The opponent's hand unerringly grasped hold of Ling Lan's right hand which was stabbing towards him, a savage smile appearing on his lips.

It's a trap! Ling Lan realised instantly that the other's unstable aura and his frenzied wailing had all been a sham — all for the sake of getting her to attack!

A piercing glint flashed through Ling Lan's eyes. Regardless of whether the other had done this intentionally or not, at this moment, there was no longer any possibility of a sneak attack.

Defenceless, an unexpected spiritual charge could indeed cause a target to lose control of their actions for a brief second, allowing her to carry off a one-hit kill. However, once the opponent had their guard up, then a spiritual charge, which was not very strong, would not be able to cause the opponent to lose control. Consecutive a.s.sa.s.sinations had thoroughly raised her opponents' guard, which was also why Ling Lan had chosen to use a spiritual blast instead of a spiritual charge when she had killed Xiao Fei.

Thus, for this attack, she had had no choice but to try her luck in a direct confrontation. She only hoped that she could at least deal heavy damage to the opponent, if she could not kill him, before the team leader arrived, so he would be unable to continue fighting.

Although Ling Lan's right hand was in the opponent's grip, she reacted extremely quickly. Her left hand abruptly swept towards the other's neck, and at the tips of her fingers, an extremely small and thin ice needle was revealed. Against an opponent at the same level of Qi-Jin, even an ice needle, which did not look that st.u.r.dy, could give the opponent a fatal wound.

His brief but full-on contact with Ling Lan let Xiao Chong know that this seemingly 13 year old youth before him was actually at a similar level of strength as him. He was also a Qi-Jin level combat expert. Thus, Xiao Chong did not dare to take any risks. With a forceful spring of his legs, he dodged that glittering, cold ice needle of the opponent. But in doing so, his right hand had no choice but to let go of Ling Lan.

He thought that the opponent would take the chance to escape — most a.s.sa.s.sins who were proficient in the various methods of a.s.sa.s.sination would choose to distance themselves immediately if their attempt failed. Thus, right after he dodged the other's ice needle, he came to an abrupt stop, aiming to stop the other when he tried to escape.

Regaining free use of her right hand, Ling Lan did not run away as he expected; instead, she chose to get even closer, throwing out a fierce elbow in his direction.

Because Xiao Chong had chosen to stop, he had no room at all to dodge again. He had no choice but to cross his arms and forcefully take the opponent's blow.

An audible thud! Both sides had used their full strength — when the two hidden forces collided, loud explosions could be heard. As Xiao Chong had blocked Ling Lan's attack in a hurry, his Qi had not been as substantial as Ling Lan's. Xiao Chong felt his feet become unsteady, and stumbled back three consecutive steps before the force he had received faded. Even so, he felt a heaviness in his chest as his Qi roiled, and he almost threw up a mouthful of blood.

During the collision, Ling Lan's face drained of its colour. However, she had indisputably won the upper hand in this encounter. So, pressing her advantage, she closed the gap as the other retreated, once again getting up close and personal.

"G.o.dd*mmit!" Xiao Chong had yet to find his footing when he saw the opponent attacking once more. Swearing loudly, he did not choose to dodge this time, but instead clenched his fists and struck out fiercely at the opponent. He just knew that offense was the best defense — otherwise, he would forever be pa.s.sively defending against the other's attacks, completely losing the chance to fight back.

Ling Lan saw the opponent's fist coming at her, but did not evade it. Instead, she used her left hand to intercept the opponent's punch, and then, her right fist swung out ...

A flash of joy pa.s.sed through Xiao Chong's gaze. Similarly, his left hand intercepted Ling Lan's fist, and the two of them were instantly in a deadlock. Undoubtedly, Ling Lan's choice this time was advantageous to Xiao Chong. From his initial pa.s.sive disadvantaged position, he had now risen to be on equal footing with Ling Lan again.

Right then, Ling Lan's entire body leaned backwards, and a trace of a smirk played on the corners of her lips ...

"Not good!" Warning bells began to ring in Xiao Chong's heart. Without having to think about it, he retreated swiftly, trying to dodge the threat.

But it was already too late — he felt a heavy force striking his abdomen, and then he was sent flying backwards. In mid-air, a mouthful of blood sprayed from his mouth. Ling Lan had used the move she was extremely proficient in by now — Rabbit Sky Leap. Now, her Rabbit Sky Leap no longer had a mere strength increase of 3 times, but 7.

Rabbit Sky Leap was definitely a great skill; its power was formidable and it was extremely subtle. Unfortunately, this skill could not be used consecutively. Because the recoil from executing the Rabbit Sky Leap was too strong, Ling Lan's body could not take the repeated battering of this force. She needed some time to recover before using it again, otherwise it would be too easy for Ling Lan's legs to become permanently damaged.

Even though Xiao Chong had already achieved the late stage of Qi-Jin, bearing the full measure of this powerful kicking force, he was still injured badly.

About to hit the ground, Ling Lan twisted to one side and slapped her right hand against the ground to push herself upright again, once again flying towards Xiao Chong. She swung a long readied fist.

Subtle vibrations could be seen running through Ling Lan's right arm, being transmitted to her fist. This was a combat special skill she had redeemed with honour points from the learning s.p.a.ce early on —— Wave Stacking Strike!

Wave Stacking Strike stacked the body's hidden force layer by layer onto one's fist. From just 2 layers at the start, Ling Lan could now stack up to 6 layers, which meant that she could attack a target with up to 6 times her normal Qi-Jin.

Ling Lan knew very well that a woman's physical strength was naturally weaker than a man's — to become strong in her own right, besides needing to make sure her combat skills were better than her compet.i.tors, she similarly could not lose in terms of strength to those men. In order to make up for this natural deficit, in choosing her techniques, she leant towards those skills which involved power stacking. This was a reason why she had redeemed the Wave Stacking Strike from the learning s.p.a.ce.

Xiao Chong saw the opponent's fist hurtling towards him and he grimaced. In the air, he had no way to change directions and dodge, and so could only take the blow. With a shout, he threw out his own fist, prepared to duke it out with Ling Lan.

A loud "Boom!" The two Qi-Jins crashed into one another and the energy swept outwards in a ring. The surrounding trees could not take this powerful force; they all began to lean towards the outside, and a countless number just broke apart under the pressure to fly out.

"Wah!" In mid-air, Xiao Chong once again spewed a lance of blood. He was thrown backwards at a speed greater than before. Only when he slammed violently into a large tree did his body stop moving.

He slowly slid down the tree trunk to kneel on the ground! Meanwhile, the tree he had slammed into had clear cracks spreading out on its bark where he had landed — it was obvious how forcefully he had slammed into it.

In the meeting of the two fists, although Ling Lan had the initiative as well as the support of the Wave Stacking Strike, she still sustained damage. Being thrown backwards, she stumbled two or three steps back and threw up a mouthful of blood. Only then did the roiling of her blood and Qi settle down enough for her to suppress her discomfort.

"Gotta take your life while you're down!" Seeing the opponent already at a critically injured state, only lacking one final blow to end things, Ling Lan showed no mercy. She stepped forwards once more, pouncing like an arrow at the opponent, throwing a palm out at the same time. The moment she finished off the opponent, Ling Lan would once again conceal herself and lay low to wait for her final opponent, the team leader!

Just as Ling Lan stuck out her palm, her heart throbbed abruptly, a never before encountered sense of danger stealing into her mind ... unknowingly, heaven knows when, a thin layer of fog had drifted to her side.

"Not good! He's here!" Alarm bells rang in Ling Lan's mind. Her palm abruptly changed directions to strike at the ground, and using that rebound, she retreated with a backflip. Then, as planned, her legs stomped firmly on the ground, sending her body flying at lightspeed into the distance, instantly disappearing from the area.

Ling Lan who had flown over 100 metres away in an instant suddenly felt her body being struck forcefully. Blood sprayed from her mouth, and her body plummeted uncontrollably to crash heavily into the ground.

At this moment, behind Ling Lan, a plume of thick fog appeared. Then, a figure emerged from within it — it was the missing team leader.

"Who knew that in just 5 minutes, you managed to kill Xiao Lin and Xiao Fei. Even Xiao Chong almost could not escape your lethal grasp," said the team leader, expression frigid, "You are indeed a dangerous character."

Ling Lan's internal Qi-Jin had been scattered by that last strike. Right now, her limbs were lifeless, but she did not want to give up. So, she slowly forced herself to climb off the ground and stand up straight. Using the back of a hand to wipe away the blood stains at the corner of her mouth, she said bitterly, "A Domain fighter!" Although the opponent had just entered the Domain stage, this difference of one stage made Ling Lan unable to bear even one attack from the other. "Your luck is truly great, actually having a breakthrough on site."

This also explained why the other had taken up to 5 minutes to come. It was likely that the opponent had been in the middle of his breakthrough in this time, and so could not rush over.

"This is still thanks to you, otherwise I would not have been able to find the catalyst to breakthrough," huffed the team leader. The death of his comrades caused him to be unbearably agonised, leading his already peak Qi-Jin to quake violently, coincidentally causing cracks to appear on the shackled barrier on his development. Initially, he was thinking to finish off the other before finding a place to focus on his breakthrough, but unexpectedly, when he activated his innate talent, he found himself already deep in the process of breakthrough. This made him have no choice but to continue with his breakthrough, which was why he was delayed by 5 minutes, causing him to lose two more comrades. The joy of breaking through could not make up for the pain of losing a comrade — this was why his hate for Ling Lan ran even deeper.

He did not give Ling Lan any chance to continue talking. With a quick flash, he had appeared in front of Ling Lan and was reaching out towards Ling Lan's neck.

Ling Lan tried to dodge the other's hand, but found her body pinned in place by an invisible force, sealing away her ability to move. She could only watch helplessly as the opponent easily wrapped his fingers around her neck.

The team leader effortlessly carried Ling Lan by the neck as he headed back to where Xiao Chong was. The opponent's strength almost suffocated Ling Lan to death. Although she did not know why the opponent did not just kill her directly, the desire to continue living made Ling Lan secretly run through her Qi exercises, hoping to recover her Qi-Jin quicker and win an opportunity to live.

The team leader very quickly arrived back where Xiao Chong lay. He threw Ling Lan to one side and bent over to check on Xiao Chong's condition. Only then did he let out a breath of relief. Although Xiao Chong's injuries were severe, he wasn't dead, and so could be considered lucky. He took out a tube of medicinal agent from the bag at his waist and fed it to Xiao Chong.

Very quickly, Xiao Chong regained consciousness. Seeing his leader, his eyes turned red and he said, "Leader, Xiao Lin and Xiao Fei are dead." They had been their comrades! On the battlefield, they had not died at the hands of enemy soldiers, but lost their lives here in a common mission to a child ... Xiao Chong found this hard to accept.

With similarly red eyes, the team leader glanced at the bodies of Xiao Lin and Xiao Fei lying not too far away and said quietly, "Xiao Chong, I'm sorry. I still came late in the end."

Xiao Chong shakily shook his head, "You can't be blamed, Leader, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d is just too despicable!" That said, his expression s.h.i.+fted and he asked, panicked, "Where's the b.a.s.t.a.r.d?"

The leader threw a glance at the immobile Ling Lan sitting to one side and said coldly, "I caught him. In a bit, we'll use his blood to honour our fallen comrades."

Hearing this, Xiao Chong nodded his head vigorously. He pushed himself to his feet and slowly made his way to stand before Ling Lan. Grabbing her roughly by the throat, he dragged her to the place where Xiao Lin's and Xiao Fei's bodies lay.

Meanwhile, the team leader took the time to bring the body of Xiao Lai over from his place of death, setting him down together with Xiao Lin and Xiao Fei.

"Xiao Lin, Xiao Fei, Xiao Lai, watch carefully, this is the culprit who killed you all. Now, I will send him over to your world ... you all must take proper revenge." As the team leader spoke, silent tears began to fall from his eyes. What he had originally considered a simple and minor mission, had actually ended up with him being separated from his brothers by the boundaries of life and death. In his deep regret, he also hated Ling Lan for his viciousness. He abruptly turned his head and said stonily, "Xiao Chong, kill him!"

"Yes, Leader!" Xiao Chong's visage was gruesome as his fingers on Ling Lan's throat clenched forcefully.

Ling Lan felt as if she could hear the bones of her neck straining under the pressure, about to shatter ... was she really about to die here?

Ling Lan wanted to struggle, she wanted to resist ... but her body was still locked tightly, unable to make any motion to resist. Ling Lan knew that this was probably a manifestation of the opponent's Domain — the opponent was not going to give her any chance to escape.

D*mmit! I want to live, I want to live! Right before Ling Lan descended into unconsciousness, she roared in her heart!