The night is deep.

Tonight's moon is covered by a thick layer of dark clouds, making the land even darker and colder.

Inside the City Lord's Mansion, Lin Hao walked to the courtyard area, and the guards around him immediately bowed and saluted.

Facing such a mysterious lord, the eyes of these guards were full of awe.

"You don't need to keep watch tonight. Go back and rest."

Lin Hao glanced at everyone and said lightly.

The middle-aged guard leader said sternly, "Thank you, Lord, but we are not tired. Butler Bai said that to ensure your safety, we must guard you in shifts 24 hours a day!"

Lin Hao's eyes darkened slightly, and there was a hint of coldness in his voice: "Do you listen to the orders of Manager Bai, or my orders?"

Upon hearing this, the middle-aged guard captain's face turned stern, and he quickly knelt on one knee and said, "I swear to be loyal to you, my lord, until death."

"Well, then everyone please leave."

Lin Hao waved his hand and said calmly.

"Yes, my Lord!"

At that moment, the guards dared not say anything and left one after another.

For a moment, the atrium area became almost silent.

"Boss, why did you call them all away?"

Seeing this, Xiaobai asked curiously.

"Nothing much. I plan to practice quietly tonight. You should go back to sleep too."

As he spoke, Lin Hao took out a bag of Lingyang Stone from his storage ring and said with a faint smile: "This is for you as a midnight snack."

Xiaobai's eyes suddenly lit up. He took the bag of Lingyang Stones without hesitation, then turned around and left obediently.

After sending everyone away, Lin Hao did not go into the dormitory. Instead, he sat cross-legged on the ground with his eyes slightly closed.

On the surface he seemed to be practicing, but vaguely, there was an invisible fluctuation of mental power slowly spreading out from his body.

Under the cover of mental power, everything in the yard appeared in his mind.

"Strange, why not?"

Lin Hao pondered in his heart and asked himself in doubt.

In fact, he had an inexplicable feeling when he left the conference room earlier.

I vaguely felt that there was a pair of cold eyes watching me in the darkness somewhere.

Lin Hao, who was an assassin himself, realized at the first moment that he was being targeted by a killer!

On the way from the conference hall to the central courtyard area, he was not indifferent. He secretly summoned Jing Ke to activate stealth mode and observe from behind.

But during the entire process, no suspicious signs were found.

From this we can see that this assassin is no small character and his hiding skills are extremely sophisticated.

Until now, Lin Hao has not detected the guy's hiding place.

"Am I worrying too much?"

While thinking, Lin Hao began to doubt himself.

It shouldn't be possible.

However, he quickly rejected this idea.

Because that feeling of being peeped at was always lingering in his heart, making him feel restless from just now to now.

It seems that this time, I have met a master...

Lin Hao felt a little depressed.

He knew the assassin's ways very well.

Killing with one strike is undoubtedly his usual tactic.

At this time, the mental power he exuded should have been noticed by the assassin hiding in the dark, and he would certainly not act rashly.

Therefore, the only way for the other party to assassinate him is to wait until he relaxes.

"Since we can't find it, we can only lure the snake out of its hole!"

Lin Hao felt a chill in his heart and decided to take a gamble.

Otherwise, he couldn't guarantee when that guy would make a move, and it would undoubtedly be more difficult to guard against him at that time.

Thinking of this, Lin Hao's mind moved slightly, and the mental power covering the surroundings suddenly and quickly converged.

At the same time, Lin Hao followed the technique of Devouring the Stars and circulated the spiritual power in his body to the eight extraordinary meridians.

In an instant, the surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth was obviously attracted by his practice and began to gather towards him.

This situation clearly shows that one has entered a state of cultivation.

Not far away, in the shadow of the corner of the courtyard wall, a pair of cold eyes, like a poisonous snake, stared straight at Lin Hao.

This person is none other than Shadow, the top assassin ranked tenth on the killer list.

The reason why he can reach such a position in the world of killers.

In addition to his superb stabbing skills, the most important thing is that he practiced the dark martial arts, which had an extremely secret skill.

'Shadows Following'.

Once this technique is performed, it is like an elf in the night. The body can blend into any shadow and block any mental detection.

If a sudden attack is launched, it would be almost impossible to be prepared!

Because of this, he was given the code name "Shadow" in the assassin world.

"I thought this kid had already discovered that the spiritual power he just released was just a trick."

Shadow looked at Lin Hao, who was sitting cross-legged in the courtyard practicing, with a cold gaze, and sneered in his heart with disdain.

Immediately, the shadow under the courtyard wall began to wriggle strangely and began to stretch outward.

The shadow squirmed and slowly spread towards the direction where Lin Hao was.

The speed is so slow that it is difficult to detect if you don't watch carefully.

This assassination method has never failed since Shadow debuted.

Any prey that is targeted will inevitably die.

This time, in his opinion, the result will be the same!

Little did he know that above the yard, a black insect shaped like a fly was staring at him with a cold gaze, and transmitted the image to Lin Hao's mind.

"shadow?"

Looking at this strange scene, Lin Hao was quite surprised.

"The detection owner is in danger of death. Should we attack?"

In the night sky, Jing Ke, who was observing secretly, sent a message to Lin Hao.

"No, just wait and see!"

After a change of mind, Lin Hao stopped it immediately, not wanting to alert the enemy.

In the pitch-black night, he was seen sitting cross-legged on the ground with his eyes slightly closed, like an old monk in meditation, without any movement.

After all, this wriggling shadow was extremely strange, and Lin Hao couldn't even detect any fluctuations in its aura.

If we act rashly at this moment and let the assassin escape immediately, it will definitely be a huge hidden danger in the future.

So, if you don’t take action, then don’t do it. But if you do, you must kill him!

Under the cover of night, the shadow slowly crawled, and its movements were extremely cautious. Even though it felt that Lin Hao had not noticed it, it still maintained its original speed without any urgency.

After a while, the shadow finally reached behind Lin Hao, about ten feet away.

This distance is undoubtedly the best for close-range assassination!

With almost no warning, the shadow suddenly transformed into a human form, and the black blade in its hand stabbed at the back of Lin Hao's head with lightning speed.

Such a close-range attack, coupled with such a fierce attack speed, even if Lin Hao reacted, he would probably not be able to dodge it.

When he thought about the head in front of him being pierced by the black blade in the next moment, a perverted bloody pleasure suddenly surged in the assassin's heart.

call out!

However, at this moment, a tiny black shadow suddenly appeared out of nowhere and hovered behind Lin Hao's head.

Soon, there was a "clang" sound.

The Mantis King's pair of forearms, which were like long swords, collided with the black blade, and suddenly sparks flew, and a sound of metal clashing was heard!

The sudden change caused the shadow assassin's face to change drastically.

"Huh? This is... a praying mantis?!"

When he saw the Mantis King's appearance clearly, his pupils shrank slightly, and a look of disbelief emerged on his gloomy face.

Obviously, he never expected that his first assassination attempt in his life would fail because of a tiny mantis.

What shocked him even more was that the mantis in front of him could actually resist the attack of the blade and remain unharmed!

You know, his own cultivation has already reached the strength of a ninth-level mid-stage warrior.

Although the attack just now was not carried out with full strength, even an eighth-level warrior would not be able to resist it.

In other words, this mantis has at least the powerful fighting power comparable to that of a ninth-level warrior! !

Thinking of this, Shadow couldn't help but take a deep breath and retreated quickly.

"I'm curious, how did you find me?"

He stared at Lin Hao, who had already stood up and was looking at him, with a grim look in his eyes, and asked in a cold voice.

Lin Hao's face was indifferent, and he said in a cold voice without any worries: "It's the intuition of my colleagues."

"Traveling together?"

A hint of surprise flashed in Shadow's eyes, "Are you an assassin too?"

Lin Hao did not comment, and asked with a sneer: "Don't you think so?"

Hearing this, Shadow was surprised and couldn't help but look at Lin Hao more.

When I took over this task a few days ago, from the information, apart from knowing that Lin Hao was the lord of the Territory of Chaos and the name of King Lanling, there was no other information, not even a portrait of the character.

At this moment, looking at his mysterious attire and calm reaction, he does have some potential to be an assassin.

"An assassin who is a lord, you are the most peculiar one I have ever seen."

Shadow smiled grimly, his voice filled with murderous intent, "But I will not allow any failure in my assassination."

After saying that, he took out a piece of talisman paper.

Buzz——!

As it was ignited, an invisible energy wave instantly spread out, directly covering the area of ​​the atrium and inner courtyard.

Any sound from the outside world is completely isolated.

Seeing this, Lin Hao's eyes narrowed slightly. He was not unfamiliar with this kind of isolation rune formation.

I had seen Master Chen perform this technique before in the weapon refining room of Wanlong Pavilion.

Under the cover of the formation energy, the outside world cannot hear anything happening here.

However, this is exactly what Lin Hao wants.

"For the sake of our mutual friendship, I can give you a quick death."

Shadow held the black blade in his hand, with thick black mist lingering on the blade, and said coldly: "Go and kill yourself."

Lin Hao narrowed his eyes slightly, with a hint of mockery on his lips: "Although we are in the same industry, you are the one who talks the most nonsense among all the assassins I have ever seen."

"court death!"

A hideous look suddenly appeared on Shadow's face, and then he suddenly rushed out.

Almost instantly, his body split into four black shadows, and the fierce attack instantly covered Lin Hao's vital points!

roar--!

Yo——!

But at this moment, the ferocious roar of a beast suddenly exploded.

The Fire Scale Tiger and the four treasures of the Blue Flame Phoenix body suddenly rushed out and directly confronted two of the black shadows.

Immediately afterwards, the Mantis King and Jing Ke also flew over at the same time and fought with the other two shadow clones.

As for Lin Hao, he floated in the air with a calm expression, looking down at the battle situation below with a steady gaze.

With four powerful pets, he naturally wouldn't go down and risk his life.

After all, the assassin's strength is not low, and coupled with that strange dark martial arts, if one is not careful, the injuries will probably be minor.

"What's going on?!"

"Where on earth did these monsters come from?!"

Faced with four ferocious pets, Shadow's originally confident eyes were now filled with horror.

His mentality is on the verge of collapse.

I thought that I was only taking on a small role this time and that I could easily get a high salary.

Unexpectedly, he hit a hard iron plate!

Puff! Puff! Puff!!

At this time, his three shadow clones were all destroyed one after another by the Fire Scale Tiger.

The explosion of his clone obviously had some impact on his original body. His body shook violently and a large amount of blood spurted out of his mouth.

call out!

Taking advantage of this gap, a black light flashed across like lightning.

One cut to the throat!

But the Mantis King's knife arm cut fiercely towards Shadow's neck, and a very thin blood mark appeared instantly.

Soon, the bloodstain expanded, and blood began to flow out continuously, making a hissing sound.

“Snap!”

The black blade in the assassin's hand fell to the ground, and his stiff hands seemed to be raised with all his strength, trying to cover the wound on his throat.

However, the Mantis King's sword contained the power of black flames. Even with the mobilization of spiritual energy, the wound could not be healed and the blood still flowed!

“How… is it possible!!”

Shadow had a look of horror on his face, staring at Lin Hao and the four pets surrounding him, his eyes full of shock and unwillingness.

"If an assassin fails, it means death. You should be aware of this."

Lin Hao looked at the other party with indifference and said coldly.

Hearing this, Shadow's pupils trembled violently.

He immediately lost his breath and fell into a pool of blood.

In order to prevent the other party from faking his death, Lin Hao winked at the Mantis King.

The latter understood and flew over immediately.

Phew!

The sharp arm knife stabbed into the head fiercely and gave it another blow.

This time, it was undoubtedly killed completely.

Seeing that the corpse had no signs of life, Lin Hao put down his guard and walked forward to take the storage ring.

Lin Hao mobilized a trace of mental power, quickly probed into it, and began to churn.

It must be said that this assassin is extremely wealthy.

There are as many as 80,000 Lingyang Stones alone.

As for other items, they are also very rich and dazzling!

Lin Hao searched the storage ring inside and out.

Then he flipped his palm lightly, and an ancient martial arts book with a dark golden color appeared in his hand.

There are several ancient fonts on the cover.

The Shadow of Devil

Lin Hao's eyes narrowed slightly, and he thought of the martial arts used by the assassin before, and his eyes became a little hot.

For example, he had personally experienced the lurking technique of forming shadows, and it was extremely weird!

If it weren't for the assistance of Jing Ke and the others, the assassination attempt tonight would have been extremely disastrous.

Moreover, when the opponent launched the attack just now, he unleashed four shadow clones. To be honest, Lin Hao was quite coveting this kind of martial arts.

"Ding, detecting that the host has obtained a superior dark martial art, do you want to start the system scan?"

Hearing the system's prompt, Lin Hao said silently, "Yes," without any hesitation.

Buzz——!

In an instant, the martial arts secret book in Lin Hao's hand disappeared.

Instead, there was a completely black crystal of power.

whoosh!

Lin Hao's mind moved slightly, and the black crystal instantly turned into a ray of light and shot into his mind.

The martial arts moves of "Devil's Shadow Covering the Sky" were also absorbed and comprehended by him in an instant...