The Black Armored Guards were indeed the emperor’s personal troops. They were highly trained, and even while being attacked from both sides, their formation remained unshaken and their ferocity undiminished. Although Song Ze and the others were elite fighters, they were outnumbered and already wounded from the earlier battle, leaving them at a disadvantage.
Cheng Yao hid in the shadow of a large tree, holding her breath as she observed the scene.
She noticed that although those “bandits” appeared to be fighting the Black Armored Guards, many of their attacks intentionally or otherwise blocked Song Ze and the others’ escape routes. They clearly had not come to kill the Black Armored Guards. Their true targets were these covert guards as well!
They were borrowing the Black Armored Guards’ hands—or coordinating with them tacitly—to eliminate Zhan Haoting’s hidden forces!
After a quarter of an hour, Song Ze and the others, caught between the black-clad “bandits” and the Black Armored Guards, were already struggling desperately, beset by danger on all sides!
“Pfft!”
One of the covert guards was protecting a companion when a poisoned dagger wielded by a “bandit” slashed across his arm. His movements immediately faltered, and in the next instant, a Black Armored Guard’s long saber struck him across the back, sending blood spraying everywhere!
“Wang Ming!” one of the covert guards cried out. He tried to rescue his companion, but two Black Armored Guards held him fast.
Song Ze himself was drenched in blood. His old wounds had split open, and several new ones had been added. His movements had visibly slowed, and an air of grim resolve—of someone prepared to die—had already entered his eyes.
If this continued, their covert guard squad would be completely wiped out here in less than half an hour!
Cheng Yao’s heart clenched.
These covert guards were crucial to Zhan Haoting’s recovery of his strength. She could not simply stand by and watch them die!
With no time to think, she swiftly took a black scarf from her spatial storage and covered her head and face, leaving exposed only a pair of eyes so cold and composed that they were almost terrifying.
She drew a deep breath, then merged with the darkness at the edge of the battlefield like a ghost.
She did not choose to confront them head-on. Instead, she used the unpredictability and uncanny mobility granted by her teleportation to carry out precise assassinations!
A Black Armored Guard was raising his saber to strike down an injured covert guard lying on the ground when he suddenly felt a chill at the back of his neck. Before he could react, a cold dagger had already sliced cleanly through his throat!
His eyes widened in disbelief before he crumpled to the ground.
A “bandit” grinned maliciously as he launched a surprise attack on Song Ze from the flank. He was just about to fire a poisoned dart from his blowpipe when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his wrist. His entire hand had been severed at the joint!
He let out a scream and turned around in terror, but all he saw was a shadow that swept past like drifting smoke before vanishing behind a nearby tree.
“There’s an expert hidden among them! Stay alert!” Zhou Yan was the first to realize that something was wrong, and he shouted furiously.
He swung his saber to force back a covert guard, his sharp gaze sweeping across the chaotic battlefield. Yet he could never pinpoint the exact location of that strange shadow.
Cheng Yao was like a god of death in the night. Every brief flash of teleportation was accompanied by the fall of either a Black Armored Guard or a “bandit.”
She targeted those who posed the greatest threat to the covert guards, or those who were on the verge of landing a killing blow.
Her movements were swift, precise, and ruthless, without a trace of ornamentation. She struck for one purpose alone: to kill.
Daggers, silver needles, even stones picked up from the ground became deadly weapons in her hands.
Her arrival shattered the balance of the battlefield.
The pressure on Song Ze and the others eased considerably. Although they had no idea what was happening, their instinct for survival made them seize the opportunity and launch a fierce counterattack.
Zhou Yan was both shocked and enraged. He had never imagined that, besides these two groups, such a strange and troublesome expert had been lurking in the shadows!
He charged forward with his saber, attempting to lock onto that shadow. But Cheng Yao’s teleportation followed no discernible pattern. More often than not, just as he reached her last position, she had already appeared several yards away—and taken the opportunity to kill two more of his men.
The slaughter grew ever more brutal.
The battle had begun to turn because of Cheng Yao’s intervention, but instead of feeling joy, Song Ze and the others were overwhelmed by shock and an even deeper fear.
Their attempt to assassinate Zhou Yan had been a dangerous gamble from the beginning.
They had received intelligence that Zhou Yan possessed certain clues identifying their master, Zhan Haoting, as the mastermind behind that earth-shattering case in the capital—a case of immense consequence that had sent shock waves through the imperial court.
To extinguish that dangerous spark, they had decided to take the risk and ambush him on the road.
But the masked figure who had suddenly appeared before them, with his strange and unfathomable skills, could easily lead people to connect him with the case in the capital.
He had come to their aid. Would that not prove that their master, Zhan Haoting, was involved?
“We can’t leave anyone alive!”
Song Ze exchanged a resolute look with the few surviving covert guards.
No matter what this masked person’s purpose was, and no matter whose side those “bandits” were on, if even a single word about what had happened tonight leaked out—especially if Zhou Yan reported the masked figure’s existence—then their master, Zhan Haoting, would face utter ruin!
The threat of exterminating his entire clan was no idle warning!
Everyone here had to be killed: the Black Armored Guards, the mysterious “bandits,” and this strange masked figure as well.
Only then could they keep the secret to the greatest extent possible and win their master a slim chance of survival!
Yet ideals were plump, while reality was painfully thin.
The few of them were already covered in wounds. Even with the masked figure’s assistance, completely wiping out several dozen elite Black Armored Guards and the equally formidable “bandits” was still nearly impossible!
A flicker of anxiety crossed Song Ze’s eyes. His attacks grew increasingly desperate. He fought as though he were willing to trade injury for injury and life for life.
Hidden in the darkness and constantly teleporting around the battlefield to launch surprise attacks, Cheng Yao keenly detected Song Ze’s intentions, as well as the near-suicidal change in his fighting style.
Her thoughts raced. Combining what she saw with the chaotic situation before her, she understood everything in an instant!
Damn it!
She had been so eager to save them that she had overlooked the most crucial point. Her appearance and this bizarre ability of hers could not clear Zhan Haoting of suspicion. Instead, they might confirm that he was connected to that “earth-shattering case”!
Song Ze and the others might even regard her as an accomplice of the criminals—along with Zhou Yan and those “bandits”!
Given the current situation, Song Ze and the others intended to kill the wrong person rather than let the right one go. They were planning to silence her along with everyone else!
She had completely made things worse while trying to help!
Cheng Yao cursed inwardly.
Song Ze and the others’ wounds worsened as they fought with increasingly desperate determination. After the initial chaos, the Black Armored Guards and the “bandits” gradually stabilized their positions under Zhou Yan’s command and began an organized encirclement.
If this dragged on, they would not only fail to silence everyone—they would all die here themselves!
Cheng Yao grew anxious. She could no longer afford to worry about anything else.
She teleported again, breaking away from the center of the battle and arriving in a relatively safe patch of shadow. Her consciousness sank into her spatial storage, where she quickly located the tear-gas grenades she had collected earlier. She had originally intended to save them for a critical moment, either to disrupt an enemy’s vision or drive away wild beasts. She had never expected to use them here first.
After estimating the wind direction and distance, she hurled two tear-gas grenades toward the most densely packed area of the battlefield!
“Bang! Bang!”
Two muffled explosions rang out. Two thick clouds of yellowish-white smoke, filled with a powerful, acrid stench, burst open and rapidly spread through the area!
“Cough, cough, cough!”
“My eyes!”
“Is this poisonous smoke?”
The Black Armored Guards and the mysterious “bandits” were all engulfed by the sudden cloud of smoke!
The intensely irritating gas seared their eyes, nasal passages, and throats. In an instant, tears streamed down their faces and they began coughing uncontrollably. Their combat ability plummeted, and their formations fell into complete disarray!
