Night fell over the Princess's Manor. The West Courtyard was silent, save for the chirping of crickets and the scratching of metal on metal.
Inside the dilapidated main room, Li Ye sat at a table covered in dangerous clutter.
He held a silver needle in a pair of iron tongs, heating it over a blue flame. Beside him sat a bowl of bubbling green liquid—a mixture of the "Spirit Grass" he hadn't sold and the venom sac of a common garden viper he'd found in the weeds.
"Master," Su Qinghan asked, watching him work. She was polishing a rusty iron sword they had bought for cheap. "Why are we poisoning the needles? I can freeze their blood. We don't need tricks."
Li Ye dipped the red-hot needle into the poison. Hiss.
"Efficiency, Qinghan," Li Ye said, placing the blackened needle into a spring-loaded bamboo tube. "You have the Qi reserves of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, but you have the combat experience of a sheltered saintess. You trade blows= You waste energy."
He looked up, his eyes cold.
"Tonight, we are not fighting a duel. We are liquidating a liability. The goal is to expend minimum resources for maximum lethality."
He picked up a small, round ball wrapped in paper. It contained the sulfur and charcoal he had bought (the gunpowder ingredients), mixed with crushed blinding powder.
"These are Thunder Flash Beads," Li Ye explained. "They won't kill a cultivator. But they will overload their optic nerves for three seconds. In a fight, three seconds is an eternity."
He tossed the bead to her. She caught it, looking at it curiously.
"Go," Li Ye ordered. "Plant the perimeter sensors. The 'Auditors' will be here soon."
Midnight.
The moon was obscured by clouds. Perfect weather for murder.
Five shadows flickered over the high walls of the Princess's Manor. They moved with the silence of practiced killers, their auras suppressed to the limit.
These were the Black Wind Mercenaries, hired specifically by Shopkeeper Liu.
The Leader, a scarred man named Scarface Zhang (Qi Condensation 7th Stage), signaled his men.
Target: The Cripple and the Maid. Location: West Courtyard. Orders: Kill the man, capture the woman (for Liu's... personal use).
Zhang sneered behind his mask. 'Easy money. A trash husband and a pretty vase. We'll be done in five minutes.'
They landed softly on the roof tiles of the West Courtyard. Below them, the courtyard was dark and quiet.
"Go," Zhang whispered.
Two assassins dropped down into the garden to secure the perimeter.
Their feet touched the ground.
Click.
It wasn't a loud noise. Just the faint sound of a tripwire snapping.
BOOM!
The flowerbed beneath their feet exploded. Not with fire, but with a dense, choking white cloud.
"Argh!" "My eyes! It burns!"
The two assassins stumbled back, clawing at their faces. The Quick-Lime Dust Li Ye had buried mixed with the moisture in their eyes, creating a searing chemical burn.
"Ambush!" Zhang roared from the roof. "Kill them!"
He and the remaining two assassins drew their swords and dove toward the main door, intending to slaughter everyone inside before they could react.
They were mid-air when the Needle Array activated.
Li Ye hadn't used a complex formation. He had simply used physics. He had strung razor-thin transparent wires across the door frame at neck height.
The first assassin didn't see it. He flew forward, his momentum carrying him straight into the wire.
Squelch.
The wire sliced through his windpipe. He gurgled, clutching his throat, and crashed into the door, bleeding out instantly.
"What the—?!" Zhang landed, skidding to a halt just before the wire. "Traps! Watch the—"
Creak.
The door opened.
Li Ye sat in a chair in the middle of the room, sipping tea. He looked at the assassins calmly, illuminated by a single candle.
"You're late," Li Ye said. "I expected you ten minutes ago. Your stealth technique is sloppy."
"You trash!" Zhang roared, his eyes red with fury. "You think cheap tricks can stop a Qi Condensation expert?"
Zhang's aura exploded. He swung his heavy saber, unleashing a wave of blade energy that tore through the door frame, aiming to cleave Li Ye in half.
Li Ye didn't move. He didn't even blink.
Because a blur of white and silver intercepted the attack.
CLANG!
Su Qinghan stood before Li Ye. She held the rusty iron sword, but it was coated in a layer of thick, translucent ice.
She blocked Zhang's heavy saber with one hand. She didn't budge an inch.
"You..." Zhang's eyes widened. He felt a terrifying cold travelling up his saber, freezing his fingers. "Who are you?!"
"The Asset Manager," Su Qinghan said coldly.
She didn't use a fancy sword technique. She simply followed Li Ye's instruction: Go for the center of mass.
She stepped in and thrust.
Zhang panicked. He twisted his body, barely dodging the fatal strike, but the icy blade grazed his ribs.
Flash.
The wound didn't bleed. It froze instantly. The frost spread rapidly, stiffening his muscles.
"Kill her!" Zhang screamed to his last remaining subordinate.
The subordinate lunged at Su Qinghan's unprotected back.
"3 o'clock," Li Ye said from his chair.
Su Qinghan didn't look. She spun, releasing a Thunder Flash Bead from her sleeve.
BANG.
A blinding flash of magnesium light erupted in the dark room.
The subordinate screamed, blinded.
"Leg," Li Ye commanded.
Su Qinghan swept her sword low. The subordinate fell, his hamstring severed.
"Throat," Li Ye commanded.
She reversed the blade. Thud. The subordinate stopped moving.
It was a massacre. It wasn't a fight; it was a puppeteer controlling a lethal doll.
Zhang, now alone and half-frozen, stumbled back. He looked at the "Cripple" sitting in the chair, then at the silver-haired monster guarding him.
"You... you are devils!" Zhang gasped. "The Golden Cauldron Sect will not let this go! Shopkeeper Liu has connections with the City Lord!"
"I'm counting on it," Li Ye stood up.
He walked over to the terrified, frozen assassin. He held the bamboo tube in his hand.
"If I kill you," Li Ye said thoughtfully, "Liu will just send more men. Expensive men. That creates a deficit in my security budget."
He pressed the bamboo tube against Zhang's neck.
"So, I'm going to turn you into a message."
Click.
The spring released. A single, poison-coated needle embedded itself into Zhang's neck.
"Arrgh!" Zhang clutched his neck. "Poison?!"
"It's a slow-acting neurotoxin," Li Ye lied. (It was actually just viper venom mixed with a paralytic agent, it would hurt like hell but probably not kill him if treated). "You have one hour before your heart stops. Go back to Shopkeeper Liu."
Li Ye leaned in, his voice dropping to a whisper.
"Tell him that his Eternal Spring Cream is just the beginning. Tell him that if he sends another assassin, I won't target his men. I will target his supply chain. I will burn his herb gardens. I will poach his alchemists. I will ruin him."
Li Ye kicked Zhang toward the door.
"Run. You have 59 minutes."
Zhang didn't hesitate. Screaming in terror, he scrambled over the wall and vanished into the night.
Silence returned to the West Courtyard.
Su Qinghan flicked the blood off her sword. The ice coating shattered, taking the gore with it.
"Master," she said, breathing slightly heavily. "Why let him go?"
"Marketing," Li Ye said, kneeling to loot the bodies of the dead assassins. "Fear spreads faster than plague. By tomorrow, every merchant in the city will know that targeting us comes with a heavy price."
He stood up, holding three pouches of Spirit Stones he had found on the corpses.
"Revenue: 45 Spirit Stones," Li Ye counted. "Minus 5 stones for the trap materials. Net Profit: 40 Stones."
He tossed a pouch to Su Qinghan.
"Good work. Buy yourself some better clothes tomorrow. You represent the brand now."
Su Qinghan caught the pouch. She looked at Li Ye—this man who killed without blinking, who calculated lives like math problems.
For the first time, a small, genuine smile touched her lips.
"Yes, Master."
Meanwhile, in the Main Courtyard.
Princess Jiang Linyue was hiding under her blanket, trembling.
She had heard the explosion. She had heard the screams.
"Xiao Cui!" she whispered to her maid. "What is happening? Is Li Ye dead?"
The maid peeked out the window. "I... I don't know, Princess! I saw men in black go in... and then only one ran out screaming!"
Jiang Linyue gripped her sheets.
'He survived? Against assassins?'
She remembered the silver-haired woman. The way she had caught her wrist.
'Who is he really?' Jiang Linyue wondered, a shiver running down her spine that had nothing to do with the cold. 'And why... why am I suddenly terrified that I'm on the wrong side?'