One of them covered his eyes, blood seeping from between his fingers, and said to the person next to him, "I'm afraid my eyes are ruined. We'll have to lower the price."
The other person glanced at him and said, "If this goes well, you'll get your money's worth."
Having received confirmation, the injured man glared fiercely at Ye Zhen, "You bitch, you dare to ruin my eyes, you're asking for death!"
Having said that, he drew his knife and charged forward.
The two sides quickly clashed. These assassins were skilled in martial arts, but Ye Zhen and Xie Tingzhou were even better.
Half an hour later, three assassins were dead, including the one with an eye injury, whose other eye was pierced by Ye Zhen's sword.
The other assassins looked at each other in bewilderment, and one of them said, "Damn it, they didn't say they were this skilled."
They were all江湖客 (jianghu ke, meaning people from all walks of life who were out of the loop), loving both money and life. Judging from the situation, they might not be able to kill the two of them today.
Some people are considering quitting.
The leader realized this and reminded them, "He is the Crown Prince. Only by killing them can we survive."
The pupils of the others trembled.
When they accepted the job, they said they were there to assassinate a widowed princess. Although she had some martial arts skills, they were not a threat.
Upon arriving in the capital, they learned that the widow was the future Crown Princess, but the price she offered was too tempting.
The future Crown Princess, meaning she's not yet the Crown Princess and isn't considered a member of the royal family, so she just needs to keep things clean.
The leader learned that Ye Zhen had come to the mountains outside the city today, which was a good opportunity for assassination, so they followed him.
The bad news is that the target came with the Crown Prince; the good news is that they didn't bring anyone else, just the two of them.
Based on the principle that since they had already come all this way, they couldn't leave empty-handed, so they decided to take action.
At worst, they can knock the crown prince unconscious. Once they complete their mission and return to Yan, the crown prince won't know it was them, and they won't be able to trace it back to them.
But the truth is, before they could even make a move, Ye Zhen discovered them. They failed to knock out the Crown Prince and instead killed three of them.
If we run away halfway now, we won't get any reward, and not only will we have made a wasted trip, but it's also hard to guarantee that we won't be hunted down by the Crown Prince.
Unless the crown prince is killed as well, everyone realized that they seemed to have been deceived by their leader.
Sure enough, the leader said, "In the middle of nowhere, we'll work together to take care of these two, and the price will be five times higher."
The leader did accept the order to assassinate Ye Zhen, but while he was still en route, he received another message demanding that the Crown Prince be killed as well.
Most people in the martial arts world were unwilling to provoke the imperial court, and the leader was worried that someone might back out in fear and leak the news, so he kept the change of mission a secret.
He also wanted to take the opportunity to make a fortune; if all went well, the extra income from assassinating the crown prince would all be his.
We can only take it out now and finish the task first.
The others also realized what was happening, made up their minds, and used their deadly moves to gang up on Ye Zhen and Xie Tingzhou.
Xie Tingzhou also noticed that someone had been watching Ye Zhen these past two days, which is why he lured the person to the mountains.
He clearly saw the assassins' reactions: they were not united and their minds were not firm, so they were not true suicide squads. Moreover, they all spoke with a Yan accent.
He must be a hitman who takes money to kill in the martial arts world, so he blew a whistle and then stood back to back with Ye Zhen, asking, "Who are you, and why are you here?"
The assassins dared to speak earlier because they were certain they could kill both of them, but now they dared not open their mouths easily.
But while they remained silent, someone else spoke up.
Two men in black suddenly rushed into the assassin team. Just as the assassins were about to defend themselves, they heard one of the men in black say, "You dog prince, I've finally found my chance. Prepare to die."
Oh, so they're here to take the prince's life too. Then they're their accomplices.
That's wonderful! God is on their side!
The assassins secretly breathed a sigh of relief. To their surprise, the two men in black were quite skilled and kept the prince tightly entangled, putting the prince and Ye Zhen at a disadvantage.
Ye Zhen was finding it increasingly difficult to deal with them. Seeing that the mission was about to be completed, the assassins were happy. Their only complaint was that the two men in black seemed to have a deep grudge against the Crown Prince and were chasing him so closely that it was not easy for their men to get close.
The leader then gestured to the assassins, telling them to kill Ye Zhen first while the prince was preoccupied and unable to deal with him, and then go after the prince.
Unexpectedly, before they could kill Ye Zhen, one of the men in black pierced the prince's body with his longsword.
The severely injured Crown Prince knelt on one knee, took out a signal from his robes and released it. Ye Zhen's eyes widened in fury, "Xie Tingzhou!"
She quickly broke through the encirclement and reached Xie Tingzhou's side, supporting him as they retreated while fending off numerous attacks.
But the Crown Prince seemed to be seriously injured, and he was almost dragged along by Ye Zhen.
"Don't worry about me, you go first!"
Xie Tingzhou was pale and afraid of implicating Ye Zhen, so he kept urging her to leave.
Ye Zhen's eyes were filled with pain as she held him tightly, saying, "Hold on, Yu Nie and the others are down the mountain. They'll be here soon once they receive the signal. Hold on."
Upon hearing this, the assassins intensified their attack, determined to complete their mission before the prince's reinforcements arrived.
On the contrary, the two men in black who joined later hesitated.
One of them said, "I don't think the prince is going to make it. If they find out about us, we'll be in trouble. Let's get out of here."
The other person said, "Let's wait and see him die so we can give an explanation to our master."
The assassins were furious. Not only were they taking advantage of the chaos, but they were also trying to reap the benefits without lifting a finger.
Treating them like free labor? This is an insult to outsiders.
One of them couldn't hold back any longer and cursed, "What are you looking at? Kill him and run away, otherwise wait for his helpers to come and kill him."
At this time, wouldn't it be better to have more people help more?
The two men in black seemed to agree with this, and that's why they launched their attack again.
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