"Father, should we stop them?"

Silva took out a whistle and blew it, summoning the specially modified battle hounds.

"Stop them? If you dare step forward now, let’s not mention whether Bai Ye would attack you, your great-grandfather will certainly not hold back. He’s been alone for too long, and now... no one can stop him, except for the one he’s fighting against."

Zeno’s expression was serious. He actually didn’t want to accept Su Xiao’s commission, but he knew something about Su Xiao’s character. If he directly refused, who knew what Su Xiao might do; wiping out the Zoldyck Family wasn’t out of the question.

"Gather all the hunting hounds, and also, tell Ilmi and Ji Qiu to stop watching the excitement in the castle, have them come out and be ready to stop the battle at any time."

Let’s not talk about Zeno and the others’ arrangements; at this moment Su Xiao was concentrating on battling Maha Zoldyck, an old man who could take his life at any moment.

Su Xiao didn’t know much about Maha Zoldyck before and originally thought the old man would follow the rules of an assassin, but now it seems that’s not the case.

Although the situation was slightly different from what Su Xiao had expected, he didn’t reject it. In fact, the current situation was better; fighting an enemy without killing intent wouldn’t yield the desired test effect, a battle is about life and death.

Moreover, Su Xiao could feel his blood boiling all over. Fighting against an enemy of Maha Zoldyck’s level, aside from the danger aspect, was indeed thrilling, pushing all of Su Xiao’s new abilities to their limits.

Zing, zing, zing...

A wide mass of blade aura slashed toward Maha Zoldyck, black Nen burst from Maha Zoldyck’s body, and with a loud bang, all the blade aura was shattered.

Could the other members of the Zoldyck family stop the battle between the two? Don’t kid yourself; if they got within 50 meters of the battlefield, they would immediately be affected by Su Xiao’s blade aura or Maha Zoldyck’s black Nen.

"Young man, you’re pretty good."

Maha Zoldyck spoke, purple-black blood flowing from a wound on his back, which Su Xiao had previously inflicted.

Maha Zoldyck appeared relaxed, but he was constantly on guard against Su Xiao’s ability to suddenly disappear. To be honest, Maha had some envy for that ability; it was extremely practical in close combat.

"You old bones are unexpectedly tough too."

Su Xiao smiled, baring his sharp white teeth.

Zap—

Metal wire suddenly burst out of the ground, wrapping toward Maha Zoldyck, yet he stood still.

The Boundary Line tightened around Maha Zoldyck and easily pierced through his body. After a moment of distortion, Maha Zoldyck vanished into thin air, leaving behind only an afterimage or illusion.

At this moment, Su Xiao’s intuition ability suddenly gave a warning; the attack was coming from the back of his head.

A hand blade that was as thin as bone aimed at the back of Su Xiao’s head, the sharp fingernails glinting with a chilling light, the tendons on the hand bulged, looking nothing like a human hand.

When the intuitive ability issued the warning, the hand blade was already at the back of Su Xiao’s head. Maha Zoldyck’s speed was truly too fast, making it obviously too late to dodge.

Whoosh—

Maha Zoldyck’s hand blade passed directly through Su Xiao’s head, with no sense of solid matter. Maha was full of doubt; he could confirm that this was indeed Su Xiao’s solid body.

The reason for this occurrence was due to Su Xiao pausing for an instant while traversing through space, using this momentary pause to ’dodge’ the enemy’s attack. This trick could only be used in close combat, as the pause was extremely brief, requiring the enemy’s attack to be equally swift.

Zing.

A sharp long knife slashed toward the back of Maha Zoldyck’s neck. Maha’s arm twisted again, stabbing toward Su Xiao’s throat at an unusually bizarre angle.

The long knife stopped in front of Maha’s neck, while the hand blade also stopped in front of Su Xiao’s throat, surrounded by Zeno, Silva, Ji Qiu, and Ilmi, who had rushed forward.

Their targets were clear, Zeno and Ilmi were responsible for stopping Maha Zoldyck, while Silva and his wife were responsible for stopping Su Xiao.

None of the four managed to catch up, a testament to the gap in strength. Unexpectedly, Su Xiao and Maha Zoldyck hadn’t both suffered mutual destruction.

In the fight, both Su Xiao and Maha Zoldyck held the intent to kill the other—just a habit of theirs. They bore no grudge against each other, and given their temporary employer-employee relationship, mutual destruction was unnecessary.

The two fought with life-and-death intensity, but when it came to a critical moment, both remained calm, knowing that there was a substantial fee involved. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Crack, crack.

Maha Zoldyck’s arm returned to normal, and the black Nen receded into his body, while Su Xiao sheathed the Dragon Slash, dispersing the faint red aura around them.

"Why are you all so tense?"

Maha Zoldyck glanced around at the family members, generations apart—grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and even great-great-grandchildren.

"Ahem."

Zeno gave a dry cough, a bit embarrassed. The truth is, at his age, Maha Zoldyck still regarded him as a grandchild.

As the battle concluded, Maha Zoldyck’s injuries visibly healed. After all, the old man was an Enhancer, his physical strength was unimaginably formidable.

Su Xiao flicked off the blood on his hand as he pondered a question—had he been underestimating his own combat strength?

Through the battle with Maha Zoldyck, Su Xiao realized that the Dragon Shadow Flash ability led to a qualitative leap in his combat power. This enhancement wasn’t as apparent in the arena or previous battles.

During arena matches, Su Xiao avoided using the Dragon Shadow Flash ability to conserve Mana Value, aiming to compete in more rounds.

As for the Tri-Body conflict, once he used the Dragon Shadow Flash ability, the Tri-Body was nearly annihilated by a flurry of attacks.

Today, indulging in the battle with Maha Zoldyck, the role of Dragon Shadow Flash ability was vividly clear. On two occasions, Su Xiao turned significant disadvantages into advantages, allowing him to fight Maha to a draw.

Without the Dragon Shadow Flash ability, Su Xiao would have undoubtedly lost, there was no doubt about that.

After this battle, Su Xiao discovered he could completely take on the Ant King in a frontal battle. While he would probably lose, he certainly had the capability to fight the Ant King, which was good news.

If Su Xiao could kill the Ant King and play a leading role in doing so, the rewards would be immensely generous.

For all Contractors entering the Hunter World this time, the Ant King was the ultimate BOSS; thus, the reward for killing it would naturally be exceptionally rich.

"Come with me, let’s go to another place to complete the commission. Although our family’s assassination techniques won’t be much help to you, a commission is a commission, and it must be fulfilled."

Maha Zoldyck beckoned to Su Xiao, and the two left the crater-filled courtyard.

"What a pity, he didn’t die here."

Ilmi, though expressionless, didn’t feel great at that moment. The reason was simple; he had a grudge against Su Xiao, and if he met Su Xiao outside, he’d end up dead nine times out of ten.

"Rest assured, even if you run into him in the future, as long as you’re not enemies, he won’t actively kill you."

Zeno headed toward the castle, sensing a familiar feeling in Su Xiao, a kind of kinship as fellow assassins. The Zoldyck family was active assassins, whereas Su Xiao had retired, no longer fighting for money.

In a forest, Maha Zoldyck was demonstrating various Zoldyck family killing techniques to Su Xiao, such as Shadow Step, Limb Twisting, and Spirit Snake.

These techniques were decent, but as Maha Zoldyck had mentioned earlier, they didn’t quite suit Su Xiao. Su Xiao’s combat style was straightforward and aggressive, pushing head-on.

"Maha Zoldyck, I’m curious about something."

"What is it?"

Maha Zoldyck stopped demonstrating the killing techniques, his voice hoarse and lacking vigor.

"How have you lived this long? Normally, you should have died of old age long ago. During the battle, I had a feeling that you aren’t entirely alive in the true sense."

"Indeed, how have I lived this long."

Maha Zoldyck looked at Su Xiao, seemingly hesitating about something.