We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real?

Chapter 483: How Very Courteous of Your Tushan Clan!

The figure in black silently suppressed every trace of their presence and stepped without a sound into the courtyard.

The door was pushed open with a gentle hand, and the night poured in through the gap like a tide, filling the room with a deep, murky darkness.

Their gaze locked onto the sleeping figure on the bed. Their footsteps were measured and steady as they drew closer, one step at a time.

Raising the longsword in hand, the figure in black suddenly drove it downward with full force, plunging it straight toward Xiao Mo's heart.

The tip of the blade pierced into Xiao Mo's flesh without the slightest resistance. The sensation of breaking through skin and entering the body was vivid and unmistakable, and blood sprayed outward.

They twisted their wrist, wrenching the blade violently within the wound, and poured spiritual energy into it.

A thunderous crack rang out.

On the bed, Xiao Mo's body suddenly exploded, scattering into a mist of blood that hung in the air.

"Dead, just like that?"

The target had died far too easily. This job had been over far too quickly, and the swiftness of it left them with a nagging sense that something was wrong and yet they truly could not detect even the faintest trace of life remaining in the room. The silence all around was perfectly undisturbed but just as they sheathed their sword and turned to leave, the young man who had been lying on the bed appeared before them once more.

"By rights, I have no quarrel with anyone. Why have you come to kill me?"

Xiao Mo regarded them with a calm expression, his tone carrying not the slightest edge of anger, as though he were simply asking an unremarkable question and wanted nothing more than a straightforward answer.

The figure in black made no reply. Their foot stamped hard against the ground and the blade thrust out again, driving straight for Xiao Mo's throat.

Xiao Mo raised a hand and formed a seal.

In an instant, fallen bamboo leaves from throughout the courtyard rose into the air and gathered before him, forming a curtain of deep green that caught the sword's tip squarely.

The leaves then began to swirl and coil, winding their way up the length of the blade, gradually covering the entire sword and creeping further still toward the figure in black's arm.

The figure's heart lurched. They gave their wrist a sharp snap, releasing a burst of spiritual energy that scattered the leaves in all directions but in that split second of movement, the scattered leaves abruptly transformed into slender green serpents that raised their heads, flickering their tongues, and lunged forward.

The figure in black burst through the window and out into the open but behind them, the bamboo leaves gathered once more, becoming several emerald chains that wound through the air in pursuit as though with a life of their own, reaching out to bind them.

At the same time, razor-edged blades of wind came howling in from all four directions, slashing toward them with savage force.

High above in the night sky, the white clouds that had been drifting idly suddenly stilled, and then transformed one by one into great white longswords hanging suspended in the heavens. In the next instant they broke through the air and plunged down toward the figure in black.

"What technique is this?"

The figure's brow furrowed hard, their heart gripped with a sharp unease.

They had taken countless lives and never seen anything like this, as though all of heaven and earth were at this person's disposal, a single blade of grass, a fallen leaf, a gust of wind, even the drifting clouds above, all of it transformed into weapons for the kill.

"Get back!"

The figure in black let out a low, fierce shout, and the sword energy around their body surged outward, shattering the oncoming wind blades in all directions.

They understood clearly that probing further would get them nowhere. This person's depths were beyond measuring. It was time to go all out.

The figure immediately activated their sword technique. The longsword in hand split into two, then two into four, and in the blink of an eye, a multitude of sword shadows coalesced before them, forming ring upon ring of densely layered sword wheels, gleaming with a cold and terrible light.

"Die!"

They thrust the longsword forward, and more than a thousand sword shadows responded as one, forming four vast rivers of swords that came sweeping toward Xiao Mo simultaneously from all four cardinal directions.

Faced with this ferocious assault, Xiao Mo's expression remained as still and undisturbed as water. There was not the faintest flicker of panic in him.

He stepped forward, and the bamboo leaves beneath his feet moved with the will of his heart.

In that same instant, the leaves transformed likewise into four rivers of green swords and rushed upward to meet the opposing four head-on.

The two sets of sword rivers crashed against each other in midair. Bamboo leaves tumbled and spun. Sword shadows clashed and crossed.

The four rivers formed of condensed sword energy began to dim and break apart under the relentless erosion of the bamboo leaves.

The rivers of bamboo leaf swords, their momentum undiminished, carried their killing edge straight toward the figure in black.

Countless swords formed from bamboo leaves pierced through the figure's body. They let out a muffled groan and fell from the air, striking the ground with a heavy crash.

Xiao Mo walked forward at a measured pace, snapped off a bamboo branch nearby with a casual hand, and leveled it at the figure's throat. "I will ask you once more. Why did you try to kill me? Or rather, who sent you to kill me? Tell me clearly, and I will spare your life."

"Heh heh heh..."

A low, cold laugh rose from the figure in black, and a vicious light passed through their eyes.

Without warning, they suddenly spat a flash of cold light from their mouth.

Xiao Mo had no time to dodge. A miniature flying sword pierced between his brows in an instant.

The light drained from Xiao Mo's eyes. His pupils slowly lost their focus, his body went limp, and he collapsed to the ground.

The figure in black stared at the fallen form, breathing hard, a thin smile rising to the corner of their lips but just as they believed they had finally succeeded, the figure lying on the ground gradually became transparent, and in the end faded into nothing, dissolving away into the night.

"Three times is the limit. I will give you one last chance. Why did you try to kill me?"

That familiar voice came drifting forward from somewhere behind them.

The figure in black's whole body went rigid. They spun around sharply.

Xiao Mo stood there completely unharmed, his expression as calm as ever, as though none of what had just occurred had happened at all.

"How is this possible..."

The figure stared at him with wide eyes, their voice filled with disbelief.

Twice now.

They had killed him twice with their own hands and yet he kept appearing before them again, whole and unscathed.

Knowing the situation was beyond salvaging, they made the immediate decision to withdraw, to preserve their life and reconsider from a position of safety but the very instant they moved to pull back, the ground beneath their feet erupted violently, the earth surging and turning.

In moments, the soil rose up and wrapped around them, leaving only their head free above the surface, every limb trapped and immovable.

"Since you will not speak, I have no choice but to do this."

Xiao Mo walked forward at an unhurried pace, raised his hand, and pressed the tip of one finger lightly to the figure's forehead. He began to search their soul.

He had not wished to use soul-searching.

Because the soul of an assassin like this was certain to have a prohibition sealed into it, and if he were not careful and accidentally triggered it, the result could be complete destruction of body and soul, severing the trail entirely.

And so it proved. The instant Xiao Mo's divine sense entered, he detected the anomaly.

Deep within this person's mind, a tightly woven soul prohibition had indeed been laid in place.

Xiao Mo steadied his breath and stilled his mind. A faint light shimmered at his fingertip as he began carefully working to undo the prohibition.

Time passed second by second. Fine beads of sweat had gathered at Xiao Mo's temple.

Then, just as he had broken through roughly half of the prohibition's structure, Xiao Mo's concentration suddenly snapped taut.

The soul prohibition within the person's mind had abruptly changed in that very instant.

"Not good!"

In the waking world, Xiao Mo's eyes flew open. His feet drove backward and he put distance between himself and the figure in black in an instant.

In truth, the entire battle that had just played out had been an illusion.

From the moment the figure in black entered his room, they had been ensnared within Xiao Mo's illusory technique and the instant Xiao Mo pulled back, the figure in black, still trapped within the illusion, let out a single, piercing shriek.

Then, without any warning, their entire body ignited spontaneously. The flames roared up, and in moments they had been reduced to a handful of ash that scattered and drifted away on the wind.

Xiao Mo stood fixed in place, staring at the ash, his brow drawn tightly together, his expression grave.

"The Upper Three Realms?"

Xiao Mo murmured to himself.

Only a cultivator of the Upper Three Realms with a thorough command of the art of the soul could have laid a prohibition with a triggered variation of that nature.

"Could it be... that Chen Jue means to have me killed?"

The thought passed through Xiao Mo's mind, and he turned it over but he dismissed it quickly.

His conflict with Chen Jue was a matter of several years ago now.

If Chen Jue had truly intended to act, he would have moved long before this. Why wait until today?

And beyond that, Chen Jue would never dare to have someone killed within the grounds of the Hanshan Academy.

But if not Chen Jue, then who?

At that same moment, in a courtyard on the main peak of the Hanshan Academy, the Academy's Dean, Cun Caiguang, looked at the envoy standing before him and could not help but let out a sigh.

"Coming all the way here specifically to deliver word before having someone killed."

"How very courteous of your Tushan clan!"