The first to notice the advent of the new attack was Jianyu. Thanks to his breakthrough in cultivation and lack of fatigue, he was able to detect the enemy using his unusually powerful luminescent soul, just higher than the incandescent souls that most of the other sect disciples possessed.

After notifying the other disciples of the imminent threat, Jianyu found his brother among the despondent sect members. “Stay here, I will find and eliminate the greatest threats.” At his brother’s nod, Jianyu turned away and began to passively cycle Qi through his meridians in preparation for battle.

Among the attacking force of 100 or so Assassins, he detected only 5 threats; 4 at late Foundation Establishment. The last was at half-step Core Formation. His face darkened, and he prepared himself to fight. “I will show them what a TRUE Cloud Runner looks like,” he thought to himself.

Unlike the rest of the Sect members, Jianyu met the attacking force head on, activating his movement technique, the Cloud Step, to move almost instantaneously into the middle of the enemy ranks. Once there, he summoned his jian from his storage ring, and began his assault. First, he used his only Sky-ranked technique, Weak Vortex, to trap any Qi used within the radius of the technique, restoring the Qi in his dantian with that of his enemies. Though it lasted a single incense time and could only be used twice daily due to the strain on his soul, it was the most powerful technique in his arsenal.

As was to be expected, many of the simple practitioners in the enemy force ignored him, leaving him to their seniors. Despite this, he managed to kill 8 assassins before he met any resistance. While any normal cultivator would be terrified at the prospect of fighting 5 other cultivators simultaneously, Jianyu was unfazed, as he had a handful of tricks up his sleeve. Firstly, while Void Assassins normally had a talent for only Qi and Soul Cultivation, he was also body cultivator at the organ-tempering stage, giving him an edge over his opponents in the form of physical strength. Additionally, Jianyu, though arrogant, was a veritable genius, and at the very least would be able to eliminate the 4 weaker cultivators engaging him.

However, Jianyu’s arrogance did not blind him; if his opponents managed to land even a single strike on his body, the corrosive properties of void qi would kill him unless he managed to sever the affected limb first.

As the weaker assassins cleared the area, Jianyu got the first sight of his opponents. The first 4 were similar in appearance; they all had the black robes and nondescript masks of their comrades and dual wielded black poison-tipped daggers. What set them apart, aside from their higher cultivation levels, was the silver shine of their masks, as opposed to the colored wooden ones of their allies.

The 5th, stronger opponent appeared out of place. His large, muscular body suggested a high level of Body Cultivation, perhaps as high as the Bone Forging stage. His black robes were too small for him, and he stood a head taller than his subordinates. His distinctive gold mask marked him as an elite assassin, although Jianyu had trouble believing anyone that size would make a good assassin.

He assessed the opposition in the seconds before his 4 weaker opponents silently began their assault. They attacked in tandem, each from a different direction. The apparent leader of the group held back, as if adhering to some twisted sense of honor. Jianyu was thankful he had been able to choose the battlefield, as the outer courtyard provided the most advantages to him and unfamiliar terrain for the assassins.

The first attacked from the front, knives aiming for his throat. As he blocked the strike, he realized his predicament, as the others aimed for his legs and torso. “I should have learned a shaungdao style,” Jianyu said to himself as he struggled to go on the offensive.

Instead of attempting to parry every strike, he simply jumped, avoiding certain death. While it was typically ill-advised to take to the skies, Jianyu was able to use his Cloud Step technique to stay airborne for as long as he had Qi. However, maintaining flight for even one incense time would exhaust the Qi in his dantian. As a result, he used his time sparingly. He released the power of his Luminescent Soul, causing the Assassins to visibly slow their movements.

Next, he swung his sword in a wide arc, utilizing his own understanding of Sword Mastery to cut everything within 3 chi. Predictably, his opponents used their own Qi to block the attack.

Then, to his dismay, they activated a technique of their own, the infamous Invisible Hand technique, hiding them from both mundane sight and the Soul Sight that was available to Soul Cultivators. Since he couldn’t stay airborne indefinitely, Jianyu returned to the ground, and activated a technique he had created himself. Though he hadn’t decided on a name, it infused the user’s body with Lightning Qi, improving reflexes at the cost of fatiguing the body. While he had never used it before in battle, he had no choice if he wanted to survive.

From his studies, Jianyu knew that the trick to evading the assassins was that in order to attack, they had to reveal their presence briefly before returning to the shadows. As they renewed their assault, he was barely able to fend off their attacks, deflecting a cut to his lower torso, then another to the back of his left leg, before jumping backwards to escape a cut aimed at his feet, and finally ducking to avoid a strike to his head.

“I can’t afford to conserve my qi with such opponents,” he thought to himself. But as hard as he tried, he couldn’t go on the offensive against such skilled opponents. The most he could do was just stay alive and hope his fellow Disciples won the battle.

As if reading his mind, the gold-masked assassin used a technique to teleport behind Jianyu and go to the inner courtyard, where no opponent could defeat him. Even as his fellow disciples fought against the rank and file of the assassins, he could hear them being cut down too quickly for them to be victorious.

“At this rate,” Jianyu thought to himself with a grimace, “none of us are going to survive this.”