Chapter 434: Assassin

Last night, Li Miao's life-gambling explosion at Wang Gongchang seemed to have truly forced Zheng Anqi into a desperate situation.

The perfect state of the four paths merging into one was no more, the Yingzhou Heaven-Men took the opportunity to rebel, Ji Tianrui disappeared after a backstab, the civil official group cooperating with him was being uprooted by Tang Lanzhou, and even the last collaborator, the Eastern Depot, was nowhere to be seen.

And on Li Miao's side, at least there was the Emperor, the trump card of the four paths merging into one. Even if he traded with Ji Tianrui, there were still nearly ten Heaven-Men available, such as the Xiaolingwei and the surrendered attendants.

Zheng Anqi should have fled.

Hide first, kill the Yingzhou Heaven-Men to recover his state, and while Li Miao had not yet woken up, trade with the Emperor, and then go find Li Miao to decide life and death—that's what he should have thought.

But he didn't.

Zhu Shoujing did not know the information Li Miao obtained in the mental image, so his judgment of Zheng Anqi was biased.

Although he was the Master of Yingzhou, he was not an alchemist with wide robes and large sleeves and an immortal demeanor.

He was an assassin.

An assassin who had assassinated the First Emperor several times, almost changed the course of history several times, and left his figure in the history books.

The Bolangsha warrior, Zheng Anqi.

Before he went overseas and founded Yingzhou, he was the strongest assassin in the world, mentioned in the same breath as Jing Ke and Gao Jianli. His experiences of using the small to defeat the big, being trapped in desperate situations, and exchanging life for life occupied almost all his memories before going to sea.

He would not flee.

Even now, what Zheng Anqi was thinking was, kill!

He deliberately led the Yingzhou Heaven-Men to appear in front of Tang Lanzhou, deliberately showed that he couldn't take Zhu Shoujing's thrown blade, and also deliberately exposed the flaw of his left foot, all to let Zhu Shoujing and his men stay!

He wanted to eradicate all the Heaven-Men around Li Miao!

At this moment, Zhu Shoujing's hair stood on end.

"We're in trouble!"

The black blade suddenly withdrew and crossed with the white blade to block his head.

The next instant, an irresistible, majestic force smashed down! The pair of blades Zhu Shoujing supported with all his strength were almost instantly pressed down, smashing onto his back!

Pfft—

Zhu Shoujing spat out blood, and the roof under his feet collapsed.

He fell into the ruins.

At the same time, Ruan Mei suddenly pulled the Emei piercer that was stabbing toward Zheng Anqi's ear hole, but pulled out a dense spark and a sharp, shrill ringing sound.

The Emei piercer was stuck.

Stuck by the invisible protective True Qi on the side of Zheng Anqi's face.

Zheng Anqi's cold gaze shifted.

His protective True Qi had indeed weakened.

But it was not something that mere two-path Heaven-Men could shake.

At this moment, countless fine blood flowers suddenly exploded on the bodies of all the attendants who rushed around Zheng Anqi.

Black Extreme Pagoda!

Using protective True Qi to extend and replace sword Qi, although the power was not as good as Li Miao's Black Extreme Pagoda, it had the characteristic of being able to retract and release at will. The two attendants who had not cultivated Vajra were hooked back in front of Zheng Anqi by the True Qi blades, while the others were thrown away by the True Qi blades!

Bang, bang!

Zheng Anqi's palms slapped the faces of the two hooked-back attendants.

Clatter—

Red and white matter splashed out.

The headless corpses fell to the ground.

Zhu Shoujing rushed out of the ruins, too late to wipe the blood overflowing from his mouth, and brandished his pair of blades to slash at the back of Zheng Anqi's head, shouting violently at the same time!

"His Majesty is about to arrive, drag him!"

"Kill!!!"

The white blade slashed straight at his face, but suddenly unloaded its momentum and shaved toward Zheng Anqi's eyes; the black blade drilled under his ribs, but suddenly became fierce and unparalleled, sweeping toward Zheng Anqi's crotch.

"The Rooster Crows and the World Turns White, The World is Dark and the Wind and Rain are Black," it was originally one blade technique! Black and white as one, the white blade could slash out a black blade, and the black blade could also slash out a white blade! This was the handed-down unique skill passed to the Commander of the Xiaolingwei after the Great Ming Taizu stabilized the world, and it was the martial art he selected for his tomb guardian, so how could it be simple!

Zheng Anqi did not expect this strange change of moves either.

He retreated rapidly!

Zhu Shoujing advanced and followed, the pair of blades handed forward!

Zheng Anqi retreated again!

The pair of blades grazed Zheng Anqi's chest, their momentum exhausted, and they fell into empty space.

It seemed that Zhu Shoujing's sneak attack had failed.

Facing Zheng Anqi's almost crushing performance against the attendants, Zhu Shoujing confronting him head-on probably wouldn't last ten moves. Several attendants who followed him had already developed the intention to retreat. They had surrendered to the Embroidered Uniform Guard after the Imperial Mausoleum incident, so there was no loyalty to speak of.

Zhu Shoujing, however, did not show any disappointment.

He widened his eyes and looked at the white blade in his hand.

On the blade edge, a trace of blood that could not be seen was stained on it.

Looking at Zheng Anqi's chest again, an extremely fine crack appeared on his clothes.

Zhu Shoujing suddenly realized and shouted loudly.

"He is bluffing!"

"The injuries left by Lord Li on his body are far from recovered, and his Xuanlan is indeed damaged. He is not as strong as before—he is just able to control the flow of protective True Qi at any time!"

"He just wants to scare you away, and then kill you one by one, because he can't react when dealing with multiple enemies at the same time! Fleeing is certain death!"

"I will take the lead, you just attack every corner of his body! He cannot take care of both offense and defense, the outcome is still unknown!"

While speaking, Zhu Shoujing instantly splashed out countless blade lights, colliding with the protective True Qi to produce sparks.

The attendants behind who had the intention to retreat also reacted.

"What do you say!"

"Fight it out, Zheng Anqi is indeed injured, Lord Zhu's words make sense... As long as it's not a certain death situation, it's far more worthwhile than facing Li Miao's pursuit after fleeing!"

"Good!"

They were all Heaven-Men, all people who had mixed to the peak in the Jianghu.

Regardless of whether they were from the evil path or the righteous path, they would not lack the courage to make decisions.

"Old thief die!"

"Die!"

"For Lord Li—take this blade!"

Countless attacks drowned Zheng Anqi.

Just as several people were besieging Zheng Anqi, an eerie tune suddenly came from behind—the sound of a flute.

It was the Yingzhou Heaven-Man who had been saved by Zhu Shoujing, who had returned, and was playing the long flute incessantly.

Several people still had some defensive hearts, but they saw that as the flute sound was conducted to the center of the battle circle, transparent ripples suddenly swayed in the air.

Zheng Anqi's protective True Qi!

That Yingzhou Heaven-Man gritted his teeth and shouted angrily.

"I can make this old thief's protective True Qi visible!"

"Join forces!"

"I only ask that after Yingzhou is destroyed, spare my life!"

Zhu Shoujing was overjoyed.

Sure enough, the contradiction between Zheng Anqi and the Yingzhou Heaven-Men had long been accumulated.

Zheng Anqi left a backhand on them, ready to harvest at any time; but the Yingzhou Heaven-Men also prepared means to deal with him. They were caught off guard by Zheng Anqi before, but now they used it while Zheng Anqi was entangled!

Zheng Anqi's protective True Qi was not enough to take care of both offense and defense, and now, they could clearly see where the protective True Qi was thinner!

Although they were still not Zheng Anqi's match, dragging him was no longer an extravagant hope!

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 435 =====