Chapter 412: The Hunt Continues (2)

The assassin found himself unable to reply to Liam’s question. The horror etched across his face slowly transformed into an unexpected smile. The expression was twisted, containing equal parts madness and triumph, causing Liam to raise his brow slightly in amusement."You know," the assassin said, his voice steadier than it had any right to be given his circumstances, "I’m genuinely surprised by your prowess. I finally understand why you had the confidence to kill City Lord Fang in his own mansion and destroy our branch operation in Blackstone City."

He paused, and his smile widened, taking on a manic quality. "You’re powerful. I’ll give you that. More powerful than anyone I’ve ever faced. But no matter how strong you are, you can’t hold a candle to the true powers of the Devouring Petal Pavilion organization. You’ve only scratched the surface of what we’re capable of."

Liam looked at the assassin with complete disinterest, his expression never changing. "Is that all?"

The assassin’s laugh came out wet and ragged, but genuine. "Laugh all you want, Mad Demon God. You won’t be laughing for much longer."

Liam didn’t bother responding. His enhanced senses had already detected what the assassin’s bravado was really about. He noticed several presences filled with hostility were converging on their position from multiple directions.

The assassin had managed to alert his organization before confronting Liam.

Rather than waste more time on conversation, Liam simply slashed his hand through the air. The motion looked casual, almost lazy, but the effect was devastating, as an invisible blade of compressed air cut through the assassin from shoulder to lower abdomen, the line so perfectly straight it might have been drawn with a ruler.

For a fraction of a second, the assassin’s body remained whole, his smile frozen on his face. Then the two halves separated, sliding apart as blood and internal organs spilled into the air. The slash had been precise enough to bisect his Golden Core as well, ensuring no possibility of survival or recovery.

The body parts tumbled from the rooftop, trailing crimson as they fell.

Liam felt the hostile presences react immediately, their spiritual pressure flaring with rage and killing intent. The intensity increased dramatically, no longer attempting any pretense of concealment. They’d felt their companion’s death and abandoned all caution in their fury.

A smile spread across Liam’s face. This was better than he’d hoped. The assassin’s final act had saved him the trouble of hunting down the organization’s location. They were coming to him instead, gathering in one place where he could deal with them all at once.

How convenient.

The first one arrived within seconds. It was a woman who appeared to be in her early thirties. She landed on an adjacent rooftop with enough force to crack the tiles beneath her feet, her spiritual pressure radiating outward like a physical wave.

Early Golden Core realm. Slightly stronger than the previous three, but still...

"You dare!" she screamed, her voice raw with fury. "You murdered my junior brothers like they were insects! I’ll make you pay for every life you’ve taken!"

Liam tilted his head slightly, studying her with mild interest. "Your junior brothers? The ones who broke an old man’s hands and legs because they couldn’t find me? Those junior brothers?"

The woman’s face twisted with rage. "They were following orders! They were doing their duty to the organization!"

"And I’m doing mine," Liam said calmly. "I’m exterminating pests, as you called, insects."

Before she could respond, two more figures landed on surrounding rooftops. Both men, both emanating Golden Core realm spiritual pressure. One was bald and heavily scarred, the other younger with a cruel face and cold eyes.

"Finally," the bald one said, his voice a deep rumble. "The Demon God shows himself. You’ve caused us considerable trouble, boy. Killed our people. Destroyed our operations. Made us look weak." He cracked his knuckles, the sound sharp in the tense air. "We’re going to enjoy taking you apart piece by piece."

"Four against one," Liam observed. "And you still think you need to coordinate? That’s either very wise or very telling about how outmatched you know you are."

"Arrogant whelp!" the younger man spat. "You think because you killed some junior members that you can face true elites of the Devouring Petal Pavilion?"

Liam’s smile widened. "I guess we’re about to find out."

The woman moved first, her patience exhausted by rage. She launched herself from her rooftop with a movement technique that left afterimages in her wake, her hands forming intricate seals as she flew. Spiritual energy coalesced around her fingers, shaping into what looked like flower petals that glowed with a sickly purple light.

"Devouring Petal Rain!" she shouted, and dozens of the glowing petals shot toward Liam like projectiles.

The other three assassins moved simultaneously, clearly having worked together before. The bald man circled to Liam’s left while the younger one went right, both activating their own techniques. The fourth assassin remained at a distance, his hands moving in complex patterns as he prepared something that required more time.

They weren’t giving Liam time to focus on any single target, attacking from multiple angles to split his attention and prevent effective defense.

Liam didn’t move from his position on the rooftop. He simply raised his right hand, and the glowing petals froze in mid-air as if they’d hit an invisible wall. His telekinesis caught them all simultaneously, holding them suspended mere inches from his face.

The woman’s eyes widened in shock. "What—"

Liam flicked his wrist, and the petals reversed direction, shooting back toward their creator with twice their original speed. The woman barely managed to dodge, throwing herself sideways as her own technique tore through the space where she’d been standing, the petals punching holes through the rooftop behind her.

But dodging the petals meant she wasn’t prepared for what came next.

The bald assassin reached Liam’s position, his fist wreathed in golden spiritual energy that roared like a living thing. His punch carried enough force to shatter stone, aimed directly at Liam’s temple with killing precision.

Liam caught the fist in his left hand without looking at it. His fingers closed around the bald man’s knuckles, and there was a sickening series of cracks as bones shattered under the pressure.

The bald assassin’s eyes went wide with shock and pain. He tried to pull his hand back, but Liam’s grip was absolute. Instead of releasing him, Liam swung him like a club, using his body to intercept the younger assassin who’d been attacking from the right.

The two men collided in mid-air with bone-breaking force, their spiritual energy techniques disrupting each other as they tumbled across the rooftop in a tangle of limbs.

"Interesting," Liam said in a casual tone, despite violence around him.

The fourth assassin, who’d been preparing his technique at a distance, finally completed his seals. His spiritual pressure spiked dramatically, and the air around him began to distort as if reality itself was bending.

"Soul Rending Array!" he shouted, and invisible threads of spiritual energy shot toward Liam from every direction, forming a cage that contracted rapidly around his position.

This technique was different from the others—more sophisticated, more dangerous. It targeted the soul rather than the body, attempting to tear apart Liam’s consciousness and leave him a mindless husk. Against most opponents, it would have been devastatingly effective.

Liam felt the threads touch his body, felt them trying to penetrate his spiritual defenses to reach his soul. For a moment, the assassin’s face lit up with triumph, believing his technique had connected successfully.

Then Liam’s racial aura flared to life.

The invisible pressure that had been passively radiating from him suddenly intensified a thousandfold. The Soul Rending Array’s threads disintegrated on contact with his aura, unable to withstand the crushing weight of his presence.

But the aura didn’t stop at the threads. It expanded outward like a tsunami, washing over all four assassins simultaneously with devastating force.

The effect was immediate and total. All four collapsed to their knees, their bodies bowing under pressure that felt like the sky itself was pressing down on them. The woman who’d attacked first found herself face-down on the rooftop tiles, unable to even lift her head. The bald man and his younger companion, who’d just managed to separate from their collision, crashed back down as if gravity had suddenly multiplied tenfold.

The fourth assassin, the one who’d used the soul technique, let out a raw, primal sound of pure terror as his consciousness registered what his spiritual sense was telling him, that he was in the presence of a superior being.

"Now then," Liam said, his voice calm and almost pleasant despite the crushing pressure filling the air. "Let’s try this again. Where is your headquarters located? And before you answer, understand that I’m being very patient by asking instead of simply tearing the information from your minds. That patience has limits."

He took a step forward, and the four assassins felt the pressure increase even further, pushing them harder against the rooftops until tiles began cracking beneath them.

"So please," Liam continued, his smile never wavering, "think very carefully about your next words."