In the devil world, there was a saying that "Once the reaper comes for you, you have to offer up your soul."
This was something ingrained in the minds of both the weak and the strong equally among the devils of the devil world.
The reapers were part of a terrifying organization that was responsible for more than half the bloodshed in the devil world. They were mindless and bloodthirsty killing machines who had let go of all their emotions except their desire for murder and bloodshed.
The Shadow kill pavilion trained these reapers through endless torture and bloody battles with no right to say no to any of their commands. The shadow kill pavilion's only creed was money. As long as there was money involved, there was nothing that was taboo. From massacring innocents to taking out a complete cultivation sect, it was only a matter of how much money could be made.
The shadow kill pavilion young master Ge Ta was the only son of the pavilion master and had shown excessive talent in the art of assassination.
He had been trained with the reapers since young and his exceptional talent had stood out among the thousands of the recruits. Coupled with his cunning, his vicious and bloodthirsty nature had set him up to be one of the most terrifying opponents in the devil world.
Other than this, the cultivators from the shadow kill pavilion knew another thing about this terrifying young master; his absolute possessiveness when it came to the succuba Lin Xi.
Ge Ta had been pursuing Lin Xi for as long as anyone could remember. Although Lin Xi had never given any consideration towards this young master, this did not deter his lust in the slightest.
The young master had never before seen anyone as beautiful as Lin Xi and wanted to get close to her but Lin Xi was not just any girl that he could take advantage of. As such he had proclaimed that Lin Xi was his beloved and sought revenge on any male that interacted with Lin Xi.
After he learned that a nobody like Zhang Jian had offended Lin Xi, he was furious. In his anger he smashed the head of the messenger to a pulp with his bare hands. It was a bloody sight to behold.
He immediately ventured out towards Mount dabie. Only the blood of Zhang Jian could calm his fury now.
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As soon as he came near the place where Zhang Jian resided, he hid himself among the forestry for reconnaissance. He had heard that this Zhang Jian had been able to escape from the hands of Lin Xi. He could not come to believe that the high and mighty Lin Xi had been defeated so easily.
Even Ge Ta himself would have to be willing to lose a limb if he went head on against the thorny flower. No matter what, Ge Ta was a professional assassin. He couldn't just fight someone upfront even if the enemy was weak as ant, let alone someone who was able to repel the ambush of Lin Xi.
Ge Ta's pride would never have allowed him to accept that someone had beaten Lin Xi even though he had never been able to subdue her; therefore he attributed Zhang Jian's escape to his luck.
If it wasn't for his cautious nature as an assassin, he would have barged into Zhang Jian's home and laid waste to him. It would have given him a chance to be closer to Lin Xi as well.
Ge Ta climbed a tree with dense branches and hid himself amidst the tree cover. It was a good vantage point for reconnaissance.
He could see a girl running around and playing with a dog outside the hut in the fields. It would have been a harmonious scene but the assassin only became more furious and impatient as he was unable to determine the whereabouts of his target anywhere.
Wang Yan had been laboring away in the field all day trying to do menial chores without using her cultivation. She was dead tired and wanted to relax.
Seeing Cerberus come out of the hut made her cheer up instantly as she found it to be exceptionally cute.
She was a girl before she was a cultivator and all girls loved cute things. She was won over by its charm and kept on touching the dog everywhere which Cerberus found irritating.
Cerberus was cursing this woman in his heart. She appeared to be hopelessly stupid in its eyes. The way she kept on calling it weird names like "cutie" and "darling" was an affront to the might of this terrifying Ascension Stage expert.
It kept on bearing with her rude behavior because it knew that the foolish girl didn't know any better, otherwise it would have instantly blasted the stupid girl to death.
Wang Yan had no way of knowing how offensive her behavior had been to the mighty expert. She kept trying to lift Cerberus in her embrace but her attempts were thwarted by the timely dodges of the dog.
Wang Yan liked this dog more and more with each passing second. She wanted no more than to hug the cute dog and not let it go but Cerberus seemed to avoid all her attempts easily.
She could see a glimmer of intelligence in its eyes, like it could understand what she was saying which added to the charm of this dog even more in her opinion.
While she was busy fawning over Cerberus, an assassin was looking for an opportunity to get closer.
Not even the sound of his breathing could be heard. Ge Ta had perfectly harmonized with the surroundings; he had become one with the wind and the rustling of the leaves. Being a perfect assassin, this was the least of his abilities.
He inched closer to the duo while trying to control his terrifying killing intent. It was a must for an assassin to control his killing intent but the furious Ge Ta was hardly able to calm himself.
The leaking killing intent rang like an alarm in the ears of Cerberus. He could not determine the exact strength of the enemy from afar, but the horrible bloodthirsty aura gave him goosebumps.
Cerberus leapt away from Wang Yan and ran in the direction of the threat in order to lead it away from both Wang Yan and Zhang Jian.
As the dog approached him, Ge Ta immediately got on his toes. He could feel a looming threat from the dog. To his astonishment, the dog was an Ascension Stage expert; the same as him.
"Your bloodlust gave you away otherwise your concealment would have been perfect. I would recommend that you control your impulse. The person you are looking for isn't someone you can afford to offend."
He figured that this person must be after Zhang Jian since he didn't know this guy before and Wang Yan didn't have the ability to do so.
Cerberus tried to play it cool as if he wasn't afraid of this person at all yet he went on full alert.
"He is just an ant and so are you. Don't think that just because you are in the middle stages of Ascension realm, you will be stronger than me who has just stepped into the Ascension realm." Ge Ta haughtily berated both Zhang Jian and Cerberus at the same time. He thought that the both of them couldn't defeat him; someone who had grown up amongst blood, bones and death.
"Kid, words won't beat me. Come!" Cerberus roared and charged at him.
Cerberus wanted to kill Ge Ta before he had a chance to gather all his strength. It wanted to kill him with a single blow yet when it reached him; Ge Ta was no longer there and his afterimage was already fading.
Ge Ta might have been discovered earlier but he was in no way a novice and brought his killing intent under control as his own life was at stake now.
Cerberus found that it wasn't very easy to get the drop on Ge Ta as he was very cautious.
Ge Ta had hidden himself as soon as he evaded Cerberus' strike, waiting to pounce on his target as soon as he got a chance.
Cerberus stood where he was without moving an inch trying to find a gap in Ge Ta's concealment. To his horror, it was flawless.
As such Cerberus wanted to bait Ge Ta out. He started to move about in circles looking to uncover the position of the hidden enemy but in reality it was gathering up its power to unleash a powerful blow.
Seeing the dumbfounded Cerberus Ge Ta sneered in his mind and decided that this was his opportunity. His vanity veered him away from even thinking that this might have been a trap. He was confident in his assassination skills.
As such Ge Ta took out his dagger and rushed out of hiding.
Cerberus, who was already on the lookout, immediately got ready to counter him.
Ge Ta swung his dagger and a torrent of sword energy rushed towards Cerberus piercing through the wind without a single sound.
As it reached closer, the previously oblivious Cerberus turned around in an instant and opened his mouth which was like a dark abyss devouring everything in its path.
The terrifying sword energy couldn't evade the gaping maw and was devoured.
Without giving Ge Ta a moment to breath, Cerberus swung his claw covered in pitch black Qi and pierced the heart of the troublesome assassin.
Ge Ta could only look on with a dumbfounded gaze not understanding what had just happened. All of this had taken place in a single moment.
An assassin was someone who hid and exploited opportunities to kill his opponents so Cerberus had to bait him out of his hiding place in order to get rid of him. Otherwise it would have been difficult for it to take him out.
As soon as Ge Ta's eyes lost their luster, Cerberus let out a pained groan and several deep cuts started appearing on his body as if a powerful torrent was ripping him apart from the inside.
The heavenly devouring art that Cerberus used was still not complete. As such it could not absorb the energy that it previously devoured. This torrential energy wreaked havoc in its body as soon as the battle was over. The severe bleeding and the sheer number of cuts on its body made it look like a walking corpse.
The anemia was making it delirious, so Cerberus wanted to move back to the hut in order to recuperate. It dragged its aching body back to the hut slowly.
Cerberus let out a sigh of relief when it saw that Wang Yan was not there. Zhang Jian might have sent her on some errand.
Although Cerberus found her annoying, it did not want her to see it in this condition.
As it got close to the door of the hut, it opened by itself and Zhang Jian came out holding some scrolls of paper. When Zhang Jian saw the horrible state Cerberus was in, he immediately let go of the scrolls and sat on his toes to check its condition.
Cerberus instead of letting him help, strode right past him and entered the hut. It found a place beside some of Zhang Jian's works and curled itself to sleep not bothering to explain itself.