Chapter 75 – A Man’s Responsibility

“Damn it, you greedy old bugger! Did you have to do that? I’m coughing up blood here!” Xuanyuan cursed inwardly. He wanted Greed to make him seem injured in front of the assassins, but he didn’t want to actually get injured.

But no matter how unhappy he was, he still clutched the dagger tightly and used the Heavenly Dragon’s Fist. With two small cuts to their necks, two assassins died with their life essence drained. Xuanyuan inhaled with a sense of surprise.

“The old bugger is getting much stronger. You used to only be able to suck out their life essence when the dagger was thrust up to the hilt, now you only need a tiny cut!”

“Of course! Why would I need you to buy the Origin of Memories otherwise?” Greed injected Qi into the armour and bright golden light shone again. Another crossbow bolt shot at him, but before it could even touch the armour, it was completely shattered.

“Alright, now we’ll kill the last one.”

Xuanyuan used the Heavenly Dragon’s Pearl. The dagger was like a dart, shooting out and piercing the assassins’ leader through the head.

“Done.” He moved over to the dead body and striped the dead man of all his valuables. Even though the leader was only a wild fighter, he owned a middle ranked earth instrument.

“Eh, what’s this?” There are three cylinders with crossbow bolts inside. The bolts were giving off a subtle glow.

“The Bolts of Dark Current. They have a strong poison covering them. They probably thought that you were too weak and didn’t use these on you. Now they’re all yours. They’re good for assassinations so keep them.” Greed explained.

“Haha, they were here to send me gifts instead of killing me.” He took every valuable instrument from the bodies. He obtained twenty lower ranked earth instruments and a middle ranked earth instrument. That was quite a lot of money in total.

When he finished packing, two haunting auras descended.

“Someone arrived here before us.” A voice spoke and another group of shadows arrived.

“Is that the assassins from the Hall of Shangtian? Looks like this kid has made a lot of enemies. Did he really kill all the assassins from the Hall of Jiandao? He is only a spiritual fighter!”

Two powerful groups were approaching. At least four king realm fighters and six wild fighters. Xuanyuan felt the cold sweat forming.

“We are in the same business and we are all here for the same target. How about we join forces to kill him and both register the mission as complete?”

“Good. I agree.” The leaders from two assassination halls made an agreement to kill Xuanyuan.

Without hesitation, Xuanyuan activated his Dragon Boots and ran like the wind. The king fighters frowned when they realized the turn of events.

“Upper ranked earth instrument? I don’t even have one. Go after him!” Four powerful assassins released their Qi and started to give chase.

“Boy, don’t run and I will give you a quick death!” One of them laughed. He felt like he was the predator in a game of cat and mouse.

“That’s right. You are so weak, you can’t possibly outrun us.”

“Bullshit. Stop following me, or I’ll kill all of you when you finally catch up.” Xuanyuan yelled.

“It’s not that easy to run away. ‘Strike of Falling Stones’!” An assassin quickly used his technique. A yellowish Qi formed into a giant stone and rushed towards Xuanyuan. Xuanyuan barely managed to evade the attack at the very last moment. That was the power of a king realm fighter! Even though he was not directly hit by the attack, he did not manage to avoid it and was sent hurtling through the air, his body was smashed through several trees before he finally hit the ground.

“Old bugger. Why didn’t you do something? Activate the Dustless Helmet! If I die, you ain’t gonna benefit from it. That guy has at least a hundred dragons of strength!” Xuanyuan was hurting all over his body as even more blood was coughed up.

“Hahaa, I just wanted to test your reaction speed. You indeed reacted very quickly!” Greed laughed and activated the Dustless Helmet. A grey mist surrounded Xuanyuan and he immediately disappeared into thin air.

When the assassins reached the blood on the ground, they started to look around in confusion.

“Where the hell did he go? He just disappeared?”

“Let’s search in different directions. The brat is hurt, he can’t run very far.”

Then four king fighters and six wild fighters all went in different directions to look for Xuanyuan.

Xuanyuan glared at the leaders. It’d be easier to start with the smaller group. One of those guys was the one who injured him.

They were not in a hurry in searching. Xuanyuan heard one of them say,

“The boy’s only a spiritual fighter, but someone wants him dead so badly. He’s worth a bounty of 100,000 king coins. The person who hired us said we have to bring back his fighting ring. You reckon there’s precious treasure inside?”

“Probably. The boy has quick reactions. He’s probably studying a Heaven class technique. We’ll thoroughly search through his body after he’s dead.”

“Can you smell that? It’s blood.”

“It’s very close to us.”

They couldn’t see Xuanyuan, but he had a clear view of them. Xuanyuan was holding a crossbow of explosion in his hands. It was an extremely deadly weapon, but you could only use it once. Once the eight arrows were shot, the crossbow could not be used again.

Xuanyuan aimed towards their heads with the crossbow, and pulled the trigger continuously.

“Go to hell! All of you can go to hell!!” He laughed hysterically as he shot the crossbow.

Fiery red arrows appeared out of thin air and shot towards the assassins. The arrows exploded immediately upon impact.

The assassins were all killed in an instant. They didn’t even have the time to react or run away. The explosions consumed them in an instant, all that was left were bodies charred black.

Xuanyuan didn’t mind the burnt flesh – he swiftly took off all the instruments and fighting rings from the dead bodies. These assassins were very sensitive, Xuanyuan thought to himself. They were able to smell his blood when he was invisible.

The explosion attracted the attention of the others, but they couldn’t see Xuanyuan as he was cloaked by the Dustless Helmet. He stood silently next to the dead assassins and stared menacingly at the approaching men. Xuanyuan was holding a crossbow in each hand and pointing directly at them.

The assassins started to check the dead bodies. One of them said, “It’s definitely the Crossbow of Explosion. The kid has very valuable weapons on him, no wonder he’s worth 100,000 king coins. We have to be very careful.”

But it was already too late. With the sounds of a trigger being pulled, two fiery red arrows pierced through the head of two men. Their bodies were torn apart and exploded. The rest of the men were dumbfounded and froze at the sight.

Xuanyuan laughed hysterically as he shouted, “Die!”

He continuously pulled the trigger of the crossbows. The remaining assassins were all blasted into chunks of flesh by the continuous explosions. When he was done, the magical markings on the crossbows started to turn dull and shattered.

Xuanyuan didn’t care about the smell of burnt flesh in the air, he still robbed everything from what was left of those dead assassins. “It’s a man’s responsibility to take the money when he can….” He thought.

There were thirty pieces of lower ranked earth instruments, twenty pieces of middle ranked earth instruments, 30,000 king coins, and many pills and potions that he didn’t recognize. He could give them to the Sect and exchange them for merit points.

After he finished packing everything, he headed straight towards the Sect. No one else could guarantee that he would be safe from assassinations.

The more he experienced, the more he agreed that money was the utmost important thing in life. If those assassins had upper ranked earth instruments that could protect them automatically, they wouldn’t have been killed so easily by him.