Sean couldn't get far. Twenty years of imprisonment had caused irreparable damage deep within him. These days, he had to fight against the potent poison injected by Fan Xian. He had finally cleared his blocked meridians, only to find that after a tense escape, he had wasted some energy turning back to kill the three relentless hounds chasing after him.

He clung tightly to a tree branch, his chest already heaving, his breathing somewhat rapid. He couldn't help but think with self-deprecating humor, "I'm getting old. I'm not as useful as I used to be."

Moonlight filtered through the trees, and he could clearly see the seven formidable figures carrying long sabers, cautiously approaching his hiding place. Sean was actually somewhat shocked. Since leaving the prison, this was the first time he had seen the Tiger Guards from the envoy. He didn't know when the Qing Kingdom had acquired such a powerful force outside of the Sixth Bureau of the Supervisory Council.

But he was more worried about the young man named Fan Xian. Sean had long known that the other party was determined to kill him, which was why he had deliberately shown a flaw.

Beyond the mountain next to the forest was Mist Crossing River. The support team dispatched by Sean's most secretive disciple was waiting for him on the other side of the border.

A cold glint flashed in Sean's eyes. He decided to gamble. It had been two hours since he had escaped from the envoy's camp, and the tracking and counter-tracking had proceeded silently and intensely for two hours. A faint hint of white was already appearing on the eastern horizon, and the milky white mist characteristic of the great lake was beginning to rise in the short cedar forest.

The fog gradually spread through the forest. This was Sean's chance. He silently slid down the tree branch, his entire body flattened on the muddy ground, like an eel, bravely moving against the direction of the seven Tiger Guards' search. Crawling on the mud, Sean gradually found that familiar feeling, the feeling from many years ago when he was a small secret agent in the Northern Wei, risking his life.

The old man suppressed his heavy breathing to the extreme, and the pure true energy within him supported his flagging energy. Under the cover of the thick fog, he was about to "brush past" the seven powerful Tiger Guards. Although somewhat disheveled and lacking the demeanor of a peerless master, as long as he could break through this forest and successfully return to the north freely, everything seemed to be fine.

……

……

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Three crossbow bolts, like venomous snakes, shot at Sean's body close to the ground with lightning speed, as if they had eyes. Sean's body seemed to have some kind of sensory function, and before the bolts could hit him, he had already shifted a few inches to the left, narrowly avoiding the fate of being pierced.

But in this way, his whereabouts were exposed. The seven snow-white, bloodthirsty sabers turned into a terrifying net, directly covering the space above him.

A muffled groan sounded, and Sean had disappeared from his original position. The true combat power of a generation of strongmen finally exploded at this moment. The air in the forest cracked and snapped for a moment. In an instant, the old man had floated to the outside of the seven sabers. He leaned forward, his momentum actually shaking away the thick mist at the end of the night. With two slaps, he struck the sabers!

The sabers broke feebly, and two Tiger Guards grunted, thrown outwards by Sean's palms. Their bodies slammed into the trees, breaking two saplings in half.

Gao Da roared wildly, gripping the saber handle with both hands and hacking down at the ghostly, white-haired figure!

The saber whistled as it approached, but Sean was expressionless. The pair of eyes hidden in the white hair glowed faintly. He clapped his palms together, his body disappearing into the mist, dodging Gao Da's unstoppable strike. With a palm strike, the force forced Gao Da to dodge for a moment.

In that instant, the sabers of the remaining four Tiger Guards arrived like snow, engulfing Sean's entire body.

Sean let out a sharp whistle, stomping his feet on the ground, sending mud flying everywhere. His ten fingers burst forth, and countless splinters, sharpened into thin needles, pierced in all directions!

Hearing the whooshing sound of the wind being broken, the four Tiger Guards gripped their sabers tightly and danced them to protect their bodies, pressing the handles to their faces, fearing that these unknown hidden weapons would pierce their eyes. Even so, they still felt a sudden stinging pain on their bodies, and their hands were covered in fine wood fibers.

Gao Da slashed again, the powerful saber wind blowing away the incoming wood splinters. Gripping his saber with both hands, he looked up and saw Sean's body had turned into a faint shadow, piercing through the thick fog, reaching the treetops.

……

……

With a rustling sound, newly grown leaves were scattered everywhere by a powerful force. Fan Xian, shrouded in black clothes, like a meteorite from outer space, crashed down on Sean, who was rising to the highest point, his true energy exhausted, reaching out to grab a tree branch!

He had been hiding on one side all along. The three crossbow bolts earlier were fired by him. Having finally found such a good opportunity, how could he miss it?

In a flash of lightning, he collided with Sean. Bending his elbow and lifting his wrist, the slender, black-glowing dagger stabbed fiercely towards the old man's throat!

But at this moment, Fan Xian suddenly found that Sean's eyes, hidden in his disheveled white hair, were completely calm!

Sean's entire spirit was actually focused on Fan Xian. He was actually waiting for this moment. Another sharp whistle rang out from the withered lips of this old man who desperately craved freedom. His hands moved extremely quickly, cleverly disarming Fan Xian's wrist holding the dagger. The other hand, like a poisonous snake spitting its tongue, stabbed towards Fan Xian's eyes exposed outside the black cloth.

The momentum of the two did not stop, and they slammed hard into the tree. Sean seemed to have calculated even this force, deliberately keeping his elbow bent behind him, actually using the force of the rebound to accelerate the speed of digging towards Fan Xian's eyes.

The old man's fingers were thin and dry, looking very terrifying, but Fan Xian's eyes brightened.

In the thick fog, two hands of different skin colors were twisted together like wringing a towel. A strange feeling flashed in Sean's eyes, as if he didn't know how the black-clothed Fan Xian had extended that hand.

This was prediction, a prediction of the enemy's actions. This was a good result of Master Wu Zhu's stick education.

No matter how terrifying Sean was, he was not as terrifying as Wu Zhu. Fan Xian grunted, his right hand tightly wrapped around Sean's wrist, and violent true energy attacked into the other party's body. His empty hand moved horizontally, and a light flashed through the white mist.

It was a blade!

Sean raised his palm to block Fan Xian's wrist, and a knee struck towards his abdomen. With a press of his right thumb, the faint black light in his fingernail flickered slightly, narrowly brushing past Fan Xian's neck.

When Sean's thumb moved, Fan Xian took the lead in twisting his body, relying on the inexhaustible true energy in his body, forcibly avoiding the kick below. He moved to the side, feeling a chill on his left shoulder, knowing that he had been cut through flesh and blood by the blade hidden in the other party's fingernail.

His left hand's dagger was blocked by Sean, and his right hand was competing with Sean's internal force. At first glance, it seemed impossible to exert force. But with a cold pain in his shoulder, Fan Xian grunted. A section of blade suddenly extended from under the dagger with a metallic sound, instantly severing one of Sean's fingers!

No matter how strong Sean was, he was old after all. The pain of the severed finger caused his right hand to loosen slightly. Fan Xian pressed down violently in silence, and the slender dagger shining with black light... stabbed fiercely into Sean's left shoulder!

……

……

At this time, the two were still in the process of falling. Sean was silent, as if this knife was not stuck in his body, but he still opened his mouth, seeming to be in some pain.

A fine needle sprayed from the old man's mouth, directly attacking Fan Xian's face!

Fan Xian's left foot stomped hard on Sean's knee. After a sound of bone cracking, his figure forcibly rose half a foot, allowing the needle to sink into his chest. He felt a dull pain in his chest. He turned his left wrist, and the black long dagger with two sections of blade above and below slashed towards Sean's wrist like a windmill.

With a crack, Sean withdrew his hand. His pure true energy gave him enough ability to shake off Fan Xian's right hand.

Fan Xian's right hand seemed to go weakly backwards diagonally, wiping it on his hairline... and then bouncing back like a lightning bolt! The fine needle clamped between his fingers gently and incomparably pierced into Sean's neck!

Sean's body stiffened, and Fan Xian also felt a tightness in his chest. The two finally crashed to the ground, shaking up a pile of years of fallen leaves and rotten mud, smelling foul and unbearable.

A long saber slashed horizontally, making a sound of cutting into some kind of flesh and blood. The thick fog rose again. Gao Da, holding the saber in both hands, looked at Lord Fan nearby, whose clothes were covered with mottled blood stains, but found no trace of Sean.

This silent fight between Fan Xian and Sean seemed long, but it was actually only the process of falling from the treetops to the foot of the tree. In a short moment, two old and young strongmen in the dark silently engaged in the most dangerous competition in the world. Those seemingly ordinary lifts of knees and turns of wrists actually condensed the most quintessential killing techniques of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and Fan Xian's killing experience from childhood.

Although not flashy, it was effective. If any strongman were to fight Sean or Fan Xian in this thick fog at the end of the night, they would probably feel a chill.

This was a fight between two ninth-rank assassins. In this world, the number of times this kind of scene has appeared is extremely rare.

"Sean is finished."

Fan Xian coughed twice, using a hand wearing a very thin glove, he pulled out the fine needle that almost took his life from the Supervisory Council's specially made clothes. After reconfirming that the poison on the subtle wound on his shoulder was not very strong, he silently reloaded the crossbow.