The night was deep, with ink-black clouds completely obscuring the stars and moon. Muffled thunder rolled across the horizon, heralding an approaching storm. Wild winds whipped fallen leaves through the mountain forest, producing mournful wailing sounds. Within Qingxu Temple, lights had been extinguished in most areas.
Disciples were either cultivating in their cave dwellings or had already retired for the night. Only a few places like the pill refining chamber and artifact workshop still maintained steady illumination. Tang Xiaoqi had just emerged from the pill refining chamber. In recent days, he had attempted to refine a type of "Spirit-Nourishing Pill" that would help stabilize Aunt Su's soul, consuming considerable mental energy.
Though the pills had successfully formed, the success rate was not high, and the quality hadn't reached his expectations, leaving him slightly fatigued. Raindrops the size of beans began pattering down, instantly connecting into a curtain of rain that plunged the world into chaos. The fierce wind carried the rain, making it impossible to keep one's eyes open. Tang Xiaoqi raised a faint spiritual energy barrier to keep the rain at bay, walking unhurriedly along the familiar blue-stone path toward his cave dwelling.
On either side of the small path grew dense spiritual bamboo groves. The bamboo leaves shook violently in the wind and rain, producing rustling sounds that masked all other noises. The light was dim, with only scattered lights from distant halls creating hazy halos in the rain curtain. Everything seemed no different from countless rainy nights before.
However, just as Tang Xiaoqi reached the densest, dimmest stretch of the spiritual bamboo grove, the string that had been taut in his heart suddenly issued a piercing alarm! Not a spiritual energy fluctuation detected by spiritual sense, nor an anomaly seen with his eyes, but an instinctive premonition of mortal danger, honed through countless brushes with death! Almost in the same instant that the premonition arose— "Whoosh! Whoosh!
Whoosh!" Three sounds of breaking air, so faint they were nearly completely covered by the sounds of wind and rain, came from three completely different angles! Not physical arrows, but three "Shadow Needles" as fine as ox hairs, completely condensed from pure shadow energy! They ignored the physical rain and bamboo leaves, thrusting like venomous snakes striking at Tang Xiaoqi's hindbrain, back, and dantian—three vital points! The angles were treacherous, the speed horrifying, and the attached yin-cold energy was sufficient to instantly freeze the soul of a Golden Core cultivator!
This was only the beginning! Above Tang Xiaoqi's head, from within the dense bamboo leaf shadows, a ghostly black figure soundlessly materialized, holding two pitch-black, lightless short blades in each hand. The blade tips flickered with soul-annihilating eerie light as they crossed in a scissoring motion toward his neck, like a nocturnal bird of prey swooping down with an arc of death! At the same time, the void on his left and right sides twisted slightly as two more black figures emerged as if stepping directly out of shadows.
One wielded shadow chains, silently wrapping toward his feet to restrict his movement; the other formed hand seals, and a powerful "Soul-Suppression" fluctuation specifically targeting the spirit descended like an invisible net from above! Five top-tier assassins! Three directions! Coordinated attack from above and below!
Physical, energetic, and spiritual—a triple-layered killing strike! The coordination was seamless, the timing impeccable, precisely exploiting the moment when he had just emerged from the pill refining chamber with his guard slightly lowered, and was in the most complex environment with the dimmest light! This was no longer just an assassination—this was a meticulously planned, determined killing array! Facing this sudden siege from the Shadow Snake Pavilion's most elite assassins, any cultivator would likely have suffered severe injury or even death in the first instant!
But Tang Xiaoqi was no ordinary cultivator! In the instant that crisis premonition sounded, the spiritual power within him erupted like a dormant volcano! Not a hasty defense, but— Roaming Dragon Nine Transformations, First Transformation—Hidden Dragon Emerges from the Abyss! His figure left behind an afterimage that was pierced by the shadow needles and cut by the short blades, while his true body had already moved like a teleportation, narrowly escaping the initial central encirclement!
The speed was so extreme that even the rain didn't have time to fill the void his movement created! Three shadow needles missed their mark, sinking into the ground and leaving three deep, bottomless holes emitting yin-cold energy. The pair of short blades scissoring toward his neck only sliced through the residual afterimage. The shadow chains wrapped around empty air.
The soul-suppression fluctuation descended, but only shook a trace of his remaining aura! However, the attack didn't stop! Just as Tang Xiaoqi's figure became visible, the shadow beneath his feet began to boil without warning! A sword shadow, darker than the night itself and even colder, thrust directly out from his own shadow, piercing straight toward his crown!
This sword was soundless, without any prior spiritual energy fluctuation, as if it were inherently part of the shadow itself—an extension of death! Phantom Shadow! He had finally made his move! Choosing the most bizarre, most impossible-to-defend angle, at the most critical moment when his target's old power had just faded and new power had not yet arisen, delivering the true fatal strike!
At the same time, the five assassins who had missed their first strike once again merged into the wind, rain, and shadows like ghosts, instantly changing positions as new attacks were prepared, sealing off all possible escape routes! Desperate situation! A true ambush from all sides, a killing array with no way out! The rain poured down in torrents, thunder rumbled across the sky, and the spiritual bamboo grove swayed wildly in the fierce wind.
Amidst this chaos of nature's fury, a silent yet even more perilous dance of death suddenly began! Tang Xiaoqi's figure, like a lone boat in a violent storm, was instantly engulfed by endless killing intent and darkness!