209 Chapter 209: Dark Invitation

"…so they still have quite a few bugs to iron out before they can finally call the spirits to this dimension to establish the contract, huh?"

Shun Yin sighed wearily. He found himself quite lost in the trio's discussions as they argued back and forth the best way to trigger a safe Emergence event. They ended up compromising by trying out all three methods, but each failed spectacularly.

"The project is still in its infancy," Tenshi had told him, not at all discouraged by their lack of success. "It's only natural that we won't be able to find a way yet."

"Okay…then call me when you need me."

Honestly, Shun Yin didn't want to waste too much time idling away in the lab, listening to the three researchers argue, debate and run experiments. He was completely out of his depth, and would much rather spend his time training his magic than sitting around doing nothing.

Tenshi had understood his troubles and agreed, much to his relief. They had exchanged contact information, which made it easy for the research team to call him up whenever they needed. Until then, Shun Yin was going to do whatever he wanted.

Which was to train.

"I should go to Master's dojo." It was still early in the evening, and Shun Yin planned on grabbing a sparring session or two before he went home. He wanted to grow stronger, after all. Especially after hearing what Gabriel said about the summoning spell requiring large amounts of mana, he was determined to become powerful enough to handle it.

That was the only reason why they consulted a combat division student like him, after all. Only by working together could everyone grow stronger together. Everyone had a part to play. The moment one cog was missing, the whole machine would fall apart.

Still, Shun Yin was intrigued. Just what kind of spirit did Tenshi and the others encounter? They were being vague about it, most likely because they didn't know themselves. Shun Yin hoped it wasn't a monster in disguise.

Now that would be a disaster.

That wasn't the only reason. After conversing with Glen, Shun Yin realized that he had some ways to go before he could reach the level of the legendary Porter princess. Even though he wasn't in the same class as her, he had heard enough rumors to finally be able to discern her identity. He had his suspicions, of course, but it wasn't until he overheard his classmates gossiping that he was finally able to confirm his thoughts.

Angelica Porter was attending Vermillion High as well.

Shun Yin hadn't seen her yet, but he was sure of it. And he vowed to catch up to her someday, or even surpass her…to become a man worthy of standing at her side. A hero who earned the recognition of not just the one he loved but also her entire clan.

"Hu…"

Exhaling, he continued along the pathway. The sun was slowly setting over the horizon, and the streets were now deserted. Most of the students had already gone home, with the exception being the research students who often worked late into the night, obsessed with their projects. Either way, Shun Yin found himself traversing the route during a time when there was no one else around.

For a moment, he felt a chill run down his back. It wasn't that he feared being alone, but he just found the complete absence of other people creepy. His gut crawled, his instincts warning him that something was not right.

Where was everybody? Even taking the time into consideration, it was impossible for the streets to be so empty. There had to be at least two or three other students who coincidentally went home during this time. The staff, in particular, usually worked until evening. Yet he saw no sign of the teachers.

Something was not right here.

It was with this thought in mind when Shun Yin finally saw another person. Relief filled him as he approached a man in a suit complete with a tie and inner vest, not to mention a pair of polished leather shoes. He lowered his head politely in greeting while the man smiled in a friendly manner.

"Good evening," the man greeted him with a grin. "Are you going home from school?"

"That's right," Shun Yin replied. There was no reason to hide the fact. He was heading away from the direction of Vermillion High and dressed in the uniform. The badge was too conspicuous and visible that anyone could tell that he was from the school. As a show of good manners, he was obliged to continue the conversation. Taking note of the man's attire, he offered an enquiry of his own. "Are you going home from work?"

"Yes, that's right." The man chuckled and made a show of stifling a yawn. "It's been a long day at work."

"It's been hard on you." Shun Yin nodded. The man appeared to be the typical salaryman, judging from his expensive suit and tie. He had heard about the long work hours that salarymen were subject to, and felt a twinge of sympathy.

Then he noticed that the man was empty-handed. He carried no bag or suitcase, his hands tucked into his pockets.

Shun Yin's sense of danger rose. Doubly so when he noticed something strange while walking past the salaryman.

The man left no footprints. Even though the ground was littered with scattered pink Sakura petals, the man left no trail or sign that he had been walking through them. The salaryman continued walking without a sound, even though his shoes should have been crunching the leaves and Sakura petals. Yet there wasn't even a single noise or footstep produced by his casual movements. There wasn't even a shadow cast by the man, almost as if he was a hallucination.

There was only one explanation. This man was…

Swoosh!

Without any hesitation, Shun Yin spun around and slashed at the salaryman with his sword.

"!!"

However, the salaryman merely caught his blade with his fingers. With a sly grin, he stopped Shun Yin's sword a few centimeters away from his body.

"Whoa there. That's quite the greeting."

"You…are an Assassin, aren't you?"

"From the Umbra Sect," the salaryman affirmed, still smiling. "And I thought I was being so careful. What gave me away?"

"A normal salaryman doesn't walk like you," Shun Yin pointed out with a frown. "Without making a single sound…and you have no shadow."

"Ah…I admit, that was a mistake on my part." The Assassin sighed and shook his head sheepishly. "Forgive me, I'm not used to how normal people move. As you can probably tell, I hardly have any interaction with the outside world."

He then yanked Shun Yin's sword toward himself, pulling the high school student toward him. Shun Yin reacted quickly by spinning around and kicking the Assassin in the gut, but he merely blocked the former's foot with his elbow.

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Even so, the impact was enough to throw him back a couple of steps and force him to relinquish his grip on Shun Yin's sword. The younger man seized the opportunity to free his sword and pull it back to safety while he threw out his free hand, which was already wreathed in flames.

During the brief exchange, Shun Yin had already begun casting his spells.

Before the Assassin could react, Shun Yin blasted him with a fireball at near pointblank range. Smoke billowed upward as the Assassin staggered back, his body and clothing smoldering from the heat and lingering cinders.

"Oh, wow…" Despite the predicament he found himself in, the Assassin continued to chuckle. "You really show no mercy at all."

Wordlessly, Shun Yin came at him, raising his sword high up before slashing without any hesitation or cheesy dialogue.

The Assassin parried the blow with his arm. For a moment, Shun Yin's sword sank deep into the man's arm, slicing through fabric and flesh easily, only to stop the moment it reached the man's bone. Despite putting more of his strength and weight into the blow, Shun Yin found that he was unable to cut any deeper.

"What?!"

The Assassin merely grinned in response before he flung Shun Yin off. Black shadows began creeping out of the wound, unfurling and spreading toward him.

"I am an Assassin, remember?" he reminded a stunned Shun Yin. "It's only natural that we modified and enhanced our bodies…though not to the extent of the Frenzor Sect, but we have at least surgically strengthened our skeleton to absorb impact and become impervious to weapons."

"…what a monster…"

Shun Yin felt cold perspiration drip down his face as he backed away. He kept an eye on the unfurling shadows that were billowing out of the Umbra Assassin's arm, understandably wary of making physical contact with him.

"What are these black shadows?"

"You'll find out if you touch them," the Umbra Assassin suggested cheerfully. Shun Yin snorted and jumped back, widening the distance between the two of them. Dropping to a knee, he kept his hand on his sword, getting ready to execute an iai.

"As expected of the successor to the Miyamoto sword style." The Umbra Assassin glanced at his injured hand. The shadows had stopped emerging from his wound, but it was clear that he wouldn't be able to use the damaged wound for a while. "How frightening. To think that you would slash a fellow human being who just happened to be walking along the same road as you without any hesitation whatsoever."

"You're not just a human being," Shun Yin pointed out dryly as he tightened his grip on both the hilt of his sword and the black scabbard. "You said you are an Umbra Assassin, right? From the Assassin Guild? So who hired you? The Porter family?"

"Please." the Umbra Assassin rolled his eyes. "You think too highly of yourself. Why the hell would the Porter family go through all the trouble of hiring an Assassin from the Assassin Guild to eliminate an insignificant brat like you? And what do you think this is? A Chinese web novel? Nobody in reality will just send assassins after a high school or college kid for no reason other than because he's the protagonist."

Shun Yin wouldn't be surprised if certain members of the Porter family hired Assassins because they were afraid of him getting too close to Angelica, but then again the Umbra Assassin had a point. There were so many other ways to separate him from Angelica, which entailed much less risk, weren't crimes and were much simpler and cheaper in terms of time and resources to pull off. They could just find an excuse to kick him out of Vermillion High or something instead of going to extreme lengths to assassinate him.

This was reality, not some edgy web novel where the whole world was out to kill the protagonist for no reason other than he was "trash" or "unworthy."

"Then why are you targeting me?"

"What makes you think I'm targeting you?" the Umbra Assassin burst out laughing. "All this time you're the one attacking me, and not the other way around. You're the one who delivered the first strike, remember?"

"Stop treating me like an idiot." Shun Yin briefly gestured to the deserted space around him, occupied by nothing except Sakura trees in full bloom. "You didn't prepare this stage and chase away everybody to lure me here, alone, if your target was someone else."

"Ah…" the Umbra Assassin slapped his forehead with his uninjured hand. "It was that obvious, huh? Whoops…you completely saw through me. You're much smarter than I heard you are…"

He never got to finish his sentence. Shun Yin dashed forward and slashed through his body with a flaming blade, cutting the guy in half and cauterizing his wounds from the sheer heat of his fire enchantment. All around the two, Sakura petals were sliced neatly in half, their countless pieces raining upon the combatants. Amidst the veil of pink, Shun Yin's eyes narrowed when he saw the effects of his attack on his opponent.

"He didn't get incinerated…"

Black shadows began dripping from both halves of the man's body, the top half still hovering above the bottom.

"Those black shadows again…"

"No, I didn't. You truly are impressive." The black shadows began to merge and pull both halves of the Assassin's body together, knitting him back into one whole. "Whoa, I didn't expect you to actually cut through my reinforced skeleton. Bravo, bravo!"

"Impressive? Me?" Shun Yin snorted dismissively. "I'm not sure how to feel, being praised by someone who can still move around in such a lively manner even after being cut in half by my sword."

"Ha ha ha, yeah…I'm also pretty amazing, right?"

Shun Yin glared at the Umbra Assassin. "Monster."

"Hey, now…I'm human like you. I'm nothing like those monsters coming out of Emergence Events and roaming outside the city. Look! How can you perceive me as anything other than a human?" The Umbra Assassin waved his arms dramatically even as his body full restored itself with the black shadows.

Shun Yin looked revolted. "Just what did the Umbra Sect do to you?"

"They turned me into an Assassin," the shadowy man replied cheerfully. "Cool, right?"

"Not really." Shun Yin held his sword up, getting ready to attack the man again. But the Umbra Assassin raised both hands up almost frantically.

"Whoa there! I know you don't believe me, but I really didn't come here to assassinate you. Actually, I'm here to offer an invitation."

"Invitation?" Shun Yin repeated incredulously. The Assassin nodded and offered a hand in a welcoming manner.

"My name is Ying Bu Si. I am with the Bai Ye Sect." he bowed dramatically. "Huang Shun Yin. Would you like to join us and destroy the Porter family…as well as the King of Monsters imprisoned within the deepest vaults of the Global Federation?"