Poor odds simplified things in many ways. The shortage of options removed useless thoughts, limiting any reasoning to what was possible.

The encounter was unavoidable, only creating three possibilities. Grace could pay the assassins, she could die, or Liam could simply kill everyone.

As for how, even that was quite simple in Liam’s perspective. A careful hunt was out of the question, so the priority was to remove the numerical disadvantage, starting from the weakest link.

The rooting expert behind the encirclement was more than hidden. He was fully invisible, his cloaking technique almost removing every trace of his existence.

The cloaking technique had also extended to the arrow. It was why it had taken Grace by surprise, but not Master William, which was quite shocking, only for that feeling to intensify after what followed.

The Assassins Guild wasn’t one to move without previous research, which had been easy in that case. Grace was known, and the mysterious Master William had fought an eight-spiritual-roots genius, barely earning a draw at the expense of revealing everything he could do.

Or so the Assassins Guild thought.

The invisible rooting expert’s eyes widened under his hood when the thundering noises resounded in the area, hindering his vision. He only managed to see a black shape flying among the lifted snow but was unable to identify it.

Nevertheless, that had little meaning for the invisible assassin. The negotiations were off, so he employed the alternative approach. The finger on his rank 1 crossbow’s trigger tensed, ready to fire the nocked arrow at Grace’s previous position, only for something dark to appear in his vision.

The Assassins Guild had sent experts it thought were suitable for the job. None of the four’s cultivation was advanced, but they were well trained.

So, the invisible assassin squatting on a branch dodged by pure instincts, but the dark shape ended up stabbing his foothold, revealing itself as an ethereal arrow that immediately detonated.

A destabilizing, intense wave of Qi and splinters washed over the assassin, removing his invisibility and sending him flying away. He crashed into multiple branches, snapping them, until slamming on a trunk finally halted his momentum.

The impact was violent, but nothing a rooting expert couldn’t withstand. The trunk snapped as the assassin recovered his bearings, pushing aside the dizziness the direct hit with the shockwave caused. He felt blood in his mouth, and his insides hurt, but he had been trained to endure worse.

Nevertheless, before the assassin’s feet could touch the snow, a sharp pain spread from his shoulders, halting his descent. He checked them, finding two guardless swords stabbed there, flying on their own to keep him in mid-air.

The assassin tried to summon his Qi, only for four more swords to arrive, piercing his hands and knees, incapacitating him while his pain-ridden mind made a shocking realization.

All six flying swords were rank 2 items.

The swords lowered the assassin’s crucified figure to the ground level, low enough for someone to stand in front of him. Sometime among the pain, Grace had reached him, her cold green eyes inspecting him from head to toe.

"That’s what you wanted to do to me, isn’t it?" Grace commented. "You should never underestimate a merchant’s wealth and surprisingly protective partner." 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

A seventh rank 2 guardless sword materialized in Grace’s hand while her comment had yet to finish echoing, and she didn’t hesitate to drive it through the assassin’s head.

Meanwhile, Liam was locked in quite a troublesome predicament.

The Lightning Step had borne great results. Liam could finally unleash the full power of that rank 2 martial art, leaning into its extreme Qi consumption and chaining two speed bursts in rapid succession to achieve an acceleration his opponent couldn’t track.

The Metal Hand had done the rest, severing the weakest cloaked cultivator’s head cleanly. Everything had happened so quickly that Liam even had time to fire at the invisible rooting expert so that Grace could handle him.

Yet, using the Black Bow had helped Grace, but had lost Liam the initiative.

As soon as Liam stored the bow on his shoulder, two cloaked figures surrounded him, unleashing a perfect formation.

No matter how Liam moved, turned, and swung, one rooting expert always stood in front of him, while the other was on the very opposite side, exploiting his exposed back.

Liam swung his clawed hand, but the hooded cultivator in front of him swiftly stepped outside his reach. Simultaneously, precise blows landed on his lower back, sending debilitating tremors throughout his body.

Liam charged ahead, thrusting his blade-like fingers forward, but the opponent in front of him sidestepped the attack. Meanwhile, something hit his left thigh, threatening to make it numb.

At times, Liam feinted, pretending to swing his hand at the opponent before him, only to keep turning to target the one he knew would attack from behind.

However, the second rooting expert reacted in time, halting whatever attack he had planned. Instead, his companion threw precise blows, hitting Liam’s shoulders in ways that sent numbing tremors through his arms.

The numerical disadvantage had never been more oppressive, but neither side relented, seemingly stuck in an artificial stalemate.

On the one hand, Liam’s fingers were deadly blades, which the two rooting experts seemed to know and be wary of. They never exposed themselves too much, even taking into account the sudden acceleration Liam had shown earlier.

Also, the two rooting experts wanted to subdue Liam instead of killing him. He felt it clearly. Whatever his superhuman senses captured told him that nothing about to land on him was life-threatening.

That was why Liam had prolonged his stay in the stalemate. The debilitating blows were manageable, so he wanted to see exactly what he was capable of, what his single minor root could achieve, and where he stood inside the rooting stage.

But the test grew old after a series of exchanges. Liam exhaled deeply, even forcefully, only for the air blowing out of his mouth to be pitch-black.

The two rooting experts retreated at the deadly cloud expanding between them, splitting in opposite directions.

A thundering noise resounded right afterward, blowing away the cloud, but putting Liam in front of one of the rooting experts, his clawed hand already touching the fabric covering his neck.

However, a clanging noise resounded. Liam had sensed the Qi moving inside his opponent, but had been too fast to stop himself. His fingers pierced the black fabric but bounced back once they landed on what felt like metal.

Liam was already about to unleash the Lightning Step again, but his opponent was faster, his punch swinging toward his jaw.

And, instead of attempting to dodge the attack, Liam slammed his face into it.

Liam gritted his teeth, the punch making his whole head shake. He could feel his neck trying to twist, his body wanting to fly away, but his muscles tensed, enduring whatever Qi the rooting expert had poured into that simple attack.

Meanwhile, Liam’s left hand snapped up, not to cut but to grab. He clung his fingers around his opponent’s arm, using another aspect of the Metal Hand to make sure he couldn’t retreat.

Then, Liam pulled, unleashing enough strength to destabilize the rooting expert, making him powerless to escape the palm rising toward his chest.

The Seismic Palm hit in all its violence, but Liam kept on pulling his opponent. His palm remained glued to the rooting expert’s chest, and another massive, trembling wave of Qi shot out, piercing his innate defenses.

Liam didn’t confirm the kill. He didn’t need to. He had heard what had exploded inside his opponent, and a thundering noise resounded again, blowing snow everywhere while the cloaked figure dropped lifelessly on the ground.

The last rooting expert wasn’t on the scene anymore. After realizing that the odds had shifted, he had run away, his figure sliding at incredible speed over the snow, turning into nothing more than a black blur.

Yet, a thunderous noise resounded in the distance, and then another closer. The third seemed to be mere meters behind the assassin, and the fourth forced him to turn.

The assassin could only cross his arms before a heavy punch landed on them, and a cracking noise followed. He felt both his forearms break while his figure was pushed down, crashing into the snow.

The crash was so violent that the assassin didn’t feel something tiny stabbing his abdomen, but its immediate consequences were impossible to dismiss.

Something immediately burned inside the assassin. His Qi tried to fight it, but the infection continued spreading. His flesh fell apart, creating expanding holes whenever his innate defenses failed to keep that foreign force at bay.

The assassin was melting from the inside out, and painful screams escaped his mouth until something important crumbled and delivered the solace of death.