Chapter 030: Assassination

Little White had been trailing far behind Taiyin Zhenren's procession, patiently waiting for an opportunity.

Time passed bit by bit; the Golden Crow set in the west, and the Jade Rabbit rose high.

Taiyin Zhenren's procession halted, setting up camp and lighting fires for cooking, but Taiyin Zhenren himself never appeared, remaining inside the large sedan chair in meditation and qi cultivation.

The opportunity Little White waited for did not come, yet she continued to wait.

Slowly, time deepened into the dead of night.

Most of the soldiers had fallen into dreams, with only a few on night patrol.

Little White glanced at the sky and saw that it was exactly the early hours; the moment she had been waiting for had finally arrived.

According to the description in the Taiyin True Art, at this time, the world was filled with Taiyin finger energy, and moonlight blanketed the earth, pouring down from the starry sky above, illuminating the mortal realm.

This was the best time to cultivate the Taiyin True Art.

Though Little White was not entirely sure of Taiyin Zhenren's character, she knew that for him to have attained such strength, he must have been diligent in his practice; otherwise, he could not have reached his current level.

Presumably, he would never miss the best daily cultivation opportunity.

So Little White decided to assassinate Taiyin Zhenren at this moment. Even if she could not kill him, she would disrupt his cultivation, ideally causing him to suffer a qi deviation.

Having made up her mind, Little White began to advance.

Like a wisp of smoke, she crossed layer upon layer of guards in an instant and entered the depths of the camp.

Perhaps in combat she could not defeat a thousand elite soldiers alone, but with her magical power and agile physique, evading these patrolling soldiers was far too simple.

Little White moved with a serpentine grace; in just a few breaths, she slipped past one patrol after another, dodging wave after wave of guards, and approached Taiyin Zhenren's sedan chair.

But when she was still ten meters from Taiyin Zhenren, Little White stopped.

She knew clearly that if she came any closer, Taiyin Zhenren would surely detect an intruder.

At this moment, she was extremely grateful to have met Wang Bo; without him, she would not have seen the Taiyin True Art, and without seeing the Taiyin True Art, she would not have known the timing of Taiyin Zhenren's cultivation.

Nor would she have known that even while cultivating, Taiyin Zhenren could extend his spiritual sense to sense anyone approaching him.

She looked at the figure meditating in the sedan chair, slowly pulled out the hairpin from her head, and her jet-black, lustrous hair cascaded down her shoulders.

Then, Little White slowly channeled her magical power.

The hairpin rose slowly from her palm, its tip aimed at Taiyin Zhenren's back.

Swoosh!

The next second, the hairpin, like an arrow from a bowstring, flashed away like lightning and thunder, piercing through Taiyin Zhenren's sedan chair and stabbing into his body.

Then, a muffled roar erupted from within the sedan chair.

Little White's heart leaped with joy; she had succeeded.

But before the joy could spread through her body, Taiyin Zhenren's sedan chair exploded with a bang. An invisible shockwave, like a tidal wave, compressed the air and advanced layer by layer.

The air before Little White twisted and blurred.

The invisible force blasted everything within a hundred meters away.

Although Little White sensed something was wrong before the shockwave arrived and retreated swiftly, she was too late. She had barely retreated twenty meters when the shockwave struck her head-on.

For a moment, Little White felt as if she had been hit by a raging mountain flood. Her body flew backward involuntarily, along with tents, weapons, campfires, and other soldiers.

Those soldiers closest to Taiyin Zhenren were thrown off in the first instant, and since they were not cultivators with protective magical power, their bones and internal organs were shattered by the shockwave.

Outwardly they appeared intact, but internally everything was a mess.

They died on the spot.

As for Little White, after being thrown dozens of meters, she fell to the ground with a thud. Her white clothes were instantly stained with black mud and dust, making her look utterly disheveled.

At the same time, she suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, her five organs burning.

The impact had severely wounded her, a little demon who had not been cultivating long, and her heart sank to the bottom in an instant.

Little White had never imagined that, despite repeatedly raising her estimation of Taiyin Zhenren, she had still underestimated this National Preceptor. She had not expected that a single roar from him could knock her down and leave her unable to rise.

This was too terrifying.

But Little White did not know that her strike had hit home; the hairpin had pierced Taiyin Zhenren's fatal acupoint, causing his magical power to riot and damaging his meridians.

In shock and rage, Taiyin Zhenren's roar had not only exhausted all his strength but also vented his rampaging magical power all at once, resulting in such severe consequences.

With that roar, a full third of his vast magical power was directly depleted.

Worse still, many of his fine meridians had snapped. For Taiyin Zhenren, this was an unimaginably severe injury.

At least since becoming National Preceptor, he had never suffered such a great loss.

"Good, good, a little demon!"

Taiyin Zhenren hovered in the sky, forcibly suppressing his injuries. His eyes were like lightning, and in the blink of an eye, he locked onto Little White. After seeing her level of cultivation, he became even more enraged.

Ordinarily, little demons of this level were beneath his notice. Who would have thought that today, such a little demon would cause him such a great loss?

"It seems I have grown lax, to be assassinated by a little demon like you." Taiyin Zhenren's face twitched, his gaze hostile. He raised his hand, and black talismans flew from his sleeve.

At the same time, Little White suddenly leaped up and dashed toward Taiyin Zhenren, her right hand flinging ice blades that shattered the black talismans into pieces.

Taiyin Zhenren let out a soft exclamation of surprise. His earlier roar, issued in fury, had been earth-shattering. A little demon like this should not have been able to withstand it.

Logically, she should have been severely injured.

But now, looking at her complexion, her agile movements, light steps, and abundant magical power, she did not seem like an injured demon at all.

"No wonder you dared to assassinate me. There is something strange about you. All of you, withdraw."

Taiyin Zhenren sneered, waving his hand to dismiss the soldiers who were about to approach. Black talismans streamed endlessly from his sleeve, each transforming into a fireball aimed at Little White, raining down from the sky.

Little White darted left and right, her form like a swimming dragon, dodging fireball after fireball. The fireballs struck the ground, and the rumbling explosions were incessant.

At the same time, Little White waved her hand, and the hairpin that had been knocked away by Taiyin Zhenren swept back, stabbing toward his back.