The black-robed men froze once again, staring blankly at the youth in the center who stood with his sword in hand, an image of both god and demon.
In the span of a few breaths, two more of their Dou Shi-level leaders had fallen. One of them had even been a nine-star Dou Shi.
Zhou Changqing had no intention of letting them stand around gawking. He hoisted his heavy sword and charged at the leader who had just dodged his last attack.
Sparks flew as steel met steel with a resounding clang.
"What are you all staring at? Attack together! I refuse to believe his inner armor can withstand all our attacks!" the black-robed leader roared, desperately parrying and evading. He held out for only a few seconds before Zhou Changqing's blade took his arm. Clutching the bleeding stump, he glared at his stunned subordinates and bellowed.
Shaken from their stupor, the black-robed men resumed their assault, but the terror in their eyes and the trembling of their hands betrayed their broken spirits. Their resolve had crumbled.
The three remaining Dou Shi leaders were now locked in a struggle with Zhou Changqing. They dodged his heavy sword while unleashing their own Dou Techniques, trying to shatter the defensive film of light that protected him. The other Dou Zhe-level assassins took advantage of the openings, striking whenever Zhou Changqing was focused on their leaders. A cacophony of clashing weapons filled the courtyard.
Under the relentless siege, the faint golden film around Zhou Changqing began to dim, as if it could not hold for much longer. This gave the black-robed men a glimmer of hope, and their attacks grew more frenzied. The three leaders, having learned their lesson, now avoided direct confrontation. They used their superior speed to keep him entangled, creating opportunities for their underlings to strike.
But they failed to notice that Zhou Changqing's expression had remained unchanged from the very beginning. Apart from a flicker of excitement, his gaze was as calm as still water, completely devoid of anxiety.
Once most of the dozen or so assassins had gathered closer, a sharp glint flashed in his eyes. In the next instant, he channeled his Dou Qi into the metal-attribute Monster Core embedded in the hilt of his heavy sword. The metallic energy within the core surged into the weapon's core inscriptions.
Instantly, the heavy sword was engulfed in a blinding golden light.
"Look out! Get back!"
The moment the light flared, the strongest of the three leaders, an eight-star Dou Shi, felt his heart pound. A critical function of Monster Core weapons had just come to mind: ranged attacks! In the chaotic whirlwind of shock, fear, and then hope, they had completely forgotten this crucial piece of information.
Unfortunately, his warning came too late.
A brilliant arc of golden sword energy, nearly five feet long, erupted from the heavy sword and scythed through the air. In an instant, the six or seven black-robed men in its path were sliced in half at the waist. A chorus of bloodcurdling screams followed.
"Run!"
At the sight of such a gruesome scene, one of the assassins' last vestiges of courage shattered. With a terrified cry, he turned and fled the courtyard. His panic was infectious. The remaining seven or eight men scattered in all directions, scrambling for their lives. The boy was a monster. His defenses were impenetrable, and a single one of his strikes meant death. It was an impossible fight.
Zhou Changqing did not pursue the fleeing minions. He focused his attention on the three leaders, ensuring the big fish had no chance to escape. They were just small fry; as long as he caught these three, it wouldn't matter.
"Dammit! No! I'm not dying here! I quit this mission!" the one-armed eight-star Dou Shi shrieked, narrowly dodging another cleave from the heavy sword. The fear in his eyes deepened as his mind raced, searching for an escape route. His gaze darted to the other two Dou Shi leaders, and a plan instantly formed.
As Zhou Changqing lunged at one of his comrades, the eight-star Dou Shi made his move, striking not at his enemy, but at the other leader.
"I have to live, sorry about this!" he snarled. With a ruthless glint in his eyes, he seized his comrade with his remaining hand and hurled him directly into Zhou Changqing's path.
"Steward Pu! What are you doing!"
A cry of disbelief and the sickening sound of a blade sinking into flesh came from behind him. The eight-star Dou Shi flinched but fled for the courtyard wall without a backward glance.
"You think you can come and go as you please? What do you take this place for?" A calm voice spoke from right behind him just as he was about to leap over the wall.
Before he could react, the heavy sword's blade pierced through his chest.
The eight-star Dou Shi's body went rigid. He looked down in disbelief at the sword tip protruding from his torso as his strength rapidly drained away.
"This... speed... you're... not... a Dou... Zhe... you're a... Dou... Shi..."
"Spare... spare me... I... can... tell you... who..." he begged, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, his voice a broken whisper.
"Sorry, you should have said that sooner. Rest in peace."
Zhou Changqing pulled the blade free. The man's body shuddered once before collapsing to the ground, never to rise again.
Flicking the blood from his sword, Zhou Changqing surveyed the corpses littering the courtyard. The sight was nauseating, and a headache was already setting in.
"What a mess. Looks like I'll have to bother Sister Ya Fei tonight," he muttered to himself. "But was this Qieerluo's doing? Six Dou Shi and a dozen Dou Zhe... that's nearly half his forces, isn't it? To send such a lineup just to capture me seems like overkill."
It might have looked like he was slaughtering them with ease, but he knew better. He had only won so decisively because they had a poor understanding of his Monster Core Armament and were completely unaware that he had already broken through to the peak of a four-star Dou Shi. If they had known and simply chosen to fight a battle of attrition, he would have been overwhelmed by the six Dou Shi after taking down only a fraction of their men. After all, the energy in his Monster Cores and his own Dou Qi reserves were finite.
Of course, even if they had opted for a war of attrition, such a large-scale battle would have eventually drawn unwanted attention, forcing them to retreat. This was why Zhou Changqing hadn't been truly worried. Ultimately, his Monster Core Armament was simply too overpowered compared to the standard equipment on the Dou Qi Continent. A Tier-2 Monster Core Armament was enough to allow him, a Dou Shi with an otherwise ordinary foundation, to single-handedly take on six other Dou Shi and their subordinates. The increase in combat power was not just double; it was several times over.
Shaking his head, Zhou Changqing dismissed the thoughts and started walking toward one of the leaders who was lying on the ground with his legs broken, feigning death.
He had barely taken two steps when an inexplicable dread surged from the depths of his soul and flooded his entire body.
"Activate!"
Without a shred of hesitation, Zhou Changqing erupted with his metal-attribute Dou Qi, reinforcing his Dou Qi Cloak while simultaneously pouring energy into a second set of inner armor hidden beneath his clothes.
CLANG!
A terrifying force slammed into his back the very instant his defensive film manifested. The impact was followed by a deafening shriek of metal, shaking the entire courtyard. Zhou Changqing was blasted off his feet like a cannonball, sent flying backward until he collided with the courtyard wall. The wall instantly crumbled on impact, sending rubble flying and kicking up a thick cloud of dust.