by <unknown>
BOOM!
The three ventilation tubes broke abruptly, and the dozen defenders hiding below the tubes soared. Some stood between the two rookie assassins and Jin Yuyan, some threw their electromagnetic whips that were surrounded by electric arcs at the assassins, and some blocked the exits of the ventilation tubes. Never mind the swiftness of cats, they could not get out even if they had grown wings!
Cries, screams, and roars of sniper rifles echoed and died out almost at the same time.
The roars of the heavy sniper rifles were like an earsplitting signal. The unexpected change left the assassins of the four families who were lurking outside with no choice except to take action as soon as possible.
Although it was not the best time to assassinate Jin Yuyan today, Jin Yuyan's security would certainly be upgraded after the mess today. He would even stay in the safest chambers in the internal district for the next few days. Then, the assassination operation that they had planned for a long time would fall out.
The seven groups of people Li Yao locked onto just now all started to take action.
The seemingly fat merchants who were talking to each other delightedly a moment ago unleashed the most intense killing intent. Their bodies were instantly reduced, transforming them into brutal wolves, while they lunged at the Commodity Market like arrows that had just been released from the bow. Covered in the most colorful brilliance, they were all equipped with the most advanced crystal suits.
The elite bodyguards who were pretending to be the common police finished the implementation of crystal suits in the blink of an eye too. The glamorous styles and the aggressive flames on their crystal suits alone were enough to prove that they were not simple patrollers.
The two groups of people happened to be running at each other. Looking at each other, they immediately recognized who the strangers were and attacked at the same time. Rushing bullets, scorching mystic rays, and earsplitting chainswords and vibration sabers became their only language!
They were not the only chess pieces moving in the game of assassination.
More assassins and bodyguards had torn apart their disguises, either attacking Jin Yuyan or standing before Jin Yuyan fearlessly so that he could retreat.
Li Yao even detected that at least five snipers were aiming at Jin Yuyan or each other on the top of the skyscrapers around!
However, none of those people were the targets that Li Yao was really looking for. They were not capable and experienced enough to be the main players of the game.
"Black Flag King, Red Lady, Hanged Man, Revenant Of The Dead Sea… Where are you hiding, you 'gods of death'? Show up! Show up now!"
Narrowing his eyes, Li Yao observed every detail in the murky, chaotic environment around the market through the thirty spiritual bugs.
Right then, the spiritual waves next door suddenly became disordered, before exclamations and fighting noises echoed.
"It seems that the few assassins who chose the same spot as we do were noticed by the defenders of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors too, which means that this place is no longer safe. We will be watched too, or at least examined."
Li Yao said without looking back, "Jialing, clean it up and let's go!"
Li Jialing absorbed the gadgets on the floor into his Cosmos Ring and put on the broad black goggles as well as the cape again. Then he nodded his head.
"After we're out, we'll split apart. Your mission is to collect as much intelligence as possible, and I'll go and talk with Jin Yuyan!"
Li Yao smiled. "Let's go!"
Opening his hands, he aimed at the wall in front of him.
As brilliance flashed on his palm, the same colorful ripples appeared on the wall too.
When his spiritual energy surged out, the wall was obliterated into powder without a sound, and a giant hole appeared on it.
Also, not just the one wall ahead of them, but all the walls between them and the wall had exactly the same hole.
Shua! Shua!
Li Yao and Li Jialing turned into two streaks of brilliance. Before the defenders noticed or blocked them, they had rushed to the smoky street into the havoc.
Laying low, Li Jialing soon disappeared into the crowd.
Li Yao, on the other hand, was truly like a loach or an eel as he went against the current and swam toward the Commodity Market.
In the meantime, every detail in the chaotic world nearby, including temperature, wind, humidity, the micro-expressions on the panicked crowd, the movements of the fighting assassins and bodyguards, the sniper spots on the skyscrapers, and the people around Jin Yuyan far away, was displayed inside his head without leaving out any information.
"Brother Yao, I'm ready!"
Li Jialing's voice came over from the communication chip deep inside Li Yao's ears. "However, this place is too messy. There's no telling who are assassins and who are bodyguards at all!"
"It's alright. The guys who are fighting passionately right now are just secondary characters that are not important. Focus on the people around Jin Yuyan."
Narrowing his eyes, Li Yao moved toward Jin Yuyan like a ghost, reaching three hundred meters, two hundred meters, and one hundred meters from Jin Yuyan. "If my guess is correct, the four families must've bought over one of the four gods of death, and that 'god of death' is right next to Jin Yuyan while preparing to launch a critical strike in the chaos!"
"Then—"
Li Jialing gasped hard. "Wouldn't Jin Yuyan be in danger? Brother Yao, you are playing with fire by stimulating the assassins in such a way!"
"It doesn't matter. Everything is under my control. The assassins do not stand any chance at all!"
Li Yao smiled. Neltharion had long entered the stealth state under the control of the mental devil, hiding in the smoke while observing everybody around Jin Yuyan.
"Right now, Jin Yuyan is under my full protection. Not a needle is going to get close to him!"
Li Yao told Li Jialing.
Right then, when Jin Yuyan was about to return to his bulletproof limo under the protection of his bodyguards, unexpected changes happened again!
Three bodyguards next to him, and four magnates not far away, suddenly attacked Jin Yuyan, with aggression beaming out of their eyes!
On a higher tower nearby, the most unstoppable killing intent was pouring out like a flood that had surpassed the dam too.
"What a remarkable sniper!"
Li Yao's pupils constricted violently.
Just now, he had scanned all the possible locations for snipers in the high buildings nearby dozens of times, but he did not notice that such an awesome sniper was hiding there.
The person was the most terrifying sniper that Li Yao had seen in his entire life, possibly in the Divinity Transformation Stage. Only sensing the existence of the person already gave Li Yao a creepy feeling.
"Is that so, Red Lady?"
Red Lady, leader of Bloody Skull, was one of the best gun experts of the Imperium who was best at shooting over a long distance. Other than her, Li Yao really could not think of a second person who could bring him such a sense of horror as if a viper was staring at him.
Right when the seven assassins hiding around Jin Yuyan revealed their real appearances and lunged at Jin Yuyan, the super sniper, suspected to be "Red Lady", launched a critical strike too. The bullet vanished into thin air after it slid out of the barrel, covering a thousand meters in between in the blink of an eye and did not crawl out of the void again until it was only twenty meters away from Jin Yuyan's head.
Everybody's attention was focused on the melee assassination from the seven killers. None of them noticed the bullet that was rushing close without a sound.
Li Yao, however, had been locking onto the ballistic trajectory the whole time. Neltharion turned into an aggressive streak of bloody brightness and hit the bullet precisely, blowing the bullet away from Jin Yuyan's body!
"As long as 'Vulture Li Yao' is here, nobody is going to touch Jin Yuyan today!"
Li Yao sneered, with unparalleled confidence—the confidence that was beyond the Divinity Transformation Stage!
In the next second, Jin Yuyan's head exploded like a watermelon that had fallen to the ground from the tenth floor.
Chapter 2528: All Exposed! |
The scene was like a whole bucket of red paint being poured on a messy picture.
Jin Yuyan's head was entirely gone. His blood sprang from his neck to almost four floors high and sprayed everybody around.
The headless body cramped for a while and fell to the ground.
The scorching and chaotic air was immediately frozen. Everybody was dumbfounded for three seconds, finding it hard to believe that Jin Yuyan, the business tyrant at the edge of the Imperium and the director of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, had died just like that.
Li Yao's eyes almost popped out into flails that were swung to Jin Yuyan's dead body. "… Seriously? You've got to be kidding me!"
"Brother Yao—"
Li Jialing's voice came from somewhere far away, mixed in indescribable shock. "Jin Yuyan seemed to have suffered—well, a headshot, didn't he?"
"It's impossible! It's unreasonable! These are just illusions! They can't fool me!"
Scratching his face, Li Yao was almost jumping. "Jin Yuyan can't have been killed just like that. I've locked onto every inch of space around him. Bullets, mystic rays, or highly-compressed venom—nothing could've possibly escaped my attention! I guarantee with my honor! No, I guarantee with my own head that absolutely, absolutely, absolutely nothing hit Jin Yuyan's head a moment ago!
"However powerful the bullet from the sniper was, and no matter what techniques it had been endowed with, it was impossible to blow up Jin Yuyan's head when it was knocked so far away by me! It was impossible!
"I can say, with confidence and without exaggeration, that even if Blackstar the Great were here a moment ago, he couldn't have killed Jin Yuyan secretly while escaping my eyes!"
Li Yao's head was humming for a moment. His every brain cell was like an overloaded crystal processor. The heat that they emitted even twisted the air around.
In the chaotic market, Li Yao was the first one to calm down.
Something was greatly wrong with Jin Yuyan's death. The game wasn't over yet. Or rather, it had only just begun!
Shua! Shua! Shua!
Li Yao's telepathic thoughts went to the sniper's spot between two high towers where the bullet came from like invisible electric arcs.
He clearly sensed that the sniper of the Divinity Transformation Stage accelerated to the highest speed the moment the bullet was shot out in order to retreat to the edge of the market, not even having time to check the result.
An excellent sniper always considered it more important to preserve themselves than to eliminate the target. The assassin who was supposedly "Red Lady" was clearly not an idiot who would wait on the spot to be captured.
Perhaps she was confident that the shot must've killed Jin Yuyan.
By the time Li Yao's telepathic thoughts covered her, she had already dashed out for a thousand meters like a viper that had grown wings, about to disappear from everybody's search range under the cover of the skyscrapers and the complicated tubes.
Right then, from the two streets at the edge of the Commodity Market, another two equally powerful strength surged out and chased after the assassin who was possibly "Red Lady".
Judging from their instantaneous outburst of spiritual energy and their agility in the narrow space, they were likely to be battle-type Immortal Cultivators in the Divinity Transformation Stage, too!
Three gods of death have shown up!
Li Yao thought quickly. Assuming that the intelligence is right that the security of the Seven Seas Grand Market and Jin Yuyan is in the hands of the "four gods of death" in the past, and Red Lady, one of the "gods of death", betrayed and ambushed Jin Yuyan a moment ago, the other two "gods of death" must've realized the betrayal and gone after Red Lady.
Then, here comes the crucial problem—where is the last "god of death"? What does he want?
However chaotic the situation was, one could always find clear traces as long as the most crucial problem was grasped.
The key right now was that the three super assassins, who were possibly three "gods of death", had left the place, some running and some chasing, while the last super assassin of the Divinity Transformation Stage hadn't revealed his identity and was probably lurking next to the dead body of "Jin Yuyan". In that case…
Li Yao took a deep breath and scanned around the dead body of "Jin Yuyan"; his eyes as cold as ice.
He suddenly discovered two very strange things, or rather, two very strange people.
First, it was a tall, strong, wild-looking female bodyguard.
The female bodyguard had been with Jin Yuyan on the luxury limo in the first place. After Jin Yuyan got off, she had been following her master closely too, implying that she must've been one of Jin Yuyan's most trusted bodyguards.
However, the woman who looked like a chimpanzee was hardly qualified to be a bodyguard.
First of all, she was rather weak compared to other bodyguards. Judging from the spiritual waves and the vitality field, her spiritual energy was abundant, but she was obviously short of long-term, high-intensity combat training. The output of her spiritual energy was continuous but lacked explosive strength that could be unleashed in one moment. It was not suitable for fighting but more apt for the management or creative jobs that counted on brain cells.
Perhaps she had practiced some sort of secret technique that altered and disguised her real form with spiritual energy. Even Li Yao was deceived by her in the beginning. But now that everybody was on high alert, she subconsciously exposed her habitual way of releasing the spiritual energy. Naturally, Li Yao saw through it immediately as an expert above the Divinity Transformation Stage.
Secondly, bodyguarding was a very special profession that needed to regard the employer's life to be more important than their own. As Jin Yuyan's personal bodyguards, even if they might not be strong enough, their loyalty was certainly unquestionable.
After Jin Yuyan was blown up, all the other bodyguards had moved forward. Even though they knew that it was hopeless, they were still protecting Jin Yuyan's body.
The female bodyguard, on the other hand, had been backing off nonstop and looking around, as if she were waiting for someone to save her.
Unless Jin Yuyan had been blind, why would he have chosen such a weak and cowardly woman as his personal bodyguard?
The second person that attracted Li Yao's attention, in the meantime, was a bald guy not far away who was wearing a white leather coat and colorful Cosmos Rings on his fingers, which made him look like a wealthy, arrogant tycoon.
When everything was in peace just now, the person had talked with Jin Yuyan. He should be one of Jin Yuyan's old friends and an influential magnate in the peripheral worlds of the Imperium.
At this moment, all the other merchants were escaping, fearing that they were coincidentally killed by the assassin who murdered Jin Yuyan.
The bald tycoon was the only exception. He seemed to be escaping, but he was actually approaching the female bodyguard who looked like a chimpanzee under the cover of the crowd in a curve.
The fleeing and chasing gods of death were already beyond Li Yao's perception. They must've been more than ten kilometers away.
The bodyguards were either around Jin Yuyan's headless body or hunting the assassins of the four families who had been exposed. They had no time to bother with the chimpanzee-like female bodyguard at all.
The female bodyguard discovered the intention of the bald tycoon, but she did not back off at all. Instead, as if she were grasping a lifebuoy, she voluntarily went to the bald tycoon.
Li Yao, however, sensed that the muscles on the legs of the bald tycoon were tightened, and his pores were constricting. It was the sign of an animal that was about to attack.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack
!
Countless sparks burst out in Li Yao's eyes at the same time. All the clues were connected, leading to an astonishing conclusion.
Before he was completely back to himself, Neltharion, under the control of the mental devil, had broken free from the stealth state, turning into a streak of bloody brilliance that went at the back of the bald tycoon's head.
Right when Neltharion rushed forward, the bald tycoon was only ten meters away from the female guard. He had extended his hand at the female guard with a comforting smile, as if he were assuring the female guard that everything was under control.
However, in the next second, the thin, unstoppable brilliance among his fingers already dashed at the neck and the heart of the female bodyguard, like dozens of invisible daggers that could chop everything!
If everything had gone naturally, the dozens of daggers would've cut the female bodyguard's throat, carotid artery, and cervical vertebra more than easily, before mincing her internal organs into pieces.
They could've also pierced into her eyes and churned her brains into a pot of tofu.
However, the mental devil's attack was far beyond the bald tycoon's expectation. He was forced to bend his back and dodge it, which resulted in half a second's delay in his attack.
Taking advantage of the half-second delay, Li Yao filled his cape with spiritual energy and threw it at the bald tycoon, having no time to keep his disguise anymore, and jumped at the panicked female bodyguard himself.
Cling! Cling! Cling! Cling! Cling! Cling! Cling!
The same shiny and thin daggers blinked out of Li Yao's fingers and crashed into the bald tycoon's daggers quickly. The speed of both parties was too high for them to be caught by the naked eye. It could only be seen that the cape Li Yao threw out was torn into thousands of shreds in only one moment before it was set on fire by the splashing sparks!
"Gotcha!"
Li Yao stood before the female bodyguard and put on a cruel smile. The brief battle of one second had informed him that the bald tycoon was also an expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage.
Li Yao did not think that the magnates from the peripheral worlds of the Imperium could've been so strong. He must be either the Black Flag King, Red Lady, Hanged Man, or Revenant Of The Dead Sea.