Chapter 62 - Shadow Gate

“…!”

Things happened in the blink of an eye.

There was a blue-white flash, and a blood flower bloomed in the air – the lass and the attacker passed each other.

“Scoundrel!” Despite the sharp pain coming from a cut on her face, Xue Qilin turned around, gathered majestic true qi on her hand, and slapped out with all her might. A palm print formed by true qi whistling through the air is chasing the petite black figure running away with the force of a clap of thunder.

As if the other party is trying to commit suicide, they slowed down suddenly, turned back rapidly, and welcomed the fierce strike. However, before the two collided, the attacker stepped aside suddenly and evaded the palm print strangely.

Then…

As if diving into the darkness, the attacker suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Eyes dyed gold searched for the missing black figure.

In the next moment, by relying on her Heaven Realm perception ability, Xue Qilin successfully caught an unusual change.

… Behind!

The Heaven Realm lass turned back violently. A cold aura appeared in front of her.

As if removed from darkness, a black figure appeared like a ghost and stabbed with a black dagger towards Xue Qilin’s throat.

“Fire from Within!”

The excited eyes of the attacker suddenly reflected scarlet fire.

The fire spewed out of Xue Qilin’s mouth. As if a fierce monster with a bloody maw, the raging fire tried to devour the attacker.

“What!” The assailant exclaimed, surprised that Xue Qilin would spit out fire from her mouth.

But their reaction was not slow.

They quickly bent backwards at an incredible angle and evaded the sudden torrent of fire.

At the same time, blue-white light appeared suddenly, intertwined into an electric arc that entangled around the mechanical sword lying not far away like a snake. Affected by the domain, Empyrean Universe was pulled out from the ground, and shot back into Xue Qilin’s hand.

The moment the fire dissipated…

“Go to hell!”

Cutting through the air, the big sword slashed towards the attacker who hadn’t adjusted their posture yet.

“Ah!” The attacker groaned, slammed their right foot on the ground violently, took off rapidly to the side, and flipped in the air.

While dodging the slash, the attacker stabbed out from a tricky angle.

“What a pest!”

Xue Qilin took a step back to widen the distance and avoid the attack, but then the dagger shot out from the opponent’s hand abruptly.

“Flying Flames!”

In response to Xue Qilin’s shout, flame arrows appeared beside her out of the blue and shoot towards the dagger flying at her, and then the two collided and exploded.

A small fair hand passed through the explosion and shot towards the defenseless assailant.

The assailant didn’t meet force with force, and instead slid backwards and pulled open the distance. At the same time, the dagger blown away by Flying Flames suddenly stopped in the air, hummed, and returned to it’s master’s hand.

In response to the opponent’s agility technique, a whirlpool of flames rose behind the lass. One after another, scarlet flame arrows formed in the air and pointed at the assailant some distance away.

“Who are you?”

Looking at the blurry silhouette that looked like it was formed from black fog, Xue Qilin narrowed her eyes and sized the other party up.

Although it’s difficult to clearly distinguish the opponent’s outline, but the shape can still be roughly made out.

The attacker isn’t tall, probably only by half a head taller than herself. Coupled with the exclaim just now, Xue Qilin determined that the attacker should be female.

Her cultivation base is probably in the Earth Realm – the other party tried to hide it, but from her moves, the Merak Temple’s Young Ancestor still pried out some clues.

“Why do you want to kill me?”

During the exchange just now, the opponent’s moves were all aimed at her vital points. The lass is almost certain that the other party came to kill her.

“Senior Xue, that person is from the Shadow Gate!”

It wasn’t the attacker who answered, but one of the spectating captors.

Shadow Gate? One of the Five Great Sects? Xue Qilin was surprised – Why does someone from the Shadow Gate wants to kill me?

No, it’s not someone from the Shadow Gate that wants to kill me!

Qi Qiqi once introduced the Five Great Sects to her. When she spoke of the Shadow Gate, she said with slight dread, “Strictly speaking, the Shadow Gate resembles more an assassin organization than a common Demimonde sect.”

In other words, they kill people for money.

On the other hand, when Qi Qiqi explained the relationship between the Merak Temple and the other sects, she didn’t mention any disputes with the Shadow Gate. Xue Qilin is aware that she hasn’t offended the Shadow Gate either. From this, the other party shouldn’t have plotted against her due to sect disputes.

In this case, the opponent was very likely hired.

Who wants to kill me? After a moment, Xue Qilin only thought of one possibility…

“Did the Heavenly Sword Gate had you come kill me?”

“…” The Shadow Gate assassin still didn’t answer.

Presumably yes. Above all, assassins seem to be very particular about their work ethic. After all, no one wants to hire an assassin who’ll spill the beans when caught.

Next, her figure dissipated slowly, and she hid in the darkness again.

Want to repeat the same trick? Xue Qilin sneered inside.

She can’t capture the opponent visually. Because the opponent is specially disseminating true qi in space, which confuses her senses, it’s difficult for her to locate the other party through her aura. However, as long as the other party exists, Xue Qilin has a way, a way to force her out.

“Cover your head and lie on the ground!” Xue Qilin warned the onlooking captors loudly, and then waved her big sleeve.

In a split second, fire blossomed.

“Let’s see how you hide from me!”

Countless, densely packed flame arrows shot out chaotically in all directions with the lass as the core.

With such a concentrated attack, even if the opponent uses the best agility technique, she won’t be able to avoid them completely.

Thus, there can only be one outcome…

“Ah!”

Several flame arrows slashed down, and a figure emerged from the darkness.

“You finally came out!” Xue Qilin shouted loudly.

The originally chaotic flame arrows locked on the assassin in an instant, and then shot towards the opponent. But the flame arrows were either blocked of evaded by one after another.

However, the assassin’s movement has been restrained.

Xue Qilin’s feet moved quickly according to a wonderful bagua footwork [1].

As if echoing her movement, a flame whirlpool rose behind her slowly, and then suddenly surged and expanded rapidly.

“Chuu…” Xue Qilin breathed out a long breath, and scattered flame tongues shot out from her mouth.

The flame whirlpool suspended in midair is rotating faster and faster, and then a ferocious flame dragon emerged from its center.

Next, the flame dragon opened its maw and formed a huge fireball emanating amazing heat.

“Third Thunder Flame Dragon!”

The fireball is about to be fired…

If you don’t take a closer look, it’s really hard to discover the throwing knife.

The throwing knife appeared without sound or sign. Tracing a faintly discernible silver orbit in the air, the throwing knife passed through the fireball and plunging directly into the dragon’s maw.

The dragon’s head exploded due to the true qi contained in the throwing knife, and the out of control flames scurried around.

“…!”

Xue Qilin groaned. She used her hands to protect her head, and her big sleeves burned into ashes at once.

In the next moment, the flames were dissipated by the majestic true qi released by the lass.

“…”

As flame tongues swirled before her eyes, Xue Qilin saw the Shadow Gate assassin flee far away.

You won’t escape! Xue Qilin gritted her teeth and fired two flame arrows in succession.

In midair, the assassin hurriedly turned to a small path next to a big tree and dove into the shadow of the forest obliquely, and any traces of her vanished.

Of course, the flame arrows missed.

Just as Xue Qilin was about to give chase, a majestic aura rose in the distance.

The lass stopped at once, and her sharp gaze shot in the direction of the majestic aura.

It’s a Heaven Realm master.

It must have been that person who threw the throwing knife and saved the assassin just now.

As for why they released their aura, there is only one explanation…

“Is that a warning for me to stop?” Xue Qilin narrowed her eyes and murmured, unwilling.

At this point, the assassin is already gone along with all traces of her.

*

Golding onto a tree with one hand, the gasped heavily.

The growing sense of weakness almost made her faint.

In the fight just now, she forced herself to beyond her limit and used “Shift” that she has yet to fully master, giving her an edge in the early stage of the fight.

However, it’s impossible to squeeze out the body’s power without paying a price. Additionally, the situation has turned sharply just now, and she was caught in a bitter struggle. This way, the burden on her body can well be imagined.

Waiting for her aura to stabilize, the girl leaned against the tree and sat on the ground.

“With great difficulty, I finally had her by herself…” She hugged her knees and grumbled, dejected.

Just now, Xue Qilin was not only by herself, but there were also captors nearby hindering her course of action, which seemed like the perfect opportunity to the girl.

However, she failed nonetheless.

Am I really too weak?

Her initial confidence has turned into discouragement. The gap between them made the girl feel very uncomfortable.

“… Black Cat, you should be glad that I saved you.” An obscure male voice suddenly sounded.

The girl raised her head slowly and saw a black figure standing in front of her. She isn’t surprised that the man can appear in front of her without any warning.

Because in her mind, he can not only appear in front of her, but can even appear deep in the royal palace without any warning.

“Father, why are you here?” The girl asked, surprised.

“If I haven’t come, you would be dead.”

“Do you always follow me?”

“…” The man didn’t answer, which can be considered as him admitting to it.

Angry at first, the girl wanted to say something. But suddenly, she remembered something and apologized, dispirited, “Sorry, Father, I didn’t listen to you.”

“I said that there are several people in the Heaven Realm that cannot be touched, and the ‘Natural Disaster’ Xue Qilin is one of them.”

The girl naturally knows the reason behind this. Because even her father – the Shadow Gate’s number one expert – doesn’t have the confidence to kill those Heaven Realm masters.

“I know, but … I want to prove that I’m not someone useless who relies on their powerful background.”

Although the girl is impressively strong, and has an Earth Realm cultivation base, but she has never accepted a mission and killed a target.

Because of this, people in the sect nicknamed her as “pretty face”. She has always felt indignant about this. Eager to prove herself, she rashly accepted this “mission” that she shouldn’t have accepted.

“There are many ways to prove yourself, yet you had to choose the most difficult on.”

Although the words are of rebuke, but the tone contains a subtle pampering.

“Sorry…”

The girl drooped her head even lower.

The man sighed and looked into the distance.

“The matter with the Merak Temple, we shouldn’t have involved ourselves in this mess.”

After a moment of silence, he retracted his gaze, looked at his daughter, and said, “Send a Dark Crow to notify the employer. There is nothing we can do about this mission.”

The girl spoke, incredulous, “But the reputation of the Shadow Gate…”

The man waved his hand to stop the girl from continuing.

“No matter how noisy it is in other people’s homes, it’s just a family matter.”

There was a flash of bright light in his eyes.

“But if we continue to meddle, things won’t stop at a family matter – do you understand?”

The girl nodded, half doubtful.

She understands the literal meaning, but doesn’t understand the deeper meaning of the words.