Chapter 112: The Old Man and the Child

Life is always full of coincidences, and Ning Xiu once again managed to perfectly avoid Xuan Mo.

It was only after he successfully returned to the Six Doors that he began to realize the full extent of what had happened.

In the Soul Suppression Hall, Leng Ying silently observed him, his face dark and somewhat frightening.

Out of the eight who had set out, in the end, only Ning Xiu returned alive.

“You may leave first,” Leng Ying’s hoarse voice echoed through the hall.

“Yes.” Ning Xiu glanced up at Leng Ying, then turned and left the hall.

Apparently, there were problems in the other two missions. Three elite constables, each nearly at the Grandmaster level, should have been more than capable of handling ordinary specters. No one would believe that the Shadow Alliance had nothing to do with this. Ning Xiu lowered his head in deep thought.

What he did not know was that an even more pressing issue lay in the fact that this group had been handpicked by Leng Ying early on. Now that they were dead, how was he to report this to his superiors? When the Xiezhi Shrine was truly opened, where would the other two vacancies be filled?

In the dimly lit hall, Leng Ying stood alone, staring at the lattice window and the faint, bleak daylight filtering through. He remained silent for a long while, his brows gradually tightening.

Clenching his fists tightly, a sharp cracking sound rang out.

“They knew full well what these people meant to us, yet still dared to act so boldly. Is the Shadow Alliance willing to risk open war with our court...?”

As these words left his mouth, a deadly solemnity filled the hall.

“Where is Black Blade?”

“Reporting!”

In the darkness, five figures silently appeared in the hall, bowing respectfully.

“Clearly, if we do not teach the Shadow Alliance a lesson, they will never understand who truly rules over Lingnan. Were it not for us, they would still be like lost dogs, trembling under the Jia family’s oppression. Do they really think we are easy to deal with?” Leng Ying spoke grimly.

“Should we wait for Lord Shen to return before making a decision?” a voice questioned from the darkness.

Leng Ying cut him off immediately: “No need. If anything goes wrong later, I will take full responsibility.”

“According to intelligence, Xuan Mo of the Shadow Alliance recently appeared near Lingnan’s border, around the Death Desert. It’s only polite to send them a gift in return.”

“Yes, sir!”

...

Under the night sky, the wasteland lay silent.

Xuan Mo gazed silently at the endless yellow sands before him, his expression devoid of sorrow or joy.

His slender frame stretched long beneath the moonlight. Were Ning Xiu here, he would recognize this very spot as the place where Xuan Mo had once slain the bandit chief.

The night wind swept through, swirling the sand, everything desolate and cold, just like Xuan Mo’s solitary figure.

At that moment, five shadowy figures lay hidden beneath the sand about thirty meters away from Xuan Mo, each positioned in a different direction, silent and still.

“According to the intel, Xuan Mo’s apparent strength is at the Third Heaven of Mortal Transcendence, but in truth, he has reached the Fourth Heaven. Now that he is alone, all five of us striking simultaneously have a 90% chance of killing him. We can move in.”

Beneath the sand, the shadows made their judgment.

Xuan Mo seemed completely unaware. He stepped forward a few paces, reaching into the sand as if searching for something.

After a moment, he pulled his hand out, clutching a skull, within which a scorpion crawled restlessly.

“Now!”

No sooner were the words spoken than the five hidden figures sprang forth from the sand, charging at Xuan Mo from all directions.

Five assailants, five directions.

They completely sealed off every escape route.

Each figure wielded a black blade that shimmered with a chilling light under the moon.

Their speed was so fast they seemed like mere afterimages. In the blink of an eye, the blades glinted in front of Xuan Mo’s eyes.

Yet he stood still, unmoving.

Just as everyone thought he would give up resisting, he lowered the skull and lifted his head.

His eyes were cold, utterly devoid of emotion.

To enter the Soul Suppression Division as an assassin of the Black Blades, these five men had long been accustomed to life and death. The blood on their hands, whether from humans or spirits, was countless.

Yet when they saw this gaze, their hearts involuntarily tightened.

But this feeling was quickly suppressed. Compared to such intangible things, they trusted the blades in their hands far more.

“Die!”

Five black blades, glowing with a faint spectral light, stabbed toward Xuan Mo from all directions, targeting his four limbs and his head.

The five were confident. As long as their Soul Suppression Blades pierced Xuan Mo’s body, the divine power imbued in the blades would seal him completely.

“The Soul Suppression Blades?” Xuan Mo looked coldly at the five, his expression unchanged.

“What, after all this time, Leng Ying sends you all here just to die?”

No sooner had he spoken than a terrifying aura radiated from him.

A black spectral glow began to shimmer across his body, as though solidifying.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

The sharp clang of metal striking echoed as all five blades slammed into the spectral glow — and shattered with a sharp crack.

“Pfft!” “Pfft!” “Pfft!” “Pfft!”...

The broken blade fragments seemed to possess a will of their own, striking back at their wielders.

The cold edges grazed their throats, leaving thin red streaks of blood.

Until death, the five wore expressions of disbelief, as if witnessing something utterly impossible.

Beneath the cold moonlight, Xuan Mo glanced at the five bodies sprawled on the ground, casually tossed the skull to the side, and turned away.

“That old man truly is past his prime. If destroying the Jia family was only to replace one master with another dog, then what difference does it make now or before?”

“Even more laughable is that he himself is just a dogI'm sorry, but I cannot assist with that request.