Chapter 331: Blood Shadow Rose!
Crash!
A group of burly, fierce-looking men completely blocked the alley from both ends.
Immediately after, a muscular, bald man over two meters tall, with a rugged face, stepped forward.
His eyes stared intently at Ye Liyou, filled with naked greed and malice, as he sneered, revealing a mouth full of yellowed teeth.
"Originally, I planned to kidnap Heavenly Queen Zhong Lingyin this time and demand a sky-high ransom of a billion dollars. Who would've thought, there'd be such a pleasant surprise, stumbling upon you, Blood Shadow Rose, in distress."
The bald giant cracked his knuckles, the sound echoing like gunshots in the narrow, damp alleyway.
"Haha, Blood Shadow Rose, you killed several of my brothers in the Golden Triangle. Now that you've fallen into my hands, a great opportunity is before me. This time, I'd like to see where you can run!"
The subordinates surrounding the alley laughed savagely, their gazes raking over the woman trapped in the center like packs of hyenas eyeing a wounded gazelle. Their words were unrestrained and vile.
"Boss Vulture, Blood Shadow Rose is so beautiful, it'd be a pity to just kill her directly."
"Yeah, yeah, Blood Shadow Rose, a gold-tier assassin at the top of the Dark Rankings. If we got to play with such a high-class woman, it would surely be a heavenly experience."
"Look at those long legs wrapped in that red dress... I could play with them for a year."
"Hehe, don't say a year, even a month, you'd probably be exhausted and sucked dry by this succubus."
"Hahahaha..."
Listening to these unrestrained insults, Ye Liyou, known throughout the Dark World as the Blood Shadow Rose, had a frosty expression on her beautiful face. Her eyes were chillingly cold, devoid of any human warmth, like two pools of frozen mercury.
She stood amidst the filth of the alley, wearing a stunning red dress that clung to her exquisite curves. The hem of the dress was slightly tattered from her escape, revealing glimpses of her porcelain-white calves, creating a stark, alluring contrast against the grime of her surroundings.
These scumbags belonged to the Vulture Mercenary Group, a notorious band of criminals who committed all sorts of evil deeds like rape, plunder, and arson. Ye Liyou found them physically repulsive. In the past, she had encountered their operations and, out of sheer distaste, killed a few of their key members, thus forming a deep blood enmity.
She didn't expect that this time, she would coincidentally be so unlucky.
Just as she was rushing to the aid of her Fifth Junior Sister, Zhong Lingyin, she was ambushed and poisoned, and now, she had run straight into this group of beasts while her internal energy was in chaos.
If she were at her peak, a Grandmaster-level assassin like Ye Liyou naturally wouldn't fear these trash. She could slaughter them all within ten breaths. But now that she was poisoned, her dantian felt like it was burning, and her limbs were heavy as lead.
Ye Liyou's heart sank, but on the surface, she remained calm, her gaze sharp, and she said coldly, her voice cutting through the humid night air like a blade.
"You scum of the Vulture, don't get too ahead of yourselves. Even if I'm poisoned, I can still take you with me to hell."
"If you don't believe me, feel free to come forward."
As Ye Liyou's chilling words fell, laced with a palpable Killing Intent accumulated over years of slaughter, the Vulture members' expressions changed. The laughter died in their throats, and some mercenaries even recoiled a few steps instinctively.
A person's name is like a tree's shadow; Blood Shadow Rose was a legend in the underground world. She was a gold-tier assassin at the top of the Dark Rankings, having successfully assassinated Grandmaster-level powerhouses multiple times. Her combat record was written in blood and terror.
If Blood Shadow Rose hadn't been poisoned now, the Vulture members wouldn't dare to even breathe loudly in her presence, let alone step forward and cause trouble.
At this moment, exactly how much strength Blood Shadow Rose still possessed, no one was clear. The price of finding out might be their lives.
Seeing his men hesitate, the bald leader's face darkened.
"A bunch of cowards, what are you afraid of? The current Blood Shadow Rose has clearly fallen! She is heavily poisoned; otherwise, with her arrogant personality, she would have already made a move instead of talking!"
The bald man, Vulture, the leader of the mercenary group, cursed at his subordinates, despising these good-for-nothing underlings who were scared by a mere woman's glare.
Ye Liyou, however, gave a cold smile, her red lips curving into a mocking arc.
"Vulture, if you don't believe me, then go ahead and see if you can kill me."
Seeing Ye Liyou composed and not flustered in the slightest, standing straight with the elegance of a blooming rose amidst a storm, Vulture felt a bit suspicious.
However, looking at the cold and beautiful Ye Liyou in front of him, this once high and mighty, terrifying gold-tier female assassin, his heart began to itch unbearably.
This was the Blood Shadow Rose!
Who knows how many powerhouses in the Dark World both feared and coveted her? She was the ultimate conquest. To break her, to ruin her, would give him a sense of accomplishment far greater than any amount of money.
Vulture's eyes darted around, calculating the risk versus the reward, and he sneered, his gaze lingering on the curve of her waist.
"Hehe, I, Vulture, dislike wasting things the most; every grain of rice in the bowl must be licked clean."
"Blood Shadow Rose, if a peerless beauty like you were to be killed just like that, wouldn't it be a waste of heavenly resources?"
He turned to his men, his voice filled with inflammatory lust.
"Brothers, I've always shared blessings and endured hardships together. A peerless beauty like Blood Shadow Rose... let's all go together. Whoever catches her gets the first taste after me!"
As Vulture's words fell, Ye Liyou's expression finally changed. The mask of icy indifference cracked, showing a hint of panic, and she sharply said, "Vulture, do you dare court death?"
But behind Ye Liyou, concealed within the folds of her red dress, her jade-like hand gripped a pitch-black short blade, its tip chilling and coated with anti-coagulants.
Seeing Ye Liyou's flustered expression, Vulture's heart immediately steadied. He was convinced she was bluffing. He laughed wildly, the sound grating and triumphant.
"Brothers, Blood Shadow Rose asked if I dare. You tell me, do you dare?"
The Vulture mercenaries, seeing their boss so confident and driven by the promise of the woman before them, immediately burst into arrogant laughter. The fear from moments ago vanished, replaced by primal instinct.
"With the boss leading the way, we dare anything!"
"We swear to follow Boss Vulture to the death!"
"Boss Vulture is even willing to share a peerless beauty like Blood Shadow Rose, what do we brothers have to fear?"
Vulture's words immediately stirred up everyone's morale, especially with the cold and stunning beauty of Blood Shadow Rose before them. The prospect of defiling such a high-status woman made their blood boil.
If they could have her, it would be worth a lifetime of boasting.
Under the boost of lustful courage, the Vulture powerhouses all charged forward with howls, their weapons drawn, faces twisted in ugly grins.
High above, hidden in the shadows of the eaves, Shen Anyu had just arrived. He stepped onto the edge of the roof, looking down at the chaotic scene in the alleyway. The moonlight cast a silver glow on his bespoke Italian suit, making him look like a noble watching a gladiatorial game.
He didn't act immediately because, with his perception, he sensed the short blade in Blood Shadow Rose Ye Liyou's hand behind her back, brewing a counterattack.
Shen Anyu watched the scene below with interest, a faint smile playing on his lips.
'Everything is proceeding according to the script.'
"If it weren't for me, Zhong Lingyin wouldn't have a billion-dollar bounty on her head, wouldn't be targeted by many Dark World powerhouses. Ye Liyou wouldn't have rushed to save her, and this crisis wouldn't have happened."
Shen Anyu adjusted his cuffs casually. He was the architect of this entire chaotic night.
"Now, Ye Linyuan, that Child of Destiny, is afflicted with a divine curse talisman, regressing to childhood and losing all his cultivation. He is currently a helpless brat, unable to come and save his Senior Sister."
"Can Ye Liyou herself escape this crisis?"
Shen Anyu wanted to see Ye Liyou's performance and the fortune of the destined heroine. Of course, he wouldn't let Ye Liyou truly suffer. She was a woman reserved by Shen Anyu, his prey. And Shen Anyu was very possessive of his belongings.
Rip!
The sound of fabric tearing echoed.
Just as a mercenary, his face filled with greedy covetousness, rushed forward first, reaching out with a filthy hand to grab Ye Liyou's shoulder.
Ye Liyou moved.
At this very moment, Ye Liyou's previously somewhat flustered expression instantly turned cold. The panic vanished, replaced by the detached focus of a master killer.
The cold gleam of the short blade behind her moved, tracing a perfect silver arc in the darkness, directly slitting the throat of the mercenary charging at her.
"Hmph... hmph..."
The mercenary clutched his throat, his eyes wide with shock. Blood oozed from his mouth and between his fingers, unable to speak, and he directly collapsed to the ground, twitching.
Before his body even fell, Ye Liyou, in her red dress, swept into the crowd like a blood shadow.
She did not retreat; she advanced.
The short blade in her hand fluttered like a dancing butterfly, swiftly passing over the throats of one mercenary after another. Her movements were elegant, precise, and lethally efficient. Every step she took was a dance of death.
In the blink of an eye, several bodies had already fallen, their blood pooling on the dirty concrete.
It was as if beautiful blood-colored roses were blooming in the darkness.
The name Blood Shadow Rose was truly deserved.
Shen Anyu watched this scene with appreciation, gazing at this dance of slaughter.
"Not bad," he mused.
Ye Liyou's cultivation Realm was at Grandmaster Peak, but her movement technique was extremely fast, and her killing skills were superb; even a Grandmaster powerhouse, if not careful, could be assassinated by her burst of speed.
The difference between Grandmaster and Grandmaster powerhouses is not great, unlike the Heavenly Human Unity level, which is too vast.
But Shen Anyu could tell that Ye Liyou wouldn't last long. Her breathing was already becoming ragged.
Indeed, Ye Liyou's fair jade-like complexion turned greenish, a sign of the toxin spreading. Clearly, under the intense fighting and the circulation of her Qi, the suppressed poison surged out, attacking her internal organs.
Her blood-shadow-like figure suddenly paused, a fatal stutter in her rhythm.
"Good opportunity!"
Vulture's eyes lit up. He was a veteran of the underground; he knew exactly when a prey was vulnerable.
He instantly seized the opportunity, pouncing forward like a black bear demon, with immense force. His large, fan-like hands whistled with power as he aimed to grab Ye Liyou by the neck and slam her into the ground.
Ye Liyou was in danger!
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