Chapter 50: Assassination
Hu Sheng had been away from the battlefield for many years, and his recent days had been getting better and better. He felt that he had indeed let his guard down.
It wasn’t until the assassins broke through the door that he felt the danger approaching. Fortunately, his martial arts had not grown rusty.
He first grabbed Zhao An and rolled with him under the bed, dodging the first wave of attacks from those who had jumped down from the roof. Then he lifted the large bed, pinning five or six people underneath, and at the same time, snatched the long saber from a killer’s hand, cutting down three people in a row.
However, these assassins dressed in black were almost fearless of death. Those pinned under the bed didn’t even let out a scream. They quickly worked together to lift the heavy object on top of them and were about to raise their sabers to kill Hu Sheng again.
This was originally a silent slaughter, until Zhao An, who was hiding in the corner of the wall, took out a hidden revolver and fired three shots in a row, taking down three enemies.
Unfortunately, after three shots, he had to reload. The assassins obviously wouldn’t give him time to reload. He simply threw away the gun in his hand and trembled, wanting to escape, as if the person who had calmly fired the gun just now was not him at all.
The assassins’ primary target was not originally Zhao An. It wasn’t until he shot and killed three people that the leader of the assassins gestured for five people to go and control Zhao An.
However, to be distracted while fighting Hu Sheng was a very expensive price to pay. Even though the leader had already seen the cold glint of the blade appear before his eyes, he couldn’t escape. His movements couldn’t keep up with his gaze, let alone Hu Sheng’s merciless blade. The cold blade struck his head, directly slicing off half of it.
Even though they had learned from long-hidden information that Hu Sheng was the true mastermind behind the Shang family’s army, and had thus sent twenty powerful secret guards to kill him, they now felt that they had still underestimated his strength.
The leader was dead, but these secret guards, who had been trained as suicide soldiers, still did not retreat. They even used their companions to block the blade, just to get closer to Hu Sheng.
As the saying goes, two fists are no match for four hands. Even though Hu Sheng’s martial arts were formidable, he still found it a bit strenuous to face these equally well-trained and fearless assassins.
Just as an assassin, relying on his companion’s block and corpse, finally got close to Hu Sheng and was about to stab him in the chest, he suddenly felt as if vines were rapidly climbing up his back. Then he quickly discovered that what he was seeing was not an illusion. The thorns on the vines even pierced his skin.
He was dragged backward by a huge force. By the time his companions reacted, Hu Sheng had already seized the opportunity and killed two more people.
At this time, the assassin who was bound by the vines saw that all the people who had been sent to deal with Zhao An had had their throats cut by him. And these unlucky people were more or less bound by thorny vines, and those vines had even bloomed with strange red flowers. Was this really a human?
For the first time, the assassin let out a miserable scream, “Ghost! There’s a ghost!”
The person who had replaced the original leader and become the new leader had been hiding in the back. Seeing this scene, he also began to have second thoughts. He felt that he had to save his life and go back to inform his master. Otherwise, his master would not know that there was a monster here who could not only kill people with a strange iron stick but also control vines to absorb human flesh and blood.
To say that Zhao An’s creation of firearms was a groundbreaking progress and required heightened vigilance was correct, but to say that he controlled vines to absorb flesh and blood was a complete injustice.
In fact, he also wanted to find that kind of mutated plant that could enhance his attack power. Unfortunately, this world had not experienced a great explosion of spiritual energy, and all the plants were still ordinary varieties. So the plant he was controlling now was just the inconspicuous withered rose vine on the windowsill. Those red flowers were just the stamens of the roses that had bloomed after he had force-grown them. They had not grown by absorbing human blood and flesh. Those dead people had also had their necks cut by him after being bound by the vines.
After all, Zhao An was not born in a peaceful era. He was ruthless enough. And he was also very regretful that even after three years, the number of plants he could quickly force-grow had still not exceeded twelve. This was already the limit of a first-rank ability. Perhaps with the concentration of spiritual energy in this world, he would never be able to break through to the second rank in his lifetime.
He had just used his ability eight times to control those five people and kill them all. Seeing that Hu Sheng was about to be in danger, he had acted urgently, force-growing two vines at once to pull over the person who was about to stab his blade into Hu Sheng’s chest.
If the leader hiding in the back had attacked Zhao An at this time, he might have had a chance to survive, because Zhao An had no more trump cards.
However, that person chose to run away, which gave Zhao An the opportunity to load a bullet into the gun he had just dropped.
Zhao An had only practiced with firearms in his previous life and had hardly touched them in this life. So when he pulled the trigger, he was just trying his luck and didn’t expect to really be able to keep that person.
However, things were just that coincidental. After a “bang,” the person who was about to jump down from the second-floor window was hit in the thigh. This made him lose his balance, and after falling directly from the second floor, he actually broke his neck.
This scene of the assassin falling from the upstairs was witnessed by Zhang Wei and his men, who had rushed over after hearing the gunshot, as well as the village’s militia.
The village had been getting richer recently, so the villagers had been participating in training more actively. Some villagers had simply stopped farming and only helped at the village’s brick and tile kiln, spending the rest of their time training.
Because they were worried that people who were jealous of their village’s wealth would be unfavorable to them. However, three years had passed. Except for the first year, when they had encountered the robbers from Banpo Village, it had been very peaceful since then.
Everyone’s tense hearts seemed to have relaxed a little, until today, when they saw a person in black fall from the window of Zhao An’s balcony and break his head.
Of course, they wouldn’t think that Zhao An’s actions were wrong. If someone dared to run into their house in black clothes and holding a weapon, if they could beat him, they would surely beat him until his head was broken.
It was just that they were more worried about Zhao An’s situation. Although the person who had first gathered the villagers for training was Zhao An, he had soon stopped managing the training and had handed the whole matter over to Zhang Wei. Then he had started teaching the children to read in the school, so the villagers’ impression of him had gradually become that of a frail scholar. They were all worried that he would be in danger if he encountered a villain.
Among them, the most worried person was none other than Qin Tong. However, he had now changed his name to Zhao Zhushan, because they had been living at the foot of the bamboo forest since they had returned to Zhaojia Village.
The reason he had changed his name was because he was now married. To be precise, he had married into a family. He had become a live-in son-in-law to a family in the village that had only one daughter.
Zhao Zhushan was only just over sixteen this year. Zhao An had originally disagreed with him getting married, but the girl was already eighteen and couldn’t wait any longer. Otherwise, she would have to pay a fine to the government. Zhao An could only introduce the local customs and agree to let him get married.
After he got married, he had moved out.
Hai Bo had gone to the Nanyue Kingdom before the New Year. He was worried about letting Feng Shaoping manage the workshop there alone, fearing that Feng Shaoping would embezzle the profits that belonged to Zhao An.
It could only be said that it was fortunate that only Zhao An and Hu Sheng were living in this house now. If Hai Bo and Zhao Zhushan were still at home, they would have probably been silenced in advance.
After that person had shot and killed the person who was trying to escape, Hu Sheng had also quickly finished off the remaining three assassins. Even though he had killed thirteen assassins with decent martial arts on such a late autumn night, he still felt a bit strained.
Fortunately, Zhao An had helped him share some of the burden. He walked to the person who was bound by the rose vine and screaming, pinched his jaw, and dislocated it. He could finally no longer scream and could only make some hoarse noises.
Hu Sheng looked at the mess on the floor, the blood-stained bedsheets, and their once-warm room.
He said to Zhao An with some gravity, “Perhaps we should leave.”
The reason he had hesitated to be with Zhao An in the first place was because he was worried that this scene would happen today. Heaven had given him three years of happy times, but the bloodshed had still chased him to this happy world, staining all the warm and beautiful memories with blood.
Zhao An had already heard the noisy voices of the people downstairs, but he also saw Hu Sheng’s slightly lonely expression.
After a moment’s hesitation, he still quickly ran to Hu Sheng and bit his only blood-free chin. “As long as we’re both okay, our home is still here.”
Hu Sheng finally showed a smile. His blue eyes looked deeply at Zhao An. “You always make me happy.”
Zhao An went forward and covered his eyes. “We’re an old married couple now. Don’t say such mushy things.” Then he passed by him and ran downstairs, saying as he ran, “I’ll go down and persuade the villagers to leave, then call Zhang Wei and the others up to clean up.”
It was indeed not good for the villagers, who had always lived in a stable environment, to see such an extremely bloody scene.
Hu Sheng walked to the only survivor, squatted down, and looked into his eyes. “Who sent you?”
Although there was only terror in the assassin’s eyes, he was very sensitive to this question, and it also reminded him of the deadly poison hidden in his teeth. According to the training requirements, if captured, he must immediately take the poison and commit suicide, and not reveal any information about his master.
But his jaw had been dislocated. Let alone taking the poison, it was impossible for him to even swallow the saliva that was drooling from his mouth.
However, Hu Sheng had no intention of putting his jaw back for him. When Hu Sheng saw that he had other emotions besides terror, he immediately asked, “Let me guess. Was it the emperor?”
The assassin’s pupils contracted sharply, which was clearly a sign of his thoughts being guessed.
Hu Sheng shook his head, stood up, picked up the saber on the floor, and directly cut off this assassin’s neck.
Zhang Wei had already brought his men upstairs when Hu Sheng asked about the emperor. They were all people who had followed Hu Sheng back from the northern border from the very beginning and did not have much reverence for the emperor or the court.
But Zhang Wei was still very curious. “The emperor, of all people, why would he use assassins?”
After being comforted by Zhao An, Hu Sheng’s mood had improved. He didn’t mind explaining to Zhang Wei, “He relied on underhanded means to ascend the throne, so he naturally can’t abandon this shortcut. He has always believed that as long as he eliminates his opponents physically, the one who lives is the winner.”
