The Struggle of Chaos Chapter Sixty-Eight: An Unexpected Assassination

Beitong Pass.

"Your accommodations are in the Eastern and Northern barracks, respectively. These are the martial arts techniques assigned to you." Ren Xingtian gave brief instructions to the two silent men.

"You shouldn't have saved us," Lin Xuan suddenly spoke.

Ren Xingtian nodded in agreement, helplessly. "Indeed, I shouldn't have. I don't know what you've been through, but there's not a shred of hope left in your eyes. What's the point in saving two dead men?"

"Then why did you save us?" Zhu Long asked.

Ren Xingtian smiled. "Because my superior, Li Qiutong, said he doesn't believe anyone's heart can truly die. He thinks there must still be something you want to do, and he's willing to give you a hand." He paused, then continued, "So you should be grateful you met the most unconventional leader. I don't expect you to be exceptional—just don't drag the army down."

He watched the two thoughtful men walk into their barracks, then turned and left. As the saying goes, man proposes, God disposes. No matter how Ren Xingtian calculated, he could never know what these two once were, how powerful they had been. Even less could he foresee the impact they would have on Beitong Pass, or on Li Qiutong.

At the city lord's log cabin, Li Qiutong stood alone in front of the hut, practicing martial arts. Ever since her Four Symbols Fist reached the level of martial arts master, she felt she had hit a bottleneck. Perhaps her progress had been too rapid, causing her foundation to become unsteady, so she decided to start over with the Eight Trigrams Fist—the very foundation of the entire Infinite Fist.

After completing a set, Li Qiutong still felt unsatisfied, or perhaps her mind was drifting. The quiet surroundings, the simple wooden cabin, the familiar Eight Trigrams Fist—it was as if she were back at Qiuming Mountain years ago. Only, there was no longer a grandfather dozing in a chair outside the cabin.

Li Qiutong gazed at the empty doorway, lost in memories. She stood there, motionless, completely unaware of anything unusual around her.

In the darkness, five figures clad in black surrounded Li Qiutong, whose mind was blank. They had been lying in wait for a long time, searching for the perfect moment. Watching him for a while, seeing no movement, and sensing no energy from him.

They acted instantly. Almost simultaneously, each took their designated role and launched an attack.

The first assassin, wielding a short blade, appeared behind Li Qiutong in a flash. Li Qiutong remained dazed, oblivious to the danger at his back.

It wasn't until the dagger sliced his skin that he snapped out of his reverie. Instinctively, he shifted his body, avoiding the blade that was meant for his heart.

Time was short, and the dagger still pierced beneath his ribs. His black martial energy erupted, blasting the assassin away.

Li Qiutong clutched his bleeding wound, but before he could think, two arrows whistled through the air. He quickly summoned the Black Tortoise martial energy to defend himself.

The arrows, infused with sharp martial power, struck vital points, but fortunately, the Black Tortoise energy was resilient, and Li Qiutong remained unharmed. Still, he had no time to rest. Two more assassins in black leapt out, joining the first to charge at Li Qiutong.

Li Qiutong’s face darkened as he watched the three attackers coordinate their assault. With the two archers hidden in the darkness, there were five in total—all martial arts grandmasters. If he remembered correctly, they were known as Heaven-ranked assassins.

Sensing Li Qiutong’s peril, the Yin-Yang Dragon-Patterned Staff leaning against the wall suddenly floated up and flew straight toward him, so quickly the assassins were shocked.

In such a moment, Li Qiutong didn’t hesitate. He grabbed the staff, and his martial energy instantly surged to a higher level.

Facing assassins, Li Qiutong relied on his old tactics. Brown martial energy spread out, causing the assassins to slow, as if something held them back.

But the three Heaven-ranked assassins, daring to attack a Saint Martial Artist, were not unprepared. Almost at once, they coordinated to form a martial energy construct—a black needle, but as thick as a finger, resembling a dagger. Their martial energies linked together like a military formation, boosting their power. They broke free from the brown energy’s restraint and rushed Li Qiutong again.

Li Qiutong hadn’t been idle; using the brief pause, he summoned Ze Sheep. Yet even with Ze Sheep’s aid, his brown energy couldn’t significantly hinder the assassins’ martial energy constructs.

“Let’s try this,” he murmured. As the three drew near, a white celestial horse appeared in midair.

Li Qiutong planted his staff and leapt upward. The assassins remained calm, each black needle guarding a side, forming a vast barrier.

Attempting to soar on the horse, Li Qiutong felt himself collide with something and was knocked back to the ground. The three seized the moment, converging and stabbing at his vital spots.

Against the combined martial energy of three grandmasters, Li Qiutong’s singular Dry energy was insufficient to fully repel them. The daggers pierced through his energy and grazed his body. Yet his physique, at the level of a Saint Martial Artist, was tough to fully penetrate.

Feeling their weapons stall, the assassins instinctively withdrew. As they retreated, arrows flew at Li Qiutong, but the celestial horse shielded him with its body. Those arrows, too, were martial energy constructs, and the horse, exhausted, began to fade.

Using his staff for support, Li Qiutong slowly stood. The assassins’ skill was undeniable—had it been an ordinary One-Star Saint Martial Artist, they would not have survived.

Currently, Li Qiutong was trapped in the Black Needle Brothers’ web. From the start, he had never seized the initiative, always forced to defend. Had he prepared, he could have widened the distance and used the speed of the Wind Fist to entangle them, waiting for an opening to strike. But reality was harsh. His wounds throbbed, the largest torn wider from the recent clash.

“Looks like I have to risk everything.” Unable to fight a long battle, Li Qiutong knew his only chance was to finish it in the next move, or his life would truly be at risk.

Li Qiutong raised his staff to the sky. The nearly spent celestial horse unfurled its white wings once more, and Ze Sheep leaped onto its back. Brown and white martial energies fused, transforming into fiery red Vermilion Bird energy. The constructs became a soaring Vermilion Bird spirit. Though its form was faint—proof that Li Qiutong’s energy hadn’t yet reached Four Symbols Grandmaster level—it was enough to tear the black web apart. As the Vermilion Bird ascended, the black needle web shattered, and the spirit grew ever more transparent.

“Yin-Yang Roaring Waves Strike!” he shouted. The fiery energy on the Yin-Yang Dragon-Patterned Staff followed the black and white dragons’ patterns, splitting into brown and platinum martial energies.

Li Qiutong swung the staff down hard, smashing it into the ground. The Vermilion Bird followed, crashing into the earth.

In an instant, a massive explosion swept across Beitong Pass. The ground shook violently, as if giant waves surged beneath it.

The three assassins closest to Li Qiutong suffered the worst—unable even to stand. Their weak defenses were shattered, their internal organs ruptured by the force. The two archers in the distance also collapsed, their fate uncertain.

When the shockwave faded, Li Qiutong could no longer stand and fell to the ground.

He was only discovered when Ren Xingtian and others arrived after sensing the disturbance.

Many rushed to the scene: Ren Xingtian and Lone Wolf from the Western barracks, Deng Zhanxuan, Lone Wolf, Bi Luo, and Zhu Yan’er from the Northern barracks. Some brave soldiers made it to the city lord’s cabin in the Eastern barracks.

“Ah Xuan, what happened?” Ren Xingtian asked as he arrived, seeing soldiers surrounding the cabin. Deng Zhanxuan and others were inside, watching over Li Qiutong, who still slept.

Deng Zhanxuan explained, “Big Brother was attacked by assassins. He killed them all, but when I arrived, he was already on the ground with many wounds. Miss Bi Luo helped bandage him, and we carried him to bed.”

“How’s Brother Tong?”

Bi Luo, who had bandaged him, replied, “No danger to his life, the bleeding has stopped. But he’s exhausted and needs rest before he can wake.”

Hearing this, Ren Xingtian breathed a sigh of relief. “Any idea who they were?”

Bi Luo shook her head. “All in black, nothing to identify them. But to push General Li to this extent, they must be named assassins from the rankings.”

Just then, Lone Wolf entered. “I know them—they’re the Black Needle Brothers, Heaven-ranked assassins, ranked sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen on the list.” Having spent time among the Blades, Lone Wolf had encountered them before. Though only Heaven-ranked, together they could even assassinate a Saint Martial Artist. Aside from the god-ranked assassin Blade Tip, they were the Blades’ strongest team.

“The Blades?” Ren Xingtian recalled the conflict with them. Although Li Qiutong said today he’d uproot the Blades, no actions had yet been taken, so the enemy couldn’t have known.

“What’s really going on?” Ren Xingtian’s mind was clouded, unable to grasp how Li Qiutong ended up the target of an assassination attempt.