Chapter 534: Changed My Mind

I wish I had an Aura Concealing Cloak, Christina grumbled to herself as she darted down one hallway after another, trying to shake off their dogged pursuers.

The Mirage Pendant she was wearing was actually far superior to any Aura Concealing Cloak and could perfectly hide her Life and Cultivation Auras if she wanted it to, but changing its settings to do that required quite a bit of time, and time was the one thing she didn’t have nearly enough of at the moment.

Each of the assassins had also been wearing a kind of Aura Concealing Cloak, but they were the simplest, cheapest version that would stop working as soon as one began actively exerting their strength. These were good for sneaking around and setting up ambushes, but were practically useless if one was trying to escape from enemies who were already hot-on-their-tail.

Even so, if they could find a place to hide, those cloaks might have been of some use to her and Landon, but with the assassins all self-destructing upon their death...

Christina couldn’t help thinking back to the day she boarded the Raging River Legion ship and set off on patrol, how her Master, Lucas, Sasha, Eris, and everyone else kept trying to push more and more items and tools onto her, all of them saying ’this might come in handy’ or ’you never know when you might need this’.

She had originally thought they were being ridiculous, fussing over nothing, but now she was deeply regretting turning them down, not that her Space Bag was nearly big enough to fit everything she was offered.

Turning down another random hallway, Christina and Landon, who had mostly managed to recover his strength by now, actually ran into a familiar face, bringing a smile to both their lips as the former called out, "Captain Jess!"

"Your Highnesses!" Lani Jess cried out, her voice filled with ’relief’ as she dashed over to meet them, "Are you both alright?!"

"We’re fine!" Landon replied, though he grabbed his injured waist in the next instant and winced.

"Oh no!" Lani worriedly shouted, racing over to ’help’ her injured prince.

Arriving in front of the pair of youths, a playful light flashed across Lani’s eyes as she reached out, intending to personally ’escort’ them to their next, and final destination, when all-of-a-sudden her instincts screamed danger.

Before Lani could react, Landon stepped in and thrust his palm into her chest.

At the moment of contact, Lani Jess felt an enormous impact hit her, sending her flying over 30 metres, only stopping when her back smashed into one of the manor’s thick stone walls.

"Gah!!!" Landon, who was no stranger to being injured, still couldn’t help screaming as he felt several of the bones in his left arm crack from the backlash of using the High-Rank Grade 1 Impact Gem his mother had given him for just such emergencies.

Impact Gems were a type of life-saving Spirit Tool that contained the explosive force of a full-powered strike from an equivalent Spirit Realm Cultivator, in this case, a Complete High-Rank Initiate.

These kinds of Spirit Tools were very, very expensive, and couldn’t be manufactured by any of the kingdoms in the South-Central Region.

In other words, if you wanted one, you had to pay an exorbitant price to import it from one of the Large-Sized Nations or the Rising Sun Empire; this essentially meant that those from extremely powerful and wealthy backgrounds could carry them.

Fortunately, both Landon and Christina fit into that category.

Impact Gems, at least the high-quality ones, were directional weapons, but in order to be ’safely’ used, one would still normally throw it at their enemy as detonating it in your hand resulted in taking at least some of the force of the blow, but if you wanted to guarantee a hit, there really was no substitute for using it at point-blank range.

Christina wanted to help Landon, but she knew she couldn’t waste the opportunity he had created by sacrificing his arm, so she kicked off the ground hard and charged towards the fallen Lani.

She would have used her own Impact Gem to finish the job, or at least further incapacitate her enemy, but unfortunately, Christina had passed that life saving Spirit Tool to a very reluctant Lana earlier, lying that she had another and that her superior armour would be enough to protect her.

Christina didn’t regret doing this, as she was quite certain there were even more Initiate-Realm masters attacking the Dunne Family Manor right now and she very much hoped to see her friend alive at the end of this whole mess, but the young princess did realize for the fourth or perhaps fifth time tonight that when heading into battle, you can never be too prepared.

All of that was irrelevant, however. What mattered right now was closing the distance and driving the dagger she had ’borrowed’ earlier and driving it through the traitorous woman’s throat.

20 steps...

10 steps...

5 steps...

2 steps...

Closing to striking distance, Christina thrust out the dagger, putting her full weight, momentum, and every bit of Internal Qi she had left behind the strike, but just before the tip reached its intended target, Lani’s head jerked up and her left hand shot out, grabbing hold of the blade and stopping it in place.

With blood leaking from her lips, and her eyes filled with rage, Lani Jess screamed, "You... little... BITCH!!"

Christina saw the fist flying towards her, an amazing feat in-and-of-itself considering the gap in their cultivations, but even though she could see it coming, her body couldn’t react fast enough to dodge it completely.

Still, with incredible effort, Christina somehow managed to shift her posture just enough to move her shoulder-guard into the path of Lani’s anger-filled punch, successfully protecting her face from being smashed in.

Unfortunately, the force of the blow still completely dislocated her arm before sending her tumbling backwards.

After coming to a halt, Christina tried to grit through the pain and get up to assume a defensive stance, but her efforts were thwarted when something slammed down onto her chest.

Feeling several of her ribs crack, Christina looked up to see a furious Lani standing there, hand still bleeding from grabbing the assassin’s dagger as she glared down at her.

Reaching down with her good right hand, Lani grabbed Christina by the throat and hoisted her up, bringing her to eye level as she snarled, "I was going to give you a quick death, but I’ve changed my mind!"

Lifting up the bloody dagger, Lani pressed it to the young girls face and grinned wickedly, "I’m going to carve up this pretty face of yours, then cut off all your fingers and toes before giving you to the Silents to play with! Only after they’ve taken you a hundred times will I end your miserable life!"

Although she was being threatened with a fate worse than death, and could feel the life being choked from her body, Christina actually smiled and taunted, "Jealous are we, ugly whore?"