The Price of Deception

Li Tianliang’s panic completely overwhelmed him like a surging tide.

Death was approaching step by step.

“I have come for you, and it is only fitting.”

The man’s voice, emanating from the depths of the Nine Nether Hells, carried with it an endless, bone-chilling cold.

“No, it’s utterly impossible!”

Clutching at this last, desperate straw, Li Tianliang strove to deny the terrifying reality unfolding before his eyes.

His gaze flickered to the assassin, who lay sprawled awkwardly nearby.

“You must be deceiving me. You are no one from the Shadow Sect; how could a member of the Shadow Sect be so utterly useless!”

“Is that so?”

“Since you’ve taken a strike from my junior sister’s sword, you might as well take one from me.”

The man’s voice remained as cold as ice, utterly devoid of emotion, as a strange, chilling gleam suddenly flickered from within the enveloping shadows.

The cold light, appearing and vanishing in an instant, sliced through the last fragile thread of hope clinging to Li Tianliang’s heart.

With years of instinct honed by hovering on the precipice of life and death, Li Tianliang’s eyes and hands moved swiftly, keenly sensing the imminent launch of a hidden weapon.

His pupils constricted sharply, and he swiftly twisted his body, attempting to dodge.

Li Tianliang exerted every ounce of his strength to evade it, yet the hidden weapon, as if possessed of its own sight, still found its mark, piercing his thigh.

“Ah!!!”

A desolate, piercing shriek tore from Li Tianliang’s throat, brimming with agony and utter despair.

His left leg had been directly struck.

A blade, precise and unyielding, had embedded itself into the very root of his thigh, causing his legs to buckle and nearly sending him sprawling to the ground.

He could do naught but press his hand desperately against the wound, his body convulsing with uncontrollable shivers.

Pull out the blade?

The notion was nothing short of a fantastical delusion.

He was, after all, merely a Foundation Establishment cultivator, possessing no miraculous abilities to resurrect the dead or regrow flesh upon bone.

To rashly extract the blade would undoubtedly lead to severe dizziness from excessive blood loss, thereby imperiling his very life.

Such was the inherent fragility of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

While ordinary blades struggled to easily breach their bodies, a sharp implement forged from Xuantian steel would cut through them with the same ease as it would a mortal.

Weapons crafted from Xuantian steel were renowned for their exceptional sharpness and formidable weight.

Even a Xuantian sword, measuring merely three feet in length, demanded the combined strength of several burly men just to lift it.

Indeed, an ordinary person lacked the sheer power required to even swing one.

Wait, Xuantian…

A blade?

A sudden realization struck Li Tianliang.

Gritting his teeth against the searing pain, he shifted his injured thigh ever so slightly, positioning it directly beneath the pale moonlight.

The blade embedded in his thigh continued to gush blood, a horrifying sight made even more stark and gruesome under the dim, unforgiving moonlight.

Yet, Li Tianliang’s focus was not on the gruesome wound, but rather on the distinct shape of the embedded blade.

His complexion instantly blanched, becoming ashen white, as if every drop of blood had been siphoned from his veins.

“Damn it, isn’t this the Xuantian greatsword I just snapped in half?”

Why had he been unable to slay the assassin just moments ago?

And why had his Xuantian blade suddenly shattered?

It was entirely because this individual had been secretly shielding them.

A profound sense of futility welled up within him; in the face of such overwhelming power, he was utterly incapable of retaliating.

“No!” Li Tianliang’s voice was thick with despair. “Absolutely not, you cannot kill me!”

“Oh?”

The man’s voice remained chillingly indifferent, entirely unmoved by Li Tianliang’s desperate plea for mercy.

“Why should I not kill you? Do you possess some unique attribute, or… do you perhaps have some classified information you wish to share?”

Lin Xingjian remained shrouded in the enveloping shadows, his true visage still concealed from Li Tianliang.

The nearby assassin slowly pushed herself to her feet.

Her condition was extremely poor; her hand was pressed tightly against her broken ribs, and she limped towards Lin Xingjian, melting into the profound darkness, making her presence almost impossible to discern.

“Information?”

Clutching at this final wisp of survival, a faint glimmer of hope flickered in Li Tianliang’s eyes.

“Yes… yes, I have information, I truly do… Hahaha, since your Shadow Sect has come to investigate, you must surely realize that this matter is far from ordinary.”

His laughter, a disturbing mix of madness and desperate hope, echoed in the night.

“We still have a contingency plan; it’s far more intricate than merely peddling demonic pills. You surely cannot guess its nature. If you spare my life, I will reveal this trump card to you, and much more besides…”

Before Li Tianliang could complete his desperate plea, Lin Xingjian interjected, cutting him off with precise timing.

“You intend to use the information regarding your superiors’ plan to exploit a certain Xuantian Dao Sect cultivator as a human cauldron, hoping this will serve as a sufficient bargaining chip for your life. Clearly, it is not enough.”

“That piece of intelligence, to me, is already utterly worthless.”

Lin Xingjian’s voice remained calm yet resolute.

Li Tianliang was once again struck dumb.

‘How did he know?’

“You must be pondering that very question in your heart and mind at this moment, aren’t you?”

“Heh heh, it is quite simple, actually. You told me everything, Li Tianliang.”

A faint smile playing on his lips, Lin Xingjian stepped forth from the oppressive shadows.

The moonlight, now falling upon Lin Xingjian’s face, sharply delineated his cold, handsome features.

Li Tianliang was struck by a sudden, jarring realization.

The man before him possessed the identical facial features and contours of Chen Jie, yet the chilling, murderous aura he exuded was something Chen Jie utterly lacked.

“It’s you, damn it! You’re not Chen Jie; you deceived me!”

Even a man as obtuse as Li Tianliang now understood that he had been cunningly manipulated into revealing information.

Precisely because a wealth of valuable intelligence had been extracted from him, he had become a truly useless individual.

A useless individual… naturally, their elimination was only a matter of course.

“I’ll fight you all to the death, you damned scoundrels who deserve to be sliced into a thousand pieces!”

Li Tianliang, consumed by a raging fury, found his fear completely supplanted by an overwhelming wrath.

Lin Xingjian, a faint smile still gracing his lips, took a step back, once more dissolving into the pervasive darkness.

He knew that Li Tianliang undoubtedly harbored another trick up his sleeve; his previous submissiveness had been nothing more than a feigned capitulation.

Disregarding the excruciating pain in his thigh, Li Tianliang forcibly pushed himself to his feet. Channeling all his strength into his arm, he hurled the blade handle he held with all his might towards Lin Xingjian and the assassin standing beside him.

The blade handle, whistling through the air, shot forth like a cannonball discharged from its barrel.

Immediately thereafter, he seized the fleeting opportunity to retrieve an object from within his robes.

Li Tianliang, keenly observing the moment the two dodged, moved to thrust the object he had retrieved from his robes into his mouth.

‘Beaten, so he resorts to drugs?’

He had no interest in prolonging this engagement any further.

In the very instant Lin Xingjian shifted his position, he launched a hidden weapon resembling a silver needle with blinding speed, faster than the blink of an eye.

This hidden weapon was utterly distinct from the Xuantian blade fragment he had previously flung.

The slender, thread-like silver needle carved but a faint, silken streak of light through the inky blackness, then darted past Li Tianliang’s lips, striking and sending flying the very pill he had intended to swallow.

The pill slipped rapidly from Li Tianliang’s lips, vanishing into the darkness along with the silver needle, its ultimate destination unknown.

Li Tianliang was seized by absolute panic.

He had intended to stake his life on that demonic pill, yet he had been cunningly outmaneuvered by his adversary.

Had he known earlier that Lin Xingjian’s true hidden weapon was a mere silver needle, he would have, without a doubt, raised his hand to defend himself.

The previous blade had led him to subconsciously lower his guard, mistakenly believing that all of Lin Xingjian’s hidden weapons were substantial objects.

“No, it cannot be!”

“My pill, my demonic pill, no!”

“Enough. You have exhausted all your stratagems. It is time to send you on your way.”

Lin Xingjian let out a cold, derisive laugh, a glint of icy killing intent flashing in his eyes. His figure, moving with ghostly swiftness through the darkness, vanished from his original position in an instant.

Just as he was poised to strike, a sudden, crisp sound of footsteps echoed through the profound stillness of the night, startlingly clear.

‘Someone is coming?’

In that fleeting moment of distraction, Li Tianliang seized his chance, pouring every last ounce of his strength into a desperate dash for freedom.

He channeled his qi, his body surging with renewed energy, and sprinted wildly into the distance.

Even the excruciating agony in his legs could not staunch his fierce, primal urge for survival.

Indeed, he succeeded, bursting clear of Lin Xingjian’s immediate attack range.

Lin Xingjian, however, would not permit Li Tianliang to escape so easily. A ruthless glint flickered in his eyes, and without a moment’s hesitation, he hurled the longsword he held as if it were a mere hidden dart.

The longsword cleaved a sharp, lethal arc through the air, directly piercing Li Tianliang’s other thigh.

“Ah!!!”

Li Tianliang’s shriek, a mournful lament akin to a night owl’s sorrowful cry, abruptly rent the profound silence of the dead of night.

His left leg, already grievously wounded by Lin Xingjian’s hidden weapon, had left him stumbling precariously. This sudden, brutal second strike proved to be the final, crushing blow, the proverbial last straw.

His legs gave way entirely, devoid of any remaining strength to support him. His entire body, like a kite whose string had snapped, pitched uncontrollably forward.

Precisely at this moment, an indistinct, shadowy figure emerged faintly in the distance ahead.

The shadowy figure ahead, perceiving Li Tianliang hurtling towards them, reacted with extreme agility, their form blurring as they swiftly, ghost-like, evaded his approach.

With nothing to impede him, Li Tianliang crashed headlong to the ground in a most undignified manner, performing what could only be described as a ‘dog eating shit’ (TL Note: A Chinese colloquialism for falling face first).

His face struck the earth with a heavy thud, sending dust billowing upwards.

His teeth clattered violently, and his mouth filled with the coppery taste of blood and the gritty stench of soil.

His appearance was utterly wretched.