The world was black.
Not night, not shadow — but a suffocating void where even light had been devoured.
Lin Feng stood in silence, sword in hand, his divine sense stretched to its limit. Every breath felt heavy, like breathing through tar. Even his heartbeat sounded distant.
"Illusion domain…" he muttered. "So that's your trick."
The Silent Viper's voice slithered from every direction.
"You're perceptive, Lin Feng. But knowledge alone won't save you. This is my world. Inside it, I am god."
His words echoed like whispers in a tomb.
Lin Feng closed his eyes. His Dragon Domain pulsed faintly, but its reach was being smothered — the illusion fed on his spiritual energy, turning strength into chains.
Every attempt to expand his domain only made the void tighter.
He took a slow breath.
Then — silence broke.
Swish!
A streak of green light flashed across the darkness, striking from behind. Lin Feng pivoted — his sword met it in midair, sparks flying.
But it wasn't a sword strike.
It was a needle, dripping with a venom so potent that space hissed where it passed.
The moment the blade blocked it, a thin wisp of black smoke rose from the Azure Sword's edge.
"Poison," Lin Feng whispered. "A saint-grade toxin… refined from Nether Viper essence."
"You recognize it?" The assassin's voice chuckled softly. "You truly live up to your reputation. Unfortunately—"
Before the sentence finished, Lin Feng's instincts screamed.
He moved — barely.
A second needle slashed through where his throat had been a moment earlier.
The Viper's form appeared behind him for a blink — pale, graceful, and deadly.
Then vanished again into mist.
---
Lin Feng swung his sword in a wide arc. Clang! A ripple of red light surged out, tearing through a dozen illusionary afterimages — only for each one to reform immediately.
He frowned.
"An illusion that reconstructs itself… so he's merging soul qi with venom qi."
The Silent Viper's voice echoed again, closer this time.
"You're clever, but cleverness doesn't save prey."
Shhk!
Three cuts appeared across Lin Feng's back — shallow, but fast enough to draw divine blood. It sizzled as it hit the blackened ground, releasing a faint hiss.
The Viper's tone was amused.
"Even Gods bleed, Lin Feng."
---
Lin Feng gritted his teeth, eyes glowing faintly golden. The Nine-Headed Dragon mark flared behind him, the faint roar of dragons echoing through the void.
"I've been patient," Lin Feng said coldly. "But if you insist on hiding…"
He lifted his sword skyward.
"Then I'll destroy your world."
---
Boom!
The Azure Sword flared with golden flame — divine essence surged through it, combining his Sword, Dragon, and Battle intents in a violent storm.
The illusionary world trembled, cracking like glass.
For a moment, light returned — he saw glimpses of the true valley, the shattered earth, the lingering fog.
And in that flicker, he saw him — the Silent Viper, crouched within a thin veil of reality, his body half-merged with shadow.
"Found you."
Lin Feng vanished.
Clang!
The two blades met — Lin Feng's sword versus the Viper's twin daggers. Sparks erupted like meteors.
The ground caved beneath their clash. Waves of divine qi rippled outward, shattering nearby rocks into dust.
The Viper moved like smoke, his movements silent, his daggers venomous and precise. Each strike aimed for Lin Feng's vital points — the heart, the throat, the temples.
Lin Feng countered with wide, sweeping strikes, his Dragon Domain trying to cage the elusive killer.
But every time he got close, the Viper slipped away — splitting into dozens of shadows, each one attacking from a different angle.
---
Then Lin Feng made a mistake — or at least, that's what the Viper thought.
A sudden overextension — his sword stuck deep into the ground after a parried swing.
The Viper appeared behind him instantly, daggers gleaming with poison.
"Die!"
Clang!
The moment his blades struck Lin Feng's back, light exploded — the illusion shattered completely, replaced by roaring dragons of divine qi.
It wasn't Lin Feng's back.
It was his afterimage.
The real Lin Feng appeared above, descending with his sword surrounded by dragon phantoms.
"Azure Sword Art — Seventh Stance: Heaven-Cleaving Dragon!"
Boom!
A beam of divine sword light crashed down like a falling star. The ground erupted — the Viper was thrown back, crashing into the valley wall with a violent burst of blood.
For the first time, the assassin's composure cracked. His body trembled, the illusion around him flickering weakly.
He coughed, blood black and thick with venom. "Heh… You forced me to show my true body."
He pressed his palms together. The air behind him split open, revealing a gigantic serpent phantom — a thousand meters long, its scales black as night, eyes glowing green.
"Nether Viper Manifestation!"
The phantom hissed, filling the valley with venomous qi. The rocks melted where it touched, turning into dark sludge.
Lin Feng's expression hardened. "A bloodline technique."
The assassin's smile turned cruel. "I am not some mere killer, Lin Feng. I was a saint's personal shadow once."
The serpent lunged.
Lin Feng met it head-on, his dragon phantom surging from behind him, nine heads roaring in defiance.
The two collided — venom against flame, corruption against purity.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Each impact split the air apart, sending shockwaves that flattened the forest miles away. The poison hissed, trying to corrode Lin Feng's aura, but the dragon flames devoured it, burning through corruption like sunlight through mist.
Yet the Viper was relentless — his movements became a blur, darting through his serpent phantom to strike again and again.
Lin Feng's armor cracked. Venom burned his skin where it grazed him.
He gritted his teeth, divine light flashing in his eyes.
"Enough."
He slammed his foot down — the ground fractured, divine flames erupting outward. His Slaughter Intent surged, fusing into his Dragon Intent. The air darkened, filled with the aura of death and divinity intertwined.
His sword gleamed red and gold.
"Merged Domain — Dragon of Slaughter!"
---
The serpent roared as Lin Feng's aura swallowed it whole.
The Viper's eyes widened — his shadow form flickered, destabilizing.
"No… impossible—"
Shiiing!
A single sword stroke.
When the light faded, the serpent was gone. The Viper stood still, eyes empty, before collapsing silently to the ground. His mask cracked, revealing a strangely peaceful expression beneath.
The mist lifted.
---
Lin Feng stood amid the ruins, his body trembling from the backlash of the merged intents.
His right arm bled, and faint traces of poison hissed from his veins — but his gaze was calm, his breathing steady.
He sheathed his sword slowly.
"Assassination Hall…" he murmured. "So this is the best you can do."
He looked toward the horizon — toward where the Ouyang family's banners burned in the distance.
"Six months left," he said softly.
"I'll make every day count."