Chapter 346: The Assassination

How to strike at Bai Lang's aura? What else could this bunch of underworld types think of? Naturally they'd send people to kill Bai Lang—using their own men would be a loss and they'd need to keep people to deal with those reaching out, so hiring a murderer is the most suitable. Conveniently an assassin organization is taking the job, and the price for assassinating an Innate Expert is something Six and a Half Hall can still afford.

Since Assassin Hall took the contract, it first collected the intelligence gathered by Six and a Half Hall, then combined it with its own information to devise the assassination plan.

Bai Lang is leisurely in the Mountain God Temple, never interacting with any populace all day, so a simple solution seems to be using some high‑power device to blow him and the mountain away—a good method, since the world has plenty of divine or demonic masters with such things. The problem is that Bai Lang, being an Innate Expert, will unconsciously blanket the surrounding several li with his Divine Sense and true Qi, whether he wants to or not.

Within that radius, an Innate Expert may not be omniscient, but he can sense hostility directed at him, and the Mountain God Temple's domain contains essentially no one else besides Bai Lang. Moreover, such items are expensive, making the contract to kill an Innate Expert like Bai Lang a loss‑making venture. Therefore, deploying multiple Innate assassins to surround‑kill Bai Lang is the most appropriate, since there is no other Innate Expert in his vicinity to aid him.

After carefully analyzing Bai Lang's martial arts, Assassin Tower selected the most suitable killers, then waited for their schedules to free up—assassins, especially high‑end ones, are busy and aristocratic, spending most of their time refining their skills and relaxing; taking jobs depends mainly on mood. At this tier, Assassin Tower cannot force them with strength, only coordinate their availability.

And experts of the same level are willing, because they can use the opportunity to break through the fog in their own techniques, gather breakthrough ideas, or even obtain precious treasures—an ordinary Innate Expert surely possesses valuable items that peers can use. After coordination, four assassins volunteered; these four have long cooperated, and their code names in the Tower are Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.

The four, after reviewing Bai Lang's intelligence, concluded that no method would work, so a direct four‑person surround‑kill is the simplest. Bai Lang's cross‑trained skills are no secret; a practitioner who has cultivated such arts to the Innate stage is a highly capable and extremely hard‑to‑kill type. Having a copper‑skin, iron‑bone is a fact, not an adjective, and the best way to deal with such a person would normally be poisoning.

But Bai Lang's cross‑trained skills seem somewhat subtle; the efficacy of poisoning is uncertain, and the Mountain God Temple offers few vectors for poison. An Innate Expert is still just an Innate Expert, not yet at the level of refining "poison" into a divine art that works by thought or speech. Using wind, water, food, or any bodily contact as a medium for poison is as far as they can go.

Unfortunately, the Mountain God Temple sits on a mountain, and without contact they cannot poison—none of Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter specialize in poison, so no one practices poison techniques. Poison arts are too difficult to train and only passed down in certain regions; these four are not from the Southern Frontier, so they naturally lack it. Thus the quartet straightforwardly ascended the mountain from the front, too lazy to conceal themselves.

At that moment Bai Lang had finished his cultivation and was soaking in a bath, "Yoho, a visitor? I can feel that momentum still building… huh huh huh, perfect, my hands are itching." Bai Lang naturally sensed the hostility and knew there were at least four Innate Experts—their qi‑sensing made it clear. He was confident in himself—if he couldn't defeat them, he could rely on the wind to escape. As for Yu Yu? At this moment it was nothing more than a dead stone.

Bai Lang leisurely rose from the bathtub, a gust of wind whisked the water away, and he dressed—since he had already become an impostor Gao Nici, Bai Shaobao didn't mind trimming his beard into a short stubble that clung to his face and tidying his hair and eyebrows; now he was truly a cult leader, though he also looked a bit like a monk. So, since he wanted to test, he simply skipped the Leup and put on that outfit directly.

Anyway the outfit is quite flexible, more convenient than a wide‑sleeved robe, and odd clothing isn't an issue in this world; the street‑running bohemians and even the ruffians who strip naked aren't a problem—if you call it indecent they'll say the heavens are their underwear and you're a flea in their crotch, otherwise why would they spout such nonsense? Bai Lang has heard of such people, but he thinks he'll kill any such nonsense‑spouting fool he sees in the future…

From the inside out, Bai Lang put on the whole outfit, slipped on short boots, and stood quietly before the Mountain God Temple waiting for the four hostile guys to arrive. The opponents were also composed; he could feel them, and they could feel him, knowing that the pillar "White Jade Pillar" was also adjusting his qi, ready for a clash. So Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter walked up unhurriedly, steadying their hearts and minds.

"Sure enough they're the Nie Zheng type of assassin, bold as a white rainbow cutting the sun," Bai Lang sensed the aura and sighed, "Now that's an assassin." Before long the four appeared before Bai Lang, looking like ordinary middle‑aged men; if not for the fierce battle intent soaring around them, they'd be just four common folk. Bai Lang didn't ask how they planned to fight, he simply drew the line—he knew that since they came to assassinate, they would all strike together, one target or a thousand, they would still strike together.

Bai Lang didn't even bother asking their names; a brawl was all that mattered, no need for more questions. So the four remained silent, four swords lunging forward at once. The sword qi was concealed yet sharp, forming a thunderous net, yet it left Bai Lang room to dodge. Of course he couldn't dodge forever; once he slipped a strike, the pursuit would tighten, leaving fewer chances to live, ending in death.

Bai Lang saw this, let out a hum, gathered a raging wind, channeled force into his claws, and charged straight into the sword net. Though the blades were sharp, after invoking Southern Dipper White Tiger Fist his hands were no longer mere flesh; the force‑wrapped hands were on par with a famed sword‑god blade. Four Innate Experts, four swords—Bai Lang's twin hands seized and split the four sword beams. "A sword method solely for killing."

Bai Lang snorted coldly, and as soon as they faced each other his body already bore four sword scars—clothing tearing was trivial, and his heavily forged flesh was cut, yet the blood didn't flow because he sealed it. "Fine sword qi; if I were an internal‑family master, this sword qi would already be raging like a torrent in my meridians now."