Assassins never cared for any sort of rule or law. So long as they could kill their target, they could do anything. As someone who had undergone much tempering, Xiang Shaoyun had his guard up at all times. However, this particular assassin had noiselessly mounted a sneak attack during a chaotic situation, and was almost impossible to guard against.

Fortunately, the chaos also somehow worked in Xiang Shaoyun's favor. One of the women in the crowd suddenly pounced on Xiang Shaoyun in order to get a spot for herself. She started rubbing her curvy body against him, hoping that she could seduce him by doing that. Her actions caused Xiang Shaoyun to lose his footing and move to the side, something the assassin had not expected. The dagger stabbed into the woman instead of him.

"AHHH!"

The woman wailed miserably, alarming the people in the area. Instantly, they understood someone was taking advantage of the chaos to accomplish some other agenda, and everyone scattered.

Xiang Shaoyun also realized what was happening and quickly retreated with the woman. His gaze landed on an ordinary-looking man before him, feeling the murderous intent akin to a viper coming from the man.

The man charged Xiang Shaoyun once again, moving at a speed not even Xiang Shaoyun could react in time. This was definitely a late-stage Emperor. An assassin like this was more than enough to assassinate Xiang Shaoyun.

To the assassin's surprise, Du Xuanhao and Han Pojun had arrived before he could complete his second attack. During the start of the chaos, the two had increased their vigilance for fear that something would happen to Xiang Shaoyun.

Unexpectedly, someone was really trying to kill Xiang Shaoyun publicly. The moment the woman screamed, both Du Xuanhao and Han Pojun locked on to the assassin and attacked at the same time.

Du Xuanhao drew his saber and sent a boundless saber energy powered by saber intent flying forward. As for Han Pojun, he used a spear and sent an ice spike flying toward the assassin. Wherever the ice spike passed, the temperature dropped.

When the two peak Emperors attacked together, their energies flooded their surroundings, displaying a world-shaking might. The two had expected that both of them were enough to easily eliminate the assassin. But the moment they attacked, two other people intervened and blocked their attacks. 

With that, the assassin no longer had any misgivings and continued on toward Xiang Shaoyun and the woman. With the wide gap of strength between them, it did not seem like Xiang Shaoyun would be able to put up much fight.

Xiang Shaoyun himself knew he was in danger and was prepared to release his nether prison devil puppet. Just as he was about to do so, a curtain of power suddenly appeared and wrapped around the assassin.

Bang!

The only thing Xiang Shaoyun heard was a muffled sound before feeling some liquid splash onto his face. When he focused, he saw that the assassin had been turned into a pile of mincemeat.

"Hmph. You dare assassinate a young genius in my presence? Your sin can't be forgiven," said the old man from the platform.

His voice was akin to a sudden thunderclap, ringing loudly in the ears of everyone present. After he said that, two different clumps of energies shot out. The Emperors battling Du Xuanhao and Han Pojun couldn't even scream before they were reduced into mincemeat as well.

Du Xuanhao and Han Pojun were given a fright. They quickly withdrew their attacks before dashing toward Xiang Shaoyun and standing guard beside him. The crowd had complicated expressions when they saw that, and nobody stepped forth to disturb Xiang Shaoyun anymore.

A tall tree would always be the first to fall. Many people understood that, and what they should do now was look after their own hides. Xiang Shaoyun looked at the woman in his arms. She was already dying, and he quickly fed her a drop of lightning liquid. This woman had taken an attack on his behalf for no apparent reason. He felt guilty, but that did not mean that he would accept this woman as his follower to the Dragon Phoenix Academy because of that.

It was not that he was cold blooded, but if it wasn't for the chaos caused by the crowd which this woman was part of, the assassin wouldn't have had the chance to attempt to assassinate him. Of course, he was still highly grateful for what this woman did, so he repaid her with something else.

He told Du Xuanhao, "Big Brother Du, look after her for me. Keep her alive."

"Don't worry, she will be fine," said Du Xuanhao with a nod.

Xiang Shaoyun then walked toward the three lumps of mincemeat and started looking for clues, trying to ascertain if these were members of the Rat Assassins as well. Unfortunately, not much was left of the three, and they did not have any items on them that could reveal any clues.

Xiang Shaoyun did not bother wasting too much time on them. Instead, he went to the old man at the contribution platform and bowed, "Thank you, lord, for helping this kid."

He had already known that this was no ordinary old man from the incident with the four representatives from the academies. The person who stopped the disturbance when he was comprehending the Contribution Stele and the person who had killed the assassins was most likely this same old man as well. Thus, he had to properly voice his gratitude. 

The old man raised his murky eyes and said, "You don't have to thank me. I am merely unwilling to see a genius of our race die an early death. If you really want to thank me, cultivate hard and kill more devils in the future."

"This kid will remember that!" Xiang Shaoyun said solemnly. After a slight pause, he looked behind and yelled at Han Pojun, "Big Brother Han, come over here."

Han Pojun did not know why Xiang Shaoyun was calling for him, but he still went over. Naturally, Du Xuanhao went with him as well.

"What do you need, Young Master Xiang?" Han Pojun asked.

"You must have seen the contribution exchange catalog as well, right? There's a blood cocoon stone in there—" Xiang Shaoyun started speaking but was interrupted by Han Pojun before he could finish. 

"Yes, I know that. But it's too expensive. I can't afford it. I'll just have to wait patiently and see if an opportunity will present itself for me to get it in the future."

Han Pojun had assumed that Xiang Shaoyun was only notifying him that a blood cocoon stone was available for sale in the catalog. That was why he hadn't bothered to wait until Xiang Shaoyun was done talking. If he had enough contribution points and devil cores, he would have purchased the blood cocoon stone long ago. There was no point in taking the risk to get it from the Devil Domain instead.

Xiang Shaoyun smiled. "Big Brother Han, let me finish. I am planning to purchase the blood cocoon stone for you to thank you for your help."

"Do you even know how much it costs?" Han Pojun asked.

"500 million contribution points and 30 sovereign-grade devil cores," said Xiang Shaoyun.

"That's right. The contribution points aren't the hardest to get. Time is all you need. But the 30 sovereign-grade devil cores can only be gathered by Sovereigns," said Han Pojun with a sigh. "Young Master Xiang, thank you for the goodwill, but forget about this for now."