Chapter 506: Better Safe Than Sorry
"Knocked back by an external force?"
Upon hearing this, Shadow retorted, "Nonsense. How could he possibly inflict external damage on you all in just an instant? I saw it clearly—he merely waved his hand and never even touched your bodies. There's no way you were hit by any kind of external force."
"But it's true! We really were struck by an external force. If you don't believe me, ask the others!"
At that moment, Shadow questioned the other injured individuals present. Yet everyone gave the same response: during their brief exchange with Ye Tian, they had indeed been blasted away by a powerful external force in that single instant.
"How... how is that possible?"
Even now, Shadow couldn't bring himself to believe that Ye Tian had defeated them through sheer force.
After racking his brain for a while, he suddenly burst into loud laughter. "I get it now! I finally understand!"
Seeing him laugh so heartily, Ye Tian asked, "What are you laughing about? Did you figure something out?"
"I know why they're saying that. It's because they were poisoned and subjected to your suggestion techniques. There's a legend in the martial world about a kind of suggestion known as illusion arts—it makes injured people experience hallucinations. They must've been hallucinating!"
Ye Tian let out a sigh. "Wow. You've really got quite the imagination."
Ye Tian couldn't help but be impressed by how creative this guy was. Even he didn't know he had used any illusions, yet here Shadow was, insisting it was some kind of illusion art. If that's not a vivid imagination, what is?
"Kid, looks like I've already exposed your tricks. You won't be pulling any more stunts on me. From here on, I'm going to take you down with ease!"
"Oh? So you're saying my methods are poison and illusion techniques?"
"That's right. That's your trick. Though it's pretty clever, I've seen right through it."
Ye Tian was speechless. "And what exactly have you seen through? All of this is just in your head!"
He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Shadow had painted him as some kind of master of poison and illusion, but the truth was far simpler—Ye Tian had only used his inner spiritual power.
But then again, in this world, it seemed no one actually knew the method of cultivating with spiritual power.
Forget it. Let him think whatever he wants. For Ye Tian, the best course now was simply to wait and observe. Since Shadow was so confident he had "seen through" everything, then he might as well go ahead and test it out. After all, as the saying goes—practice is the only test of truth. Whether he was right or not, a battle would reveal all.
"You can go ahead and make your move now. What's the point of wasting time talking?"
Ye Tian was honestly too lazy to argue any further. Words were meaningless at this point—it was time to let fists do the talking.
Surely martial artists in this world possessed real strength, right? Ye Tian wanted to test himself against Shadow. Hopefully, the guy wouldn't disappoint.
"Alright, brat. I'd like to see what other tricks you've got left."
Shadow gave Ye Tian a cool smile. This kid seemed brimming with confidence, but Shadow had no idea where that confidence came from. Did he really think his little poison tricks and illusion gimmicks could take him down?
He was Shadow—his name struck fear in the hearts of the assassin world. There was no way this guy was his match!
"Go ahead and attack me. I'll even give you a free shot."
Ye Tian stood his ground and said to him.
"What? You're letting me attack first? That's hilarious. I wasn't this cocky at your age."
"That's because, back then, you had no reason to be cocky. But I'm different. If you want to beat me, you'd better be extra careful."
"Alright then, since you insist—I'm coming!"
Shadow charged at Ye Tian with incredible speed. But just as Ye Tian saw him approaching—wait, where did Shadow go?
No—two, four!
In that brief moment, Ye Tian saw Shadow's figure suddenly split in two, then into four, then eight!
And it seemed he was still multiplying.
"An illusion."
Turns out, the opponent also knew illusion techniques. But in that very instant, Ye Tian's eyes lit up—Demonbreaker!
He immediately locked on to Shadow's real body. All of the illusionary clones created by the technique instantly vanished.
"Trying to confuse me with illusions? You're being far too naive."
That was exactly what Ye Tian thought. To mislead him with illusion arts, the opponent's cultivation had to be stronger than his. But Shadow's level wasn't even close to his own—he was off by a mile. Thinking he could win with this level of power was laughable.
With a subtle shift of his body, Ye Tian evaded Shadow's attack entirely.
"What? I missed?"
Shadow's dagger cut through empty air. It had been aimed squarely at Ye Tian, but somehow ended up slicing nothing but wind.
That shook his confidence as an assassin.
What was going on? Why had his strike missed? By all logic, with all those clones, his opponent should've been thoroughly disoriented—dodging the attack should've been impossible.
This just didn't make sense!
"Something's wrong. That kid is hiding something!"
Ye Tian had already appeared at his side. "Not bad—your clone technique is decent. But it's still just an illusion. It's child's play against me."
"When did you get next to me?"
Startled, Shadow instinctively retreated. He hadn't expected Ye Tian to close the distance so fast. How had he done it? It didn't make sense. How did he break the illusion and identify the real body's position?