Mystique Soul: A Cultivator's Flame
Chapter 58

Chapter 58: Chapter 58

Feng Jiao Xue and Liang Feng walked out of the guild building empty handed but satisfied. As they saw cultivators and mages walks amongst them, it was clear that the auction house made a fruitful decision in holding it at the base of those who would trully need what they are offering up for auction.

Liang Feng could not helped feeling indictively happy seeing his brother forced fed such lose. When they saw each other at the stairs, he cheerfully waved at his brother in greeting while the third prince could only wish to chew both of their heads off. The imperial family may appear united and harmonious but if there’s anything the imperial household holds in abandunt more than gold, its intrigue and in fighting.

"Where to next, Xiao Xue?" He askes, a light skip in his step.

"Have any idea where I can get a weapon?" Feng Jiao Xue asked before pausing, her gaze flickering to the peopl discreetly following them. "Or where we can... accomodate out guests?"

"Guests?" Liang Feng asked before nodding in understanding. "There’s a ’private’ place I know near here. Shall I invite others?"

Feng Jiao Xue thought about it. "Are you well enough to ’entertain’ them?"

Liang Feng’s eyes flashed a dangerous glint before nodding. "Yeah, it has been a while since I took care of my ’guests’ personally but I still have enough ’manners’ to ’entertain’ them"

Feng Jiao Xue and Liang Feng shared a look before moving away from the crowed and into a secluded alley.

The damped floor reaked of horrid stench, the smell of a rotting rodents filling their nostrils. The trash cans carelessly overflowing with trash.

Liang Feng frowned as he looked around. "I didn’t know that the empire has such places..." he mumbles.

"Didn’t you know about this place?" Feng Jiao Xue asks as she put a hand on her skirt’s pocket, materialising her senbon needles.

Liang Feng shooked his head. "I just noticed that people seems to come in and out of these alleys during my incognito inspections but I never saw a reason to enter them. My guards alwys stops me as they know this place is dangerous. I just though by dangerous, it’s where thugs run rampant... not... this."

The window where eternally blocked, walls cracked and dark, and even the air appears to carry the gloom that has lingered in this place for years.

He tried to use his qi to cleanse the air as much as he can but it seems that the filth that has accumolated in this place repells the foreign purity from his qi.

Feng Jiao Xue swiftly threw a needle when something fly towards them.

"Shrieeee!" a winged rat shrieked at them as it tumbled down, bloodshot eye glaring at them, it’s giant teeth gleaming like that of a blade covered in mud. It’s fur tangled with grime and filth. "Shrieee!!!!" It spread its wings to indimidate them. Black and leathery like that of a bat riddles with holes and some cuts.

"Tsk" Feng Jiao Xue threw another needle ending the rat’s miserable life.

"Wait! Jiao Xue...!" Liang Feng drew his sword as a swarm of those thing flew towards them.

"Piercingflare!" Liang Feng called, his maginificent sword bursting with his light blue qi. Lighting crackled from his sword before striking the rats down.

"Shrieee!" "Shrieee!" "Shrieee!!!!" The sharp cries was quickly followed by the stenched of burning flesh as charred winged rats fell one after another, the lighting striking them before they could all fly away.

"Huuuo..." Liang Feng sighed as he sheated his sword again. "Those things generally travel in packs"

"Noted" Feng Jiao Xue remarked covering her scrunched nose with a frowned and a look of distain.

"Tsk, and here we thought we could just have an easy picking"

A gruff voice grunted behind them.

There was about thirty or so of them, cramping the already cramped alleyway. It can be seen that they are not new in this line of business. Their blades glinted dangerously, half of their faces covered in clothes, dark clothes rugged and not showing any clue of their identity.

’Cultivators’ Huang Jin De supplied.

"Finally deciding to show yourselves?" Liang Feng replied as he continued to hold the hilt of his sheated sword. "Who sent you?"

Feng Jiao Xue rolled her eyes at that question as "Only a fool....’

"You should have stayed in the our master’s shadow. What’s a walking corpse doing making trouble for the third prince" One of the underlings sneered.

’Nevermind then’ Feng Jiao Xue lip’s twitched at that.

"Jiao Xue, this would be the first time we really fight together, right?" Liang Feng asked excitedly, his eyes eager and bright. Like a child in a toystore with their christmas money on hand.

In an instant, the air shifted.

Liang Feng’s blade left its sheath with a thundrous hum as he lunged towards the attackers, his Piercing Flare technique activating in a burst of blue lightning. The first assassin barely had time to react before the sword’s tip pierced his chest, light crackling through his body as he crumpled with a strangled gasp.

"That’s one for me" Liang Feng proudly grinned at her while Feng Jiao Xue rolled her eyes.

As if to respond to his friendly provocation made her move as well. Swift and deadly as the assassin she is, silver needles infused in poison and qi left her dancing fingers one after another as with pinpoint precision. Three assassins staggered as they clutched their necks, blood spurting between their fingers before they collapsed.

Feng Jiao Xue looked at Liang feng with a cold smile. "Three over one"

Liang feng pouted slightly and then looked at the others as if looking at points not humans. Feng Jiao Xue can’t believe this is the magnanimous and humanitarian weak prince of the empire. Nor her kind-hearted, soft spoken big brother but... people are not one sided individuals. They have many facets and just because one contradicts another, doesnt make one of them any less genuine.

The remaining assassins looked at their fallen comrades in shocked. Unable to comprehend what just happened. How they lost their men so easily when the fight has just started.

"Boss, didn’t the third prince say that the rumors are falls about Feng Jiao Xue and that the crown prince is already in his death bed?!" One of their guys staggered back in fear.

"...Fuck, so what? We already took the payment. If they walk out of here alive, it will be on our heads!" The ’boss’ of the gang responded.

The ’boss’ swung a curved blade at Feng Jiao Xue only to be met with her swift evasion and a kick he instantly blocked. She twisted gracefully, her skirt fluttering as she slipped behind him and drove a needle straight into the back of his skull. He went rigid before dropping like a puppet with its strings cut.

Liang Feng, meanwhile, found himself surrounded by two warriors wielding twin sabers. They attacked in unison, their blades flashing like silver streaks.

Clang! Clang! zzzzaaaappp! zzzzzssshhhh!

Sparks flew as he deflected their strikes, his sword moving moving like an unstoppable lighting. The first assassin overextended his lunged and Liang Feng capitalized on the opening, his blade slicing through his exposed ribs.

The man barely had time to scream before a pulse of light blue lighting surged through his body charring him from the inside out and when Liang Feng withdraw his sword from his chest, the man was nothing less than a burnt corpse. Black and scorched.

The last twin-saber user hesitated eyes darting between his fallen comrades and the two unfazed opponents before him. But before he could decide whether to attack or flee....

Whizz!

...A senbon needle embedded itself in his throat. He choked, clawing at his neck, eyes wide with horror before he fell beside his comrade, eyes widened in horror forever etched on his expression.

Silence returned to the alley, save for the faint sizzling of burned flesh.

Liang Feng exhaled, sheathing his sword with a flourish. "That was fun." He turned to Feng Jiao Xue with a grin. "Not bad for our first real fight together."

Feng Jiao Xue looked at the corpses in disgust, dusting off her sleeves. "I prefer clean kills. But I suppose this works too." With a flick of her finger, the corpses burned into ashes from the vermillion flames inan instant.

"Wheew" Liang Feng whistled, impressed as he blocks the heat from his eyes with his hand.

Feng Jiao Xue smirked as she nudged one of the remaining weapon besides a pile of ashes with the tip of her shoe before glancing up. "We should leave before more pests arrive."

Liang Feng nodded, his playful demeanor never fading. "Of course. But next time, let’s hope for stronger opponents. This was far too short."

Feng Jiao Xue rolled her eyes but couldn’t suppress a small smirk.

The two disappeared into the shadows, leaving behind nothing but ashes and the lingering scent of burnt rats and blood.