Chapter 134: 134. Assassination

Luoning had never thought that something like an assassination would happen to him.

After all, his territory was located in the remote deep mountains; it would take a lot of effort for an assassin to run all the way here, not to mention that the heavy snow had blocked the mountains for the past two days, making it very difficult to travel.

How much perseverance must this assassin have to brave the bitter cold and wind and snow to cross the vast, white Shanlin just to take his life?

Luoning did not know, and he did not have time to think too much.

Facing the ruthless assassination attempt by the figure in black, he could not afford the slightest hesitation in his haste; Luoning directly took out the protective armor Spell Scroll gifted to him by Lulansi and injected Magic Power into it.

Hum~

The earth-yellow armor covered Luoning's entire body just as the sword tip struck; the assassin's sword blow landed on the armor, emitting a harsh metallic clashing sound and causing the phantom armor to tremble violently.

"A Level 5 Spell Scroll, hehe, the people of Wushan Castle truly have some capital."

The assassin sneered, "But it cannot save your life."

He kicked out.

After using the Spell Scroll to block this strike, Luoning finally gained a moment to breathe. At this moment, he was no longer as flustered as he was at the start; instead, he had become surprisingly calm.

Facing this kick, he dodged at high speed while simultaneously tapping his toes on the ground to strike at his opponent.

Early this morning, after claiming the Warm Heart Gift Pack from Number Seven, Luoning had already exhausted all his Attribute Points.

His progress in the Magician level had not only reached Advanced completion, but his Knight Rank progress had also reached 280/300, making him an Advanced Peak Knight.

Now, his physical fitness, strength, and spirit had all been vastly enhanced; even against Maiken, he would not be at a disadvantage.

Although they had only exchanged one or two blows head-on, Luoning had already judged that this assassin's strength was formidable and that he should be a Bronze Knight.

Two knights fought in the cramped room, Battle Qi and Sword Radiance slashing wantonly, cutting through tables, chairs, and walls; if this continued, the room would likely not survive.

Luoning's performance had already disrupted the assassin's state of mind.

"Advanced Knight, you are actually an Advanced Knight!"

After exchanging blows repeatedly, the assassin had already figured out Luoning's level of strength.

He had never expected that the intelligence was wrong, and wrong by a wide margin.

This former good-for-nothing eldest grandson of the Marquis was not only no longer a good-for-nothing, but in the blink of an eye, he had become an Advanced Knight, and his combat level was not low in the slightest.

A seventeen-year-old Advanced Peak Knight, a good-for-nothing?

What a joke!

"Retreat!"

The black-clad assassin used the recoil force of another sword strike to retreat rapidly, his Sword Radiance sweeping out to shatter the decorative wooden window before he leaped down from it.

It was only three stories, which was no problem at all for a Bronze Knight.

The assassination had failed, and the intelligence was wrong; he had completely lost the initiative. If he continued to linger in the fight, he might be in trouble once that guard knight arrived.

"Want to leave?"

Luoning tapped his feet on the ground and followed, leaping out of the window.

But in those two or three seconds, Luoning scanned left and right and actually did not see the opponent's figure.

"Invisible again?"

Luoning cast Detection Wind; as his Wind Element vision shifted, he once again caught the figure of the opponent landing—at this moment, the assassin was leaning against the base of the wall, standing motionless.

What is this, playing hide-and-seek right under his nose?

Or does this person think that "the most dangerous place is the safest place," and that by staying invisible right under his nose, they could avoid being discovered?

Luoning did not care about that; before landing, he raised his fist and struck down, the Flame Fist like a bomb whistling through the air and landing accurately on the spot where the opponent was hiding.

The black-clad assassin did not understand how his stealth had been discovered; he had no time to think and could only dodge rapidly.

And as his figure moved swiftly, the state of invisibility was broken.

In a flash, Luoning understood: the opponent's invisibility effect must have limitations; either they could not use Battle Qi, or the range of their body's movement could not be too violent or too fast, otherwise, they would exit the invisible state.

Boom~

The roaring sound brought by the Fire Fist Bombardment shook the castle under the night sky, breaking the usual quiet atmosphere.

At this time, the shocked Jialun finally reacted; calling out for his master, he ran to the window and shouted outside:

"Assassin!"

"There is an assassin!"

"Come quickly, there is an assassin!"

The panicked shouts startled the servants in the Inner Castle and the guards on the city walls.

"What is going on?"

Chahaer, who was tidying up the tableware, was stunned for a moment; after hearing the sound clearly, he immediately panicked and hurriedly ran outside.

At the same time, outside the Outer Castle hall, Ailin, Dawei, and the others, who had finished their one hour of teaching for the day, were leaving the "classroom" in a relaxed mood, all feeling very good.

The former was because she had finally finished today's lesson, and the latter was because they had finished an agonizing class.

But just as they were chatting and laughing, preparing to go their separate ways, the commotion in the Inner Castle made them freeze.

"What's the situation?"

The three knights looked at each other, not having heard clearly.

However, the guards on the tower had already delivered a clear answer: the lord had been attacked!

The three were terrified, their expressions changing drastically.

"Protect the lord!"

"Protect Lord Luoning!"

They drew their longswords and rushed toward the Inner Castle at the fastest speed.

"Brother Luoning has been assassinated?"

Ailin's large eyes were full of terror and panic, her face turned pale with fright, and she followed Dawei and the others as they ran toward the Inner Castle.

But suddenly she realized that it was useless for her to go in; the combat ability of a Primary Mage was very weak and quite useless.

"Guard Officer!"

She hurriedly turned around, "Right, go notify Maiken!"

Recently, the training of the cavalry and guards had been handled personally by Maiken, which was the only reason Dawei and the others had an hour in the evening to study.

Perhaps out of nervousness or worry, Ailin's feet felt a bit unsteady, and as she exited the Outer Castle gate, she tripped and fell to the ground, getting quite a bit of mud on her body and face.

But she didn't care about that at all; she hurriedly stood up, wanting to notify Maiken at the fastest speed possible.

Fortunately, she had only run less than a hundred meters toward the west when she saw Maiken riding over quickly on his horse.

"Ailin, what happened?"

Maiken asked hurriedly, "Why is there an explosion in the castle?"

"An assassin, there's an assassin!"

Ailin said loudly, "Hurry and go save Brother Luoning!"

Maiken's expression changed drastically; how could there be an assassin in the castle?

He had clearly deployed guards at the city gates and towers, so how did the assassin manage to evade the sight of the guards on the towers and walls and enter the castle without any obstruction?

"The Lord should be fine, right?"

Maiken leaped off his horse, his Battle Qi erupting, and he rushed into the castle at top speed.

……

Setting aside the reactions of the servants and subordinates, Luoning was already locked in a fierce battle with the black-clad assassin.

Although he could not match the opponent in strength, during this period, the results of his learning swordsmanship from Ruidar and Maiken had already manifested.

The current Luoning was like a weakened Ruidar, and the assassin before him was like a weakened version of Baron Leisen.

Luoning was suppressing the opponent in swordsmanship.

Several questions were swirling in the black-clad man's mind at this moment, the most incomprehensible of which was how his previously foolproof invisibility ability had become completely useless against this Baron before him.

"I didn't expect that the outside world's evaluation of you was all wrong!"

The black-clad assassin knew that a prolonged battle was disadvantageous, and black energy suddenly steamed up from his body, like burning flames.

As the black-clad man channeled them, these flames gradually transformed into Along black snake upon his longsword.

"Snake's Embrace!"

As he charged toward Luoning, the black snake on the longsword roared and soared into the air, turning into a terrifying giant creature four or five meters long and a meter or two wide in diameter, swallowing Luoning in one gulp.

A dark, gloomy atmosphere enveloped Luoning, and this snake carried a strong corrosiveness, rapidly eroding his protective armor.

The earth-yellow armor had already endured several impacts, and at this moment, it rapidly dimmed under the erosion.

Luoning hurriedly braced his Battle Qi Armor while simultaneously wielding the Liuyan Sword, using the Fire Attribute Level 3 Battle Skill, Fire Cloud Coverage.

Under the enhancement of the Liuyan Sword, the power of Fire Cloud Coverage was amplified; the scattered fire clouds were like thrown molten iron sparks exploding in all directions, clashing with the dark snake.

Boom—

The sounds of collision were constant, and the storm generated by the two sides' Battle Skills swept the surroundings; the servants and guards who had rushed over to assist were also deterred and hesitated, with only the three Primary Knights, Dawei, Wodun, and Dandi, charging into the fray.

Black light and red fire crushed against each other, and the two people in the center of the battle were torn by the violent energy, shaken until they retreated repeatedly.

Luoning only felt his blood surging and it was not very comfortable, but he was not injured.

The only pity was that the protective armor only left a faint phantom under the erosion and impact, and it was likely about to dissipate completely.

Looking at the opponent, he seemed to be having a similarly difficult time.

"You three, fall back!"

Luoning gripped the Liuyan Sword in his hand and ordered Dawei and the others, who wanted to join the battle, not to act rashly.

These three were all Primary Knights and were simply no match for the assassin; going up to help would only make things more chaotic, and there was even a danger of losing their lives.

"My Lord!"

The three of them were somewhat unwilling.

"Leave this assassin to me to deal with."

Luoning's gaze was fixed on the opponent; he would not easily let go of the person who had almost taken his life.

With his fingers tracing a Spell Pattern, Luoning cast the "Speed" magic he had learned from the Magic Core of the Storm Magic Wolf upon himself.

He kicked off the ground with both feet, and his entire person turned into a streak of red light.

The assassin was startled by this scene, "What is going on, how did his speed become even faster?"

(End of this chapter)