Chapter 939 Mercenary
Wang Wei's projection appeared somewhere in the southern sea. He saw an invisible man floating above a small island, looking around. He seemed confused at first before regaining his bearing and checking the environment.
The first thing he noticed was how ordinary he looked, especially with the bland black clothes he wore, followed by this person's deeply hidden pride and arrogance.
The second thing he noticed was this man was utterly invisible. Sights, divine sense, sixth or seventh senses, and even divination could not detect this man's presence. It was like he was invisible to all known matter, concepts, living and nonliving things.
'Invisible Grand Dao Source and the cultivation is at least 35%,' thought Wang Wei as he watched the stranger. 'Furthermore, a pseudo Eternal.'
This man's ability was useless to someone of Wang Wei's caliber. As such, he could see him as if he was looking at a towering mountain during daylight. However, he was not complacent because he discovered he could not see some information about the latter.
'Someone paid him to come to assassinate me, but I could not find who it was,' thought Wang Wei as his eyes read the man's Fate Line, knowing everything about him.
This person was called the Hidden Shadow Emperor, the founder of a very popular and powerful mercenary that is very active in the Commerce Hub. His Hidden Hand Mercenary is very famous across many World Communities because the Hidden Shadow Emperor is known never to fail a mission.
He has assassinated countless Emperors, including two Eternal Emperors. Normally, the Hidden Shadow Emperor does not personally go on missions. He often has to remain low-key or underground to prevent garnering the attention of True Heavenly Dao and continue staying in the lower dimension.
As such, unless something happened to his mercenary group where he needed to step in, he never took missions. However, a while ago, an employer offered him something he could not resist, so he chose to accept this assassination mission.
Wang Wei calmly looked at this Pseudo Eternal Emperor. He saw someone paid a hefty price for his head, but he could not see the person who offered the mission; this fact did not change whether he used divination, Yin-Yang Calculation, or looked in the past through the River of Time.
'There are a few people or things who can resist my divination, so I only need to start from them,' thought Wang Wei, eliminating a few obvious individuals like Old Man Nether and the Abyss Gap.
'Once everybody is eliminated, the only one remaining is the Spirit Genesis Sect and their broken Empyrean Artifact,' analyzed Wang Wei with a sneer. He saw the Hidden Shadow Emperor wanted to land on that island to gather basic information about the world before starting his mission.
So, he appeared before him, shocking the proud assassin. Wang Wei saw his facial expression change from shock to bewilderment, then unwillingness, fear, regret, and in the end, returned to the calmness and ruthlessness of a peerless assassin.
"Interesting reaction," commented Wang Wei.
"Are you my target?" asked the Hidden Shadow Emperor.
"I should be," nodded Wang Wei. "Are you no longer afraid?"
"Why should I be? Now that you show up, it only means I'll have to do this the direct way."n--O/-V.(e)-l)(b-/1))n
"Yes, a peerless assassin should have the ability to kill his target in direct combat when necessary. Alas, you're not even a qualified assassin, let alone a peerless one."
"Who are you to judge me?" said the Hidden Shadow Emperor with a slightly raised voice.
"If you were truly capable, you would have detected the vast difference between us, acted on your based instinct, and run away," said Wang Wei calmly. "Alas, your pride and arrogance will be your downfall."
The Hidden Shadow Emperor's first instinct was anger. After all, he had his pride, something he cultivated after successfully killing two Eternal Emperors. Although he did not grant them true death, he also forced them to spend countless Yuan Epochs to revive themselves.
However, he controlled himself and checked his opponent's power. The result scared him; he could not detect a thing. The person before him seemed not to exist, an empty and undetectable void.
Then, something that had not happened for a long time occurred to the Hidden Shadow Emperor. The dangerous senses he developed in his early days as an assassin before he proved the Dao activated and his body moved on its own, trying to run away.
Alas, he discovered his body could not move. The Hidden Shadow Emperor immediately reacted like an elite cultivator, burning his body and soul to increase his strength. His aura was intense, sensed by countless powerful individuals of the world, making them pay attention to the current situation.
'I need to destroy my body and soul,' was the only thought in the Hidden Shadow Emperor's mind. He has a chance for a comeback as long as he does this. As such, he did not even care that his opponent rendered him powerless simply by releasing his aura; he only cared about saving his life.
"It won't change much even if you destroy your body– I control the Dao of Karma," said Wang Wei with a devious smile, pushing the Hidden Shadow Emperor over the edge. Now, fear had overwhelmed his mind, making him full of regret.
Battles between Emperors are not simple and must follow certain rules to ensure survival. The first and main one is never to allow your opponent to keep possession of your body. Great Emperors are eternal, so they can revive themselves as long as their Dao Imprints remain attached to the Grand Dao Source.
The Dao Imprint has its own protective mechanism in the form that is not easy to discover or remove in the Grand Dao Source. There are two ways to remove it: use Dao Will or Will Manifestation, or use sealing methods and the passage of time to wash it out.
However, these two methods hinged on the fact that Dao Imprints can be discovered. Normal Great Emperors must use their opponent's bodies to access their Dao Imprint before sealing it and using countless Yuan Epochs to remove it from the Grand Dao Source, thus effectively killing their enemy. Otherwise, searching for an adversary's Dao Imprint is like searching for a single drop of water in a vast ocean.
However, certain Daos like Karma, Divination, Yin-Yang Calculations, and Heaven are very effective in finding the Dao Imprints. So, after knowing his target had control over Karma Dao, the Hidden Shadow Emperor knew his fate was sealed.
Even if he destroyed his body, the latter could find his Dao Imprint through the karmic connection they had after trying to assassinate him.
"Any last word?" asked Wang Wei.
"No," replied the Hidden Shadow Emperor. He expected this day to come. His philosophy has always been that killers must expect to one day be killed. So, after taking his first life, he predicted this might be his eventual fate.
"Not even begging for your life?" said Wang Wei. "I'm a person fond of talent. So, I can be persuaded to spare your life."
"I have my pride," replied the Hidden Shadow Emperor. In his life, he had two regrets. The first one was a special target he always regretted killing, and the second was that he did not become an Eternal Emperor. However, he made up for the second regret after assassinating the two Eternals.
The Hidden Shadow Emperor did not regret his upcoming death.
"That's a shame," said Wang Wei calmly. A flame enveloped the assassin, burning his soul and body, leaving two floating orbs: blue and red. The blue orb was the Hidden Shadow Emperor's pure soul essence, which can be used to increase soul power and other applications.
The red orb was the purified power of the Grand Dao Source from refining the concepts composed of his body. Such power is the main ingredient for the Grand Dao Enlightening Pill, which can help Great Emperors comprehend their Grand Dao Source.
Wang Wei put these materials away as the Grand Dao Source manifested before him, still looking like a river made of chains of different sizes. A karma thread emanated from his body, connected to a specific chain with a rune or symbol on it.
He used his Dao Will to remove the symbol, signaling the Hidden Shadow Emperor was truly dead, with no chance of reviving.
Wang Wei could hear the collective sigh of the world, thinking how such a powerful and prideful man died so easily; such a fact made many people sad as they contemplated their mortality.
Meanwhile, Wang Wei looked in the distance and muttered, "I haven't attacked you yet, but you dare make the first move?" He sneered while a terrifying killing intent flashed in his eyes. He rarely has a pure desire to kill. To Wang Wei, killing is the least efficient way to achieve things, and he will only do it when necessary.
However, the Spirit Genesis Sect awakened a pure desire for carnage and destruction deep inside him.
Wang Wei immediately used his Divine Sense to call two people, so the void around him trembled as two people arrived in less than a second.
