Killing intent surfaced in an instant, without the slightest warning!
Because these two assassins lurking in the shadows had been equipped from the start with exceedingly high-end, rare shielding Gu worms, even Lin Mu, whose perception was exceedingly keen, failed to sense the arrival of the god of death in the moment his mind had slackened.
In the masked man's tactical perception, Lin Mu — supporting Lin Wuxie, and appearing utterly defenseless — was without a doubt the weakest link in the group, and the easiest to kill.
Swiftly whittle down the enemy's numbers, throw them into utter chaos, and then calmly hunt for an opportunity to slay the true target, Lin Feng. This was a combat strategy that had never failed him.
And so, as it happened, Lin Mu became the masked man's first target of attack; while the cruel-eyed gauntlet woman, like a bloodthirsty leopardess, fixed her gaze upon Lin Wan'er — the medical Gu Master, the one with the weakest combat strength of all!
Two afterimages burst forth from the darkness to attack at the same instant!
But the results of these two determined killing strikes were utterly different.
On Lin Wan'er's side, her Primeval Essence had already been more than half spent from the high-intensity deployment of healing Gu worms inside the mine cave, leaving her face deathly pale.
The pitch-black night, combined with the rich spoils just won, had bred in her a sense of ease, as though she had left the battlefield behind — she had not even deliberately guarded the dead corners around her as she walked.
This led to a result where, when the gauntlet woman's snarling, grinning face appeared at her side like a phantom, she made not the slightest sliver of defense at all!
Rank 2 — the Dark Step Gu! And Rank 2 — the Heavy Rock Fist Gu!
"Die, you delicate little young miss."
The gauntlet woman let out a hoarse, snarling laugh. Under the extreme acceleration of the movement Gu, her iron fists, caked with thick black scab, instantly erupted with terrifying, all-crushing force, smashing most brutally toward Lin Wan'er's heart and her slender waist!
Bang! Bang!
Several muffled heavy blows in succession, paired with her merciless, no-quarter-given method of attack, were all but invincible.
The instant Lin Wan'er suffered this devastating onslaught, her face turned pale to the utmost, like faded gold leaf.
"Bwah—" she spewed a great mouthful of scalding blood laced with fragments of viscera, her heaving chest rising and falling violently, and her slender waist gave off a teeth-grating sound of cracking bone — very nearly snapped in two!
In but a single exchange, Lin Wan'er had almost perished on the spot!
But fortunately, she was a core medical Gu Master hailing from the Medicine Hall.
Just as her vital signs plummeted at death's door, that exceedingly precious life-saving trump card within her aperture — the Rank 2 Life-Hanging Gu— was forcibly triggered by this threat of death, and began to frantically save its master!
A surge of vitality transformed into a potent shot of adrenaline, instantly flooding her nerves that had been on the verge of scattering.
Under the extreme stimulation of this survival instinct, Lin Wan'er actually forced herself to endure the searing agony of her fractured waist and, in an exceedingly wretched fashion, rolled across the muddy ground!
Boom!
The gauntlet woman's final killing blow, which had been aimed at her face, slammed ferociously into the muddy ground where Lin Wan'er had just been lying, gouging out a deep pit.
The gauntlet woman's strike came up empty, and a trace of extreme astonishment flashed through her eyes.
Never had she imagined that a delicate little woman, having suffered such grievous wounds, could still force herself into a roll and survive!
She wanted to press forward at once and finish the kill, but from the corner of her eye she caught sight of Lin Feng ahead, who had already reacted.
Constrained by her side's numerical disadvantage in the open, she could only let out a cold, exceedingly grudging snort. The Dark Step Gu activated beneath her feet, and her figure once again retreated like a phantom, concealing itself anew within the profound darkness.
On Lin Mu's side, however, it was an entirely different scene.
The masked man, gripping that writhing bone blade, leapt down from midair like a great roc spreading its wings.
His speed was fast to the utmost, the bone blade carrying an air-rending shriek as it hacked ferociously straight at the back of Lin Mu's skull!
Watching as that ghastly-white blade edge was about to slice through Lin Mu's head, the image of that fine head flying high into the air amid a wild spray of blood had already surfaced in the depths of the masked man's eyes.
However, the next moment!
Bang—!!!
A deafening clang of metal, like two blocks of peerless refined steel violently colliding, exploded thunderously through the dense forest!
The masked man's arm gripping the bone blade abruptly went numb, and his eyes filled with incomprehensible horror.
He saw that at the back of Lin Mu's seemingly undefended head, at the very tip of his hair, there was a Rank 2 Gu worm — its entire body black, disguised so exceedingly well that it looked like a strand of hair itself!
It was that very Stick Insect Gu!
In the instant crisis descended, the Stick Insect Gu had instantly reverted to its body, hard as refined iron, blocking this fatal decapitating strike for Lin Mu!
Though it had blocked the cutting edge, the immense kinetic force of this Rank 2 peak stage assassin's long-premeditated slash could not be fully dissipated.
Boom!
Lin Mu and the Lin Wuxie he was supporting were both struck hard by this tremendous impact, and, like two runaway cannonballs, were sent flying dozens of zhang away, crashing headlong into the depths of the pitch-black, dense jungle, snapping through countless shrubs.
The first wave of the death raid thus drew to a close.
At the cost of Lin Wan'er on the brink of death, and the four-man squad forced to scatter in the darkness.
And those two top-tier assassins, who struck once and withdrew, coiled once more like two cunning venomous serpents, perfectly concealed within the layered killing intent of the dense forest.
Only now did the group finally react fully from that ambush that had felt like plunging into an icy cavern.
"Wan'er!"
Lin Feng, looking at Lin Wan'er lying in a pool of blood — drawing in more breath than she let out — was on the verge of his eyes splitting open.
He pulled her behind him with one hand, drew his longsword, and was the first to shout loudly toward the fathomless darkness all around, trying to gather his squad members through sound and to make his own position known.
And in the distant shrubbery.
The freshly-fallen Lin Wuxie, hearing Lin Feng's shout, flashed a savage light in his eyes, and had just opened his mouth to loudly respond.
Slap!
A cold, powerful hand reached out from behind, most decisively, and clamped down hard over his mouth and nose!
Lin Wuxie's whole body went rigid. He turned his head, and met Lin Mu's eyes — frighteningly bright in the darkness.
Lin Mu fixed his gaze upon him with an exceedingly stern look, and gave a slight shake of his head.
The meaning in that gaze could not have been clearer: Do not act rashly! Right now the enemy is in the dark, and we are in the light!
If they exposed their position again so easily just to answer Lin Feng, it would be tantamount to voluntarily offering their necks to the enemy's blade, sinking once more into a passive strangling trap!
With disaster looming, even though Lin Mu possessed an exceedingly deep well of Rank 2 peak stage Primeval Essence, he still needed to be like a patient old hunter— lurking in the shadows, gathering enough intelligence and enough of the enemy's flaws, before he could deliver the most fatal counterstrike!