed to gather a third of his full strength because of his fall, the power of the fist was enough to fill Yvette with a sense of dread.

The moment the fist hit her arms, Yvette was instantly blown off while a trail of blood could be seen appearing anywhere she flew over. Not only that, but the moment she hit the ground, her body bounced off the ground a few times, causing a cloud of dust to follow her, covering her in dust while blood continuously trickled down from the corner of her lips.

Meanwhile, Henric who had fallen backward once again let out a muffled roar as he struggled for his life while the back of his neck profusely bled after the dagger stuck there was pushed deeper from his fall. But moments later, his body stopped struggling while his beastly red pupils took in a brown shade which then slowly dilated, proving his passing.

In the end, Henric died moments after he fell while the blood red armor dimmed and broke into pieces soon after his passing. Yet the final gaze of Henric, the Blood River Army General, the commoner of the Blood River City, was filled with self-deprecation and happiness, not holding the beastly rage he had before. Unfortunately, no one would ever realize the last feelings he bore.

And such was Henric’s thoughts as he quietly passed away within the temporary camp of Blood River Army.