Two cold glints of light—two sharp daggers!
A double strike aimed at his eyes!
Swift, precise, and vicious!
The strike was decisive and silent, like a tiger pouncing on a rabbit or a viper swallowing a toad.
This wasn't something an ordinary person could do. This was the work of an expert with real combat experience, a master of dagger fighting!
To immediately aim to blind the opponent instead of going for the throat clearly meant they wanted to capture Yi Beidou alive.
He had just poked his head out of the opening when he was met with the double strike. The space was narrow, making it impossible to evade.
Yet, Yi Beidou had no intention of dodging. Just as the daggers were about to pierce his eyeballs, he made an unbelievable move.
He lowered his head, stretched his neck forward slightly, and actually met the two cold glints of light with his forehead.
The frontal bone is one of the hardest bones in the entire body. The so-called "Iron Head" techniques focus on strengthening this very bone.
But even for a grandmaster of Iron Head, it was unheard of for someone to dare take a dagger strike from a combat expert head-on with their forehead.
Flesh and blood are no match for steel; the human body is no match for technology.
However, an incredible scene unfolded.
CLANG!!
The two daggers struck Yi Beidou's forehead directly, producing a sound like metal striking metal. His seemingly casual thrust of the neck had generated a terrifying burst of focused power, which combined with the force of the incoming stabs.
CRACK!!
The two daggers snapped in half at the middle of their blades. The intense shockwave made the attacker's hands go numb.
The man in black stumbled back two steps. He was tall and powerfully built, with thick palms and large knuckles, like a wild bull with inexhaustible strength.
He was a professional. With daggers in hand, a dozen ordinary people were like helpless chicks before him. He didn't even need to attack; a single glare from him could strike terror into their hearts.
But now, as he looked at the head poking out from the basement entrance and met those calm eyes, his body couldn't help but tremble. His expression was one of someone who had just seen a ghost.
"Impervious to blades?! Body Ascension?! Retreat!! Retreat now!!"
The large man in black who had attacked hissed in a low voice and, without a shred of hesitation, turned to bolt out of the house.
'This is fucking insane!'
They had only been following a lead from their organization to this stronghold of a "Wandering Immortal." They hadn't even finished searching the house when they heard a noise from below ground.
They thought they could grab a "tongue" to interrogate and make some progress. Who would have thought that a "Worldly Arhat" who had achieved Body Ascension would crawl out of this basement?!
An existence like that, a Transformed Body, was a living legend. He couldn't be measured by common sense.
Behind Yi Beidou, two other men, also holding daggers, had been ready to help subdue him. But seeing this, they were scared witless and turned to flee.
However, the leader of the group had just turned when a sound of something tearing through the air reached him. A terrifying pressure, like a mountain, descended upon him from behind.
WHAP!!
Before he could even react, he felt a massive hand clamp down on his head.
He suddenly felt his body go light. The hand gripping his head exerted its strength, lifting his eighty-plus-kilogram body right into the air.
Then.
It violently slammed his head into the hard floor.
BANG!!
The floor shuddered. The man's face looked like a dye factory had exploded on it, blood smearing his features as his pupils dilated.
Yi Beidou released the man's head. With a light tap of his foot, his figure flickered through the darkness like a phantom. The remaining two men had just reached the window when Yi Beidou grabbed them, one in each hand, pinching their necks as if they were baby chicks.
He lifted their bodies and smashed them against the windowsill.
SMASH!!
The two men's eyes immediately rolled back in their heads.
Yi Beidou hadn't dealt a killing blow; he wanted to know why these people were here.
Before he had mastered the Free Heart Technique, it was impossible for him to have made enemies with such desperate criminals.
The only possible reason was his master.
"Hm?"
The next moment, Yi Beidou's expression tightened. He noticed blood flowing from the ears of the two men in his grasp. Their life force was rapidly fading, and soon it vanished completely as their bodies went limp.
'Dead?'
Yi Beidou felt for a pulse on one man's neck and confirmed it had completely disappeared.
'My attack shouldn't have been fatal.'
He dropped the two bodies and walked over to the leader. Crouching down to examine him, he found that blood was also flowing from the man's ears, his life force completely gone.
"Death Warriors?"
Yi Beidou understood. They must have had some sort of special mechanism that, once triggered, would cause instant death.
He ignored the three corpses and inspected the villa, finding signs that several rooms had been rummaged through.
"It seems they really were here for Master."
Yi Beidou took off his backpack, pulled out his phone, and turned it on. A flood of missed calls and messages immediately popped up.
He unlocked the screen, ignored all the missed calls and messages from a "Xu Zifeng"—the name that appeared most frequently—and found an anonymous message.
The message was a string of meaningless, jumbled characters.
But upon seeing this string of characters, Yi Beidou paused. This was how he and his master, Hong Datong, communicated.
He opened the laptop he carried with him, logged into an encrypted website, and entered the jumbled string. After doing so, Yi Beidou received an encrypted email.
The email had been sent six days ago.
"Beidou, the other day, I had a premonition. Seeing the light of Beidou flicker, I knew your Seven Stars had been eliminated, and I also knew my own doom was inescapable. By the time you read this letter, I should already be gone from this world. This is the hand of fate. You need not dwell on it, nor seek the reason why."
"Everyone has their own path. This is a magnificent and turbulent era, and the fate of humanity is approaching a new turning point. You were born with a Demon Nature, yet you were able to subdue it and attain freedom, a feat rarely seen since ancient times. Move Tai Mountain, Yi Beidou. Perhaps you will become the guide for a new age. Your path is one you must explore for yourself. I do not wish to interfere too much. I am merely an old relic who should be forgotten by history."
"However, we were master and disciple, after all, and our fates are intertwined. My affairs will inevitably affect you. From now on, you must be wary of the Pioneer Group. Do not confront them directly until you have grown stronger."
"One last piece of advice for you."
"A great dream of a thousand autumns is ultimately empty; a full life in both body and spirit lasts but a single lifetime."
After reading the email, Yi Beidou was stunned.
Yi Beidou's knowledge of his master, Hong Datong, was quite limited. In fact, aside from his name, he knew almost nothing. They had even met very few times.
Apart from the first few months when his master taught him the Free Heart Technique and opened the major acupoints in his brain, they had met less than ten times in the following twenty years.
However, Hong Datong was very concerned about his progress. They frequently communicated through encrypted emails, and his master had secretly provided him with a great deal of help.
For example, the custom-built house he was in now, and the basement within it, were cultivation grounds prepared for him by Hong Datong.
In his memory, Hong Datong was an Immortal-like figure.
For such a person to say in a letter that he had passed away, it couldn't possibly be a lie.
A wave of sadness washed over Yi Beidou, but he quickly cut the feeling off. His turbulent emotions settled once more into the stillness of dead water.
This was a completely subconscious act. Before he mastered the Free Heart Technique, he had to constantly suppress his emotions. Any major emotional fluctuation could trigger a Demon Tribulation and stir the Demon Nature he kept suppressed.
It had already become a habit.
"Master, you should have known I couldn't possibly let this go. The Pioneer Group, is it?"
Yi Beidou spoke softly. He understood that Hong Datong's death was surely connected to this organization, and the three Death Warriors who had just died were likely involved with them as well.