When the second assassin group faced some difficulties in killing Lin Ming Tian, the first assassin group already caught up with them.
As the first assassin group and the second assassin group re-grouped and merged into one team, Lin Ming Tian's situation instantly became a lot worse.
It did not take long for the two Martial Commander realm assassins to catch up to Lin Ming Tian.
Anyone could easily see that Lin Ming Tian's fate should have been decided, and he would be killed by the two Martial Commander realm assassins really soon.
Just as Ling Yuyan felt even more nervous at Lin Ming Tian's extremely dire situation, who knew that all the big trees and bushes in front of Ming Tian suddenly vanished?!
Yes, Lin Ming Tian had actually sprinted out of the lush green forest and reached the cliff!
Lin Ming Tian hastily braked his sprint when he reached the end of the cliff.
The tip of his toe had touched the end of the cliff, and he almost slipped down from the cliff.
When Lin Ming Tian peeked down from the cliff, he immediately went dizzy in fright.
It was too high!
The green valley was at least hundreds of meters below the cliff!
If Lin Ming Tian fell down from that cliff, his chance to survive might be close to zero!
Right at this time, the two Martial Commander realm assassins had caught up to Lin Ming Tian from behind.
Lin Ming Tian gnashed his teeth in extreme anger, resentment, and helplessness when he saw the two Martial Commander realm assassins quickly approaching him from behind with sharp blades in their hands.
Without any other choice, Lin Ming Tian chose to jump down from the cliff!
Lin Ming Tian thought he would rather die jumping down from the cliff than under those assassins' hands!
At least he would still have a few percent chance of surviving if he jumped down from the cliff, but he would definitely die if those two Martial Commander realm assassins managed to get close to him.
The two Martial Commander realm assassins stared down from the cliff, but they could no longer see Lin Ming Tian's figure.
It was nighttime, so it was too dark to see anything, and there was also violent cold wind and heavy rain.
"It's impossible for him to survive after jumping from this high cliff. It's also impossible for us to find his corpse under this weather. Let's go back and continue our way! We have to reach our hideout before dawn, so we cannot waste any more time looking for his corpse." One of the Martial Commander realm assassins said to his comrade.
The other Martial Commander realm assassin nodded his head in agreement.
The two Martial Commander realm assassins led all of their subordinates to quickly get out of that place and headed to the hideout they had planned beforehand.
.....
A few moments before Lin Ming Tian jumped down from the cliff, An Yue also already reached the edge of the forest while carrying Ling Yuyan on her back.
"Sister Yuyan, that man has run to the edge of the cliff, and those two Martial Commander realm assassins will catch up to him soon. He will surely die very soon at this rate. Should we help him out right now?" An Yue asked Ling Yuyan after explaining what happened since it was too dark for Ling Yuyan to see anything.
Ling Yuyan pondered carefully for a while and asked back: "An Yue, can you save him if that man jumps down from the cliff?"
An Yue nodded her head and replied full of confidence: "No problem."
"Then let's wait for a little bit longer." Ling Yuyan muttered to An Yue.
When Lin Ming Tian saw the two Martial Commander realm assassins approaching swiftly with sharp blades in their grasp, he jumped down from the cliff without any hesitation right in front of the two Martial Commander realm assassins' eyes.
"Let's go, An Yue~! Let's save him now~!" Ling Yuyan hastily urged An Yue.
Who knew that An Yue actually dashed swiftly and jumped down from the cliff too all of a sudden?!
"Wa... Waaaiitt a minuteeeee..." Ling Yuyan screamed, but her voice was immediately drowned by the deafening sound of thunder in the sky.
'An Yue, I clearly ask you to save him! Not to bring us to die together with him!' Ling Yuyan thought lastly before she passed out in fright.
Meanwhile, Lin Ming Tian, who had jumped down from the cliff first, slowly lost his grip on his little sister's dead body.
"Little..." Lin Ming Tian muttered weakly as his vision and consciousness became blurry.
Despite that, he still reached out his hand to grab his little sister's dead body which got separated from him.
Right at this moment, An Yue agilely executed her [Nine Phantom Steps] to jump three times in mid-air!
[Darkness Net]~!
An Yue cast her [Darkness Net] spell to catch the falling Lin Ming Tian in the air and pulled him toward her.
Then she continued to execute her [Nine Phantom Steps] to jump two more times in the air toward the steep rock cliff surface and ran vertically with ease on the steep rock cliff surface.
When those two Martial Commander realm assassins looked down from the edge of the cliff, they could no longer see Lin Ming Tian or An Yue anymore.
Because An Yue already reached the other side of the cliff and jumped up while carrying the fainted Ling Yuyan on her back and holding the passed-out Lin Ming Tian in her [Darkness Net].
An Yue did not stop and dashed into the lust green forest to find a safer place in order to hide from those assassins.
Only after the two Martial Commander realm assassins led all of their subordinates away from there, did all of the [2nd Tier Shadow Guards] finally stop trailing and monitoring those assassins' every movement, then return to An Yue.
It might be anti-climactic since there was no clash between those assassins and An Yue's [2nd Tier Shadow Guards], but that was the best outcome that Ling Yuyan could hope for.
Without making any unnecessary moves, Ling Yuyan could minimize the butterfly effect she would cause in the future, thus the plot would still proceed according to the book she had read before, and she could still predict what would happen in the future.
In short, Ling Yuyan wanted to reap some benefits from this event, but she did not want the future to change beyond her recognition.
An Yue brought Ling Yuyan and Lin Ming Tian to the cave inside the forest and laid them down before making a bonfire to warm them up.
"Sister Yuyan~! Wake up~!" An Yue called as she pressed one of Ling Yuyan's acupuncture behind her neck.
Ling Yuyan's long eyelashes fluttered slightly as she slowly regained consciousness.
"Stop, An Yue~! Don't jump~!" Ling Yuyan suddenly jumped and exclaimed in panic.
An Yue chuckled in amusement as she explained to Ling Yuyan: "It's already too late, Sister Yuyan, but you don't need to worry. We are safe. I also managed to save this man."
Ling Yuyan quickly groped her body carefully to check if all of her body parts were still intact.
She sighed in relief before asking An Yue in a worried tone: "It's good, so I am still alive and well. How about you, An Yue? You are not hurt too, right?"
An Yue shook her head and asked Ling Yuyan while pointing her finger at the fainted Lin Ming Tian: "So, what should we do to him? Should we bring him back with us to Wang Family's mansion?"
Ling Yuyan did not bother to reply to An Yue as she hastily approached the fainted Lin Ming Tian and impolitely groped him around.
She took away the cloth bag tied to Lin Ming Tian's waist and a bundle of books hidden in Lin Ming Tian's clothes, then began to check them one by one.
[Lin Family's medical book]...
[Lin Family's medicine prescriptions]...
[Record of herbs and their effects]...
...
"This is it~!" Ling Yuyan exclaimed excitedly when she found a tied animal skin.
Ling Yuyan impatiently untied the animal skin and unfurled it to see the content written on it.
Ling Yuyan finally sighed in relief and smiled brightly in satisfaction after she saw the [Life Seal Condensing Method] title written on the animal skin.
"An Yue, have all of your Shadow Guards already come back?" Ling Yuyan asked to An Yue.
"Yes, all of them have already come back." An Yue replied while nodding at Ling Yuyan.
Ling Yuyan immediately pushed all the books and the animal skin to An Yue while saying in an urgent tone: "Good~! An Yue, let them run back to the Spring River Town to find papers and ink quickly. We have to copy all of these books!"
"Don't worry, Sister Yuyan. I have already prepared a lot of papers, brushes, and ink beforehand." An Yue answered in a reassuring tone since she knew that Ling Yuyan's true objective from the start was actually the [Life Seal Condensing Method].
Ling Yuyan gave two thumbs up to An Yue and praised her delightfully: "Good job, An Yue~!"
An Yue immediately summoned out all of the [2nd Tier Shadow Guards] she stored in her [Shadow Empress Ring] and told them to copy all of Lin Ming Tian's books while An Yue herself copied the [Life Seal Condensing Method].
[Life Seal Condensing Method] was too important after all, so Ling Yuyan was afraid that she or the [2nd Tier Shadow Guards] would make some mistakes when they copied it.
In the end, Ling Yuyan decided to let An Yue copy it since An Yue had the highest martial arts comprehension among them all.
When the others busily copied all of Lin Ming Tian's books beside the bonfire, Ling Yuyan was the only one who remained idle.
Ling Yuyan glanced at the fainted Lin Ming Tian and slowly approached him again, then groped his neck and chest.
After a while, Ling Yuyan found a jade pendant worn on Lin Ming Tian's neck.
Ling Yuyan was quite tempted to take away this jade pendant from Lin Ming Tian.
This jade pendant was actually not an ordinary thing at all.
The reason Lin Ming Tian was able to survive in the book after jumping down from such a high cliff was because of this jade pendant.
This jade pendant was a one-time defensive treasure, and it would automatically activate if Lin Ming Tian was in danger.
Lin Ming Tian's mother got it after saving an abbot from Vajra Temple a long time ago before she married Lin Family's patriarch, and she gave it to Lin Ming Tian in the end when Lin Ming Tian was still a child.
In the book, the jade pendant automatically activated right before Lin Ming Tian fell into the fast-flowing river.
After protecting Lin Ming Tian's life once, the jade pendant shattered to dust. Despite that Lin Ming Tian still got injured pretty badly because of the impact of his fall.
'Well, I saved him from falling off the cliff, so he did not need to use the protection of this jade pendant to save his life. Logically, this jade pendant should be mine, right?' Ling Yuyan thought.
When Ling Yuyan hesitated on whether to take this jade pendant from Lin Ming Tian or not, Ling Yuyan's eyes met with Lin Ming Tian's eyes!
Lin Ming Tian had actually already woken up!
Moreover, Ling Yuyan was currently so close to him that she could even feel Lin Ming Tian's warm breath.
Lmao~! Now, how could Ling Yuyan explain this situation to Lin Ming Tian? (>w<)