Chapter 94: The Shadows

Qin Yu walked on the dark streets. He didn’t go on the crowded and busy streets, instead sticking to the remote roads.

There naturally weren’t many people out on the remote roads. Occasionally there hanged a lantern on the houses, illuminating his dusky figure.

“Come, come catch me~, hehehe…”

Not too far ahead rung a young child’s playful voice.

Qin Yu’s footsteps paused, a smile on his face as he watched the children play noisily up ahead.

Each of the three children held a small lantern, the flame inside flickering as they chased each other.

“Don’t run, we’ll catch you! Haha!”

“In your dreams! You guys can’t catch me.”

A 4-5 year old young girl with flowery embroidered clothing ran forward with a green lantern in her hands, a young boy and girl chasing after her. They ran together in Qin Yu’s direction.

A soft, pure smile formed on Qin Yu’s face as he watched the group of innocent little children play carefreely and without worries.

“Ahh——!”

A cry suddenly rang out as the little girl ahead suddenly slipped. Her lantern fell from her hands and rolled away, the light in it extinguishing.

Qin Yu dashed forward almost instinctively to hold the girl up. He chuckled gently, “Little friend, are you alright?”

The little girl was very strong and stood up after wiping off her tears before shaking her head forcefully, “Big brother, thank you. I’m ok.”

“That’s good.” Qin Yu patted her head, smiling as he picked up the fallen lantern and returned it to her: “Hold it carefully.”

“En, thank you big brother. Big brother is a good person.” The little child’s soft voice rang out.

“Sigh, big brother was never a good person.” Qin Yu laughed.

“Big brother’s says he’s not a good person, but big brother doesn’t look like a villain.” The little girl looked at Qin Yu naively, not understanding why he said he wasn’t a good person.

Qin Yu smiled and didn’t know how to explain, “You should hurry and go home, alright? It’s so late and you guys are still running about. Your parents will be worried.”

“Okay, see you later!” The children waved their hands at Qin Yu before taking their lanterns and chasing each other all the way back home.

Qin Yu just stood there, watching the children chase each other. The soft smile on his face slowly faded away, turning cold.

“You’ve already been following me for such a long time, you should come out.”

After he spoke, a black robed figure slid out from the darkness behind him.

“I hadn’t thought you’d still be such a good person, hehe…..” Behind him, the black cloaked figure released an eerie laugh.

“I already said that I’ve never been a good person.” Qin Yu replied coldly.

“Is that so? I really want to test that.” The shadowy figure laughed evilly before suddenly releasing a sound alike to a howl in a horror movie.

“Aowooo!”

The sudden wolf-like howl in the cold night was very frightening, scaring the children who were chasing each other into stillness. The terrified children began to weep.

“Die!” A shadowy figure flew towards the children in the night sky. The blade’s sharp edge glinted coldly in the night as a deathly aura engulfed the three children.

“Be careful!” Qin Yu shouted, his figure turning into a beam as it streaked across the sky.

The black figure behind him attacked immediately after Qin Yu rushed out. The wound up sword qi was like a meteor, striking at his back. The strike didn’t have a berserk, imposing manner or a frightening hiss as it streaked across the horizon, but rather a frighteningly fast speed and a silent, intense, deathly qi.

His aim had always been after Qin Yu. Attacking those children was just to distract him.

Qin Yu released a beastly snarl as the blood saber in his hands released blinding trails of crimson light, streaking across the night sky and tearing apart the shadowy figure about to attack the children. The figure split into two parts as streams of red light filled the sky.

At the same time, a dazzling ray of sword qi rushed at Qin Yu’s back like a viper. There was no sound, but the sharpness of it was even enough to pierce through the golden silkworm armour.

Qin Yu suddenly noticed a bright light behind him and his body tensed in alarm.

“Qin Yu!” In the darkness, a woman cried out in worry. A cyan blade swept through the sky, fiercely chopping at the shadow behind Qin Yu.

“Argh!” Qin Yu shouted in rage, his image alike to a god’s, causing the earth to tremble with his roar. His aura exploded from his body berserkly as waves of qi blew around him, forming a small hurricane around his body. The qi surged, booming as it attacked the black figure behind him. The attacker’s surroundings seemed to have suddenly become a furious storm, causing him to falter a little, loosening the grip on his sword. In that instant, Qin Yu attacked.

“Blood Shadow Definite Kill!”

Scarlet light filled the sky as trails of blood red qi attacked.

‘Ka cha!’ ‘Ka Cha!’

Two crisp sounds echoed through the air as the assailant’s body was pierced by two attacks at the exact same time. Tendrils of crimson qi teared apart his body right at the same time a burst of cyan sword qi pierced the man.

“Bang!”

A loud sound suddenly echoed in the air as the attacker’s body suddenly exploded, spraying flesh and blood everywhere. A steady ‘drip’ ‘drip’ ‘drip’ sounded as blood rained down.

On the floor, the three children had already fainted from fear, their breaths weak. Perhaps this bloody scene would be engraved in their young hearts, becoming an eternal nightmare that would haunt them forever.

“Qin Yu, are you alright?”

Qing Yun rushed towards Qin Yu after landing on the ground, asking nervously. Just now, it was her who had acted.

“I’m alright. Why did you come?” Qin Yu put away his blood saber and asked casually.

“Earlier I went to the Su family to find you, but they said you already left and went in this direction. I followed their directions and then saw that man attacking you from behind so I quickly attacked him. Thankfully you’re fine.”

Qing Yun breathed a sigh of relief after she spoke, finally releasing the long previously planned explanation in her head. When she saw the sword light stabbing at Qin Yu earlier, her heart felt as if it was about to jump out of her chest. Although she knew Qin Yu had the Golden Silkworm Armour, it wasn’t guaranteed that it could stop the blade. It must be said that the armour endured a lot of damage during its time with Qin Yu.

“Thank you.” Qin Yu looked at Qing Yun and suddenly thanked her, causing Qing Yun to be startled.

“You’ve also saved me before. Besides, nothing would’ve happened to you even if I didn’t act earlier.” Qing Yun recovered from her daydream and replied, her head lowered. Her gaze landed on the three blacked out children: “What do

Qin Yu also looked at the three children, his face helpless as a bitter smile appeared on his face: “What else can we do but ask around. If we find somebody who knows them nearby, we can then bring them home.”

“En, alright. But I’m worried that the trauma left from today’s events can impact them in the future……” Qing Yun’s beautiful face revealed a trace of concern.

“Don’t worry, I know a way to make them forget about what just happened.”

It was just changing the memories in their soul. A cultivator’s soul was a lot stronger than an ordinary person’s. Although they still wouldn’t be able to manipulate an ordinary mortal’s, the three children didn’t have any defenses up so he could easily change a few things.

“Then doing that will be good. Let’s bring them back.” Qing Yun heaved a sigh of relief and was about to pick up the children to carry.

“Wait.” Qin Yu shouted at Qing Yun to stop.

“What?” Qing Yun was confused.

“Please protect the children.” Qin Yu’s face darkened as a cold light suddenly appeared in his eyes. He stared into the darkness: “Come out.”

“There’s still another?” Qing Yun was startled and immediately unsheathed her Azure Edge Sword, swinging it as she stood in front of the three children. Her face was serious as she protected them. The aura of the man hiding in the darkness seemed very strong, like a transformation realm master.

Qin Y’s pupils shrunk in shock as he watched the man walk out from the shadows: “It’s you?!”

It was the Su Family’s Su Wen.

Su Wen was currently a bit embarrassed, his face red. He, a grand transformation realm master had actually just been discovered by an immersion realm cultivator. It would be extremely shameful if news of this got out.

“Cough, cough.” Su Wen coughed awkwardly as he walked out, “Earlier when we were seeing you out, I noticed a person chasing after you so I followed along behind you in case he wanted to harm you. Luckily nothing happened so I can report back to the young miss without worry.”

“Liar.” Qin Yu sneered in his mind. Like hell he’d believe that. If it was really like that, then why didn’t he act just now? With his cultivation at transformation realm, that man probably wouldn’t even have the chance to attack.

“Oh right, how did you offend the Shadows?” Su Wen looked at the corpse and frowned.

“Shadows?” Qin Yu raised an eyebrow, “What’s that?”

Su Wen glanced at Qin Yu, a trace of disdain in his eyes. He actually didn’t even know about the Shadows- how ignorant.

“The Shadows are an enormous organization of assassins and in almost every country of the continent. Legend is their general headquarters lie deep inside Martial Heaven Empire, where the strongest cultivators are said to be. For them, our Qiongxi Country is only a very, very small branch……”

Qing Yun suddenly interrupted Su Wen, “I remember now. My father once told me that they were the strongest organization of assassins in Qiongxi Country and were experts in spying as well as assassination. It’s said that amongst the missions they receive, barely any of them fail.” Speaking to here, Qing Yun stood up worriedly. It would be terrible if Qin Yu really did irritate this organization.

“It’s not ‘barely any of them fail’, but rather none of them fail. The Shadows refuse to let a single mission fail and tarnish their reputation in the slightest.” Su Wen took Qing Yun’s words and stressed them.

“Didn’t they just fail now?” Qin Yu pointed out disdainfully. What ‘never fail’ nonsense. They had just ran into him and they failed.

Su Wen gave Qin Yu another contemptful stare, “This time they failed, but there’s still a next time. If the next time also fails, then they’ll continue again and again. The mission only finishes when you die. Until then, they will never stop sending people after you, and the troops they send will only get stronger and stronger.”

Qing Yun got even more worried upon hearing Su Wen’s thoughts, “t-Then what should we do?”

Su Wen shook his head, “There’s nothing you can do. There’s a saying amongst cultivators: It’s better to provoke Yama, the King of Hell, than it is to provoke the Shadows. To be precise, if the Shadows wanted to destroy our Qiongxi Country, it would be very easy to.” Su Wen began to take a little pity on Qin Yu. Those who were marked by the shadows were all very pitiful. This was because they were all dead- it was just a matter of time.