Side Story Chapter 32: Twin Ghost Assassination!
“Is everything ready?” A deep voice spoke in the darkness. That dark silhouette that had infiltrated the Imperial Palace divided into two, becoming two people. The one with the deep voice was the somewhat more muscular one that stood in the front.
In the martial arts world, these two were known as the ‘Yin Yang Ghosts’. As the larger one, he was the Yang Ghost, and the one hiding in the shadow was his twin, the Yin Ghost. The two had been inseparable since they were little, and they cultivated the art of the evil path known as the Yin Yang Twin Ghost Art. It was a mysterious assassination method which they had used to establish an infamous reputation in the martial arts world.
Later on, because they had made too many enemies, they moved into the shadows and began to do unseemly things for others. Normally, the imperial court and the martial arts world had nothing to do with each other, but there still existed the principle of taking the money of others to take care of their problems.
The assassination target of the Yin Yang Ghosts today was the Third Prince of Jade Dragon Palace.
From the shadows behind the Yang Ghost, the Yin Ghost revealed his bright eyes and warily said, “Hold on. Something’s strange.”
Though the Yang Ghost was the older brother, had a muscular body, and was much stronger than the Yin ghost, the Yin Ghost had been born with a cautious temperament and had extremely sharp eyes. In past operations, he had helped the pair avoid countless traps. Thus, the Yang Ghost would usually listen to his twin when it came to things like this.
“Big Brother, there are no guards in the area!”
The Yin Ghost quickly realized what was wrong, his eyes turning grave.
“A Prince’s palace without guards? Did we get the wrong place?”
The Yang Ghost was startled, and as he looked around and confirmed that there were no guards, he took out a paper map from his bosom and began to look it over.
“It’s right. The place indicated on the map is this one,” the Yang Ghost said after confirming his location on the map, his expression turning grave.
Normally, the palaces of Princes were heavily guarded, but now, there was not a single person to be seen. It was far too bizarre.
The two of them even wondered if they had accidentally gone to another Prince’s palace.
“Let’s get inside first. We’ll act according to the situation.”
The two of them descended from the roof like large birds, and then an invisible ripple of energy spread out from them. A moment later, even the shadows they cast had disappeared.
The two of them began to radiate a sharp and dangerous energy.
They had already performed an investigation, and they believed that they had more than enough strength to deal with the Third Prince.
Whether there was a problem or not, they decided to go inside first.
Buzz!
The two of them swiftly made for the door like ghosts, but as they crossed the threshold, they felt a strange sensation, and their bodies shivered.
At that moment, they felt like they had stepped into another world. Their surroundings were pitch-black, so they couldn’t see anything. Even though they had Saint Martial realm cultivations, they couldn’t sense a thing.
Not only could they not see anyone, they couldn’t even see the walls or roof tiles of the palace. The ground beneath their feet felt nonexistent, like they were walking on air.
This sort of empty and groundless sensation made their hair stand on end.
“Big Brother, this place is weird!”
The Yin Ghost stopped, an intense unease welling up in his heart.
“Don’t scare yourself. It’s a formation. It seems like we didn’t get to the wrong place after all. This Third Prince is more formidable than we thought and has already taken defensive measures,” the Yang Ghost said.
There was still no activity from within Jade Dragon Palace. This was clearly an automatic reaction from the formation. The people inside had probably not noticed them yet.
“Come! Let’s get in there first.”
The Yang Ghost was capable and daring. As he spoke, he charged in without hesitation.
The Yin Ghost clenched his teeth and followed.
Bang!
The two of them had only walked two steps when the world suddenly began to spin around them. Before they could react, a powerful pull erupted from beneath their feet.
The Stellar Energy began to rush out of their bodies and into the earth.
“Not good!”
“This Jade Dragon Palace is too strange!”
The two of them paled in alarm. In just a few moments, they had already lost one-tenth of their Stellar Energy. Even worse was that this terrifying pull had nailed them to the ground.
The Stellar Energy in their bodies continued to flow out of them into the ground.
If this continued, then despite their astonishing cultivation, they would ultimately be drained dry.
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Boom! Boom!
The two of them no longer cared about assassinating the Third Prince or about alarming the Imperial Army. They unleashed all their Stellar Energy to try and break free of the pull.
As the two of them attacked, the palace began to respond.
Boomboomboom!
The calm formation had been like a sleeping giant, and it was now waking, frenzied torrents of energy rushing at the two from all sides.
Even the Yin Yang Ghosts couldn’t help but pale before this terrifying energy. And even more disastrously, the formation’s pull grew even stronger.
“Run!”
The two of them panicked, throwing aside everything else and unleashing all their latent potential to try and break free.
Thumpthump!
Finally, right before the formation had completely unleashed its power, the two of them managed to escape and flee.
“Catch the assassins!”
As the two of them fled onto the roof, a great commotion broke out in the Imperial Palace. The Imperial Army had been alarmed by the disturbance and was beginning to converge.
The Yin Ghost suddenly realized something and turned his head around, his eyes widening.
“Big Brother, look!”
The Yang Ghost also looked over and was instantly dumbfounded.
When the two of them first arrived at Jade Dragon Palace, the main gate had been wide open and the insides had been deserted and pitch-black. But now, as the two of them stood on a nearby roof, they saw that Jade Dragon Palace was brightly lit and crawling with guards.
In the palace, the maids were giggling to each other, apparently unaware of their surroundings. It was like no one had intruded at all.
And in the depths of Jade Dragon Palace, the doors were wide open, and the two of them could even see a young man in an imperial robe, inclining on a golden-threaded sofa, a golden fan in his hand as he smirked at the pair.
The two of them felt a chill in their heart.
If they hadn’t been missing so much of their Stellar Energy, the two of them would have suspected that it was an illusion.
This Third Prince of the Great Tang was too strange!
Frantic, they did not dare to stay any longer. Using the full extent of their arts, they disappeared in the direction of the gate.
“Rather smart. They can recognize a lost cause quite fast.”
On the sofa, Li Taiyi put away the fan and sat up, continuing to smirk at the fleeing figures.
These two had some skill. They had noticed something wrong and chosen to withdraw. If they had been just a little slower, the result would not have been the same.
Taptaptap!
A few moments later, several familiar figures rushed into Jade Dragon Palace. These were Gao Lishi, Wang Haibin, and Abusi.
Upon seeing that Li Taiyi was unharmed, they breathed a sigh of relief.
Wang Haibin was the first to speak. “Your Highness, should we pursue them?”
Li Taiyi waved his hand and casually said, “There’s no need.
“These two are simply the claws of someone else. If we don’t capture the person behind them, capturing these two will be meaningless.”
Gao Lishi bowed and said in concern, “Your Highness, please don’t do something this risky again. I and the rest of us were worried for the entire night!”
In their view, regardless of the result, Li Taiyi’s actions had been too risky.
“Yes, Your Highness, this can’t be allowed again,” the others agreed.
Li Taiyi took in their reactions and grinned. Shaking his head, he soothed, “There’s no need to worry. Even if someone tries it again, they won’t be able to harm a hair on my body.”
Seeing everyone’s confusion, Li Taiyi lightly thrust a finger into the air.
Bang!
As Li Taiyi thrust out a finger, the air in front of him rippled. A vortex appeared on the floor of Jade Dragon Palace and began to draw in spiritual energy from the surroundings.
A moment later, a complicated golden formation appeared.
“This is…?”
Wang Haibin was flabbergasted by this sight.
“This is the Yellow Court Three Passes Formation. The Mingtang, Dongfang, and dantian serve as the three passes, creating a formation that protects the Yellow Court. This formation is connected to my mind and covers the entirety of Jade Dragon Palace. The moment someone steps into Jade Dragon Palace, I will immediately know, and I can activate the formation whenever I want to hold and kill the enemy,” Li Taiyi explained.
While cultivating with Master Guangcheng, he had advanced not only in martial arts, but in his understanding of formations.
He had created this formation by joining together several ancient formations and had placed it around Jade Dragon Palace to protect himself.
While it was impossible to see anything different from the outside, inside was another universe entirely. Let alone the Yin Yang Ghosts, even a peak Saint Martial realm expert would fall into his trap.
“So this was the case!”
Everyone let out a long sigh of relief, feeling even greater admiration for Li Taiyi. It was clear that the Third Prince had calculated everything.
“Have you found out who sent the assassins?” Li Taiyi sternly said, returning to the main topic.
“This slave is incompetent,” Gao Lishi said in shame.
The Third Prince believed in him and had tasked him with gathering intelligence in the palace, yet he could not even do something like that. He was instantly overcome with shame.
“It’s fine. I can already guess,” Li Taiyi called out.
Li Chengyi! Li Longfan!