Chapter 864: Assassin Ambush

"The assassin of Listening Rain Tower?" Yan Buji stared at the suddenly appearing black‑robed cultivator, his heart sinking.

Listening Rain Tower is the most mysterious assassin organization in the Southern Court, said never to have missed a target.

The black‑robed man said nothing, and his blood‑blade slashed again. The strike seemed simple, yet it sealed all avenues of evasion. Yan Buji was forced to unleash the Swallow Desire Pot, and the character "Chi" glowed with dazzling blood light.

Clang!

The blood‑blade struck the pot's body, producing a deafening roar. To Yan Buji's shock, the Swallow Desire Pot split with a fine crack!

"Good blade!" Yan Buji was inadvertently wounded on the shoulder by the opponent's Blade Light, clearly a late‑stage Huashen cultivator! He dared not linger in battle; seizing the moment the opponent was stalled by the rebound force, he activated the "Chi" character to disrupt the foe's mind and simultaneously used the Instant Movement Technique to flee thousands of li.

Yan Buji wasn't truly afraid of the opponent, but worried that a fierce clash would attract others; that assassin's sword Dao Mark was overwhelmingly domineering, and with his current strength he feared he could not defeat the foe quickly.

Three days later, Yan Buji hid in an underground dark river. The wound on his shoulder still bled nonstop; the blood‑blade was evidently laced with deadly poison. Worse, the assassin's blade was no ordinary weapon—it seemed to be a Seven-turn Immortal Accumulation component specially modified to counter his Swallow Desire Pot!

Although the Swallow Desire Pot is a Dao Accumulation of Transport, its level is only Sixfold; the assassin's long blade tore it, and the crack caused the Dao's power to leak continuously, demanding swift repair.

"Listening Rain Tower… Yang Qing sisters… perfect!" Yan Buji gritted his teeth as he tended the wound.

He hadn't expected the opponent could even summon such a hidden‑world assassin; it seemed the Mysterious Sect and the Fa Tian Sect were determined to put him to death.

Hiring assassins isn't a low‑blow; a great power can manage its own affairs, but hunting a phantom who appears and disappears leaves no time or energy, so they must hand the job to professionals.

Almost every assassin organization in the cultivation world has its own exclusive secret technique for tracking people.

He swallowed several healing pills and began attempting to repair the Swallow Desire Pot. Yet the fusion of bronze fragments with the pot's body was too arcane; ordinary refining methods were useless.

Just as he was at a loss, a memory of a "blood forging method" in refining arts flashed.

"Using blood as guide, using Dao as fire..." Yan Buji hesitated briefly, then resolved. He cut his wrist, letting fresh blood soak the pot while channeling the little Dao power left in his body.

As the blood forging progressed, the crack on the Swallow Desire Pot began to heal slowly. But Yan Buji also noticed a terrifying phenomenon: the azure markings on the pot's surface were spreading up his arm!

"Is this… backfire?" Yan Buji tried to stop, but found the connection could not be severed. The azure markings crawled up his arm like a living thing, turning the skin they passed into a strange bronze hue.

In the critical moment, the distorted Dao Mark on his left eye suddenly flared. Azure light clashed fiercely with the markings, eventually reaching a subtle balance. When the dust settled, Yan Buji saw his left forearm fully transformed into bronze, etched with Dao markings identical to those on the Swallow Desire Pot.

"Fortune and disaster are intertwined..." Yan Buji chuckled bitterly as he moved his bronze arm. Though grotesque, the hand contained terrifying power; with a light squeeze he pulverized a piece of Fivefold Transformation Spiritual Material into dust!

Even more astonishing, he could now activate the pot's power directly through his bronze forearm without extracting it. The six Dao seals seemed to have undergone some mutation.

Nevertheless, he still needed to restore his original state; his Martial Dao practice demands the unity of spirit and flesh, and while the bronze forearm temporarily boosts combat, it offers no future benefit.

"Sigh..." a ruthless glint flashed in Yan Buji's eyes, "Since that's the case, don't blame me for flipping the table!"

He took out several blank jade slips and engraved portions of the Dao Strategy Mysterious Chapter from memory. This time, however, he deliberately altered key sections, especially those about "simultaneously practicing different techniques," a slight change would cause spiritual energy backflow!

"Doesn't Listening Rain Tower love to hunt?" Yan Buji sneered, "Then let more people join the fun!"

Three days later, major black markets across the Southern Border simultaneously listed a mysterious seller offering the "Dao Strategy Mysterious Chapter fragments" at exorbitant prices. Though costly, they were snapped up by all major powers. Soon, rumors spread in the cultivation world of cultivators going berserk after refining the "Mysterious Chapter"...

The mastermind, Yan Buji, had changed his identity, infiltrating the chaotic "Ghost Market" of the Ten Thousand Dao Mountains as a refining master. There, he heard an intriguing rumor:

"The pot demon has resurfaced!"

"People of Listening Rain Tower are said to have killed many who seized the Dao Strategy Mysterious Chapter fragments!"

"Those assassins are so ruthless they even put a Great Vehicle Stage descendant to death!"

"Now Listening Rain Tower withdraws all assassins, publicly stating they weren't responsible!"

"Who knows?"

Yan Buji toyed with the newly bought refining materials, a smile flickering in his eyes. It seemed the Dao Strategy Mysterious Chapter still had market value, so he scattered half of his Patterned Profound Skill engravings everywhere, aiming to sow chaos in the cultivation world.

As for those 'assassins' of Listening Rain Tower?

Who did it need not be further discussed.

"But I don't recall killing a Great Vehicle Stage descendant; could there still be someone fishing in the murky waters?" Yan Buji said with a strange expression.

"Never mind, it's all the work of Listening Rain Tower's assassins, what's it to me?"

A few more days passed.

Deep within the pitch‑black underground river, Yan Buji sat cross‑legged on a damp rock, the Dao markings on his bronze arm flickering faintly, resonating with the hovering Swallow Desire Pot before him. The crack on the pot had healed most of the way, but the counterfeit Dao Strategy fragments he had deliberately spread were now stirring a bloody storm across the entire Southern Court cultivation realm.

It was simple: even if only half was real, that half was truly real.

Some doubted, but others discerned how profound that half of the chapter was, and precisely because of that, great powers were drawn into the fray!

When great powers fall, uninformed lone cultivators also scramble for the spoils; who doesn't want a good prize?

Moreover, Yan Buji can freely alter his appearance, and the Dao's protection shields him from deduction, while he intermittently sells fake chapters, so no one notices him.

Furthermore, many clever cultivators have seized the trend, mass‑producing fake chapters; Yan Buji mingles among them, mixing true and false, selling haphazardly—who can catch him?

"Listening Rain Tower… ha," he sneered, lightly running his fingertips over the pot's surface.

The altered Dao Strategy fragments outwardly described profound Dao cultivation methods, but in reality, anyone following those instructions would, within three days, suffer a reverse flow in their meridians—light damage to cultivation, severe could cause the body to explode and die.

This let Yan Buji breathe a quiet sigh; fortunately, back then he had cultivated the complete Dao Strategy.

"Since you want to kill me, let's see who is forced into a dead end first."

Yan Buji rose slowly, his bronze arm clenching hard; a strange suction burst from his palm, instantly draining the spiritual energy from the dark river, turning it into wisps of blue smoke that merged into the pot.