The mission was complete, and Shu Yue had no intention of lingering.
She bolted straight for the window, intending to make her escape from there.
The two guards clearly had no intention of letting her go.
If Shu Yue escaped, they would be finished.
Driven by desperation, they surged with Magic Power, pushing their physical bodies to the absolute limit.
They exploded with a speed twenty or thirty percent faster than before, their two gleaming longswords slashing toward Shu Yue’s slender figure.
However, how fast was Shu Yue in her Dragon Maiden state?
In a mere instant, she transformed into a blurred afterimage, evading the pincer attack and soaring out the window.
*Clang!*
The two longswords collided, erupting in a shower of bright sparks.
By then, Shu Yue was already standing on the windowsill.
She didn’t forget to look back at the two red-faced brutes and shout, “Go tell Baron Jim that this is what happens when you offend the Black Feather Cult!”
With that, her figure flashed and vanished into the shadows.
The Shadow Hide spell activated, reducing her presence to nearly nothing.
The two guards rushed to the window and stared out at the vast city nightscape in a daze.
Their unvented rage was about to boil over when a scream erupted from inside the room.
“Aaaaaahhh!!!”
The woman’s shriek pierced the decadent night air, making everyone who heard it shudder.
The assassination had happened incredibly fast.
From the moment she broke in to the killing of Simon and her eventual escape, less than twenty seconds had passed.
The people of the Early Spring House didn’t even have time to arrive for backup.
The two guards looked utterly ghastly.
The enemy had killed the young master right under their noses; even if they weren’t executed upon their return, they would lose a layer of skin.
Even that might not be enough to appease the master’s hatred.
Panic flickered in the eyes of one guard as he looked at the man beside him, whose body was tense and silent.
“Big Brother, what… what should we do?”
“…”
The man gritted his teeth and said, “Go back and tell the master that the Black Feather Cult did it.”
Any idiot could see it wasn’t them—no one shouted their own name while committing a murder.
This was clearly a deliberate frame-up.
But it wasn’t their place to make that judgment; the one who would decide was their liege, Baron Jim!
The two climbed back through the window and saw the beautiful woman cowering in the corner, visibly terrified.
Then they looked at Simon.
His throat had been crushed, and his cervical vertebrae shattered.
His eyes bulged out.
That punch hadn’t killed him instantly; his brain had likely remained active for about three seconds.
It was a truly miserable way to die.
A young girl was also lying across Simon’s body.
Her collarbone had been shattered by a single punch, and her internal organs were severely damaged.
If her heart had been injured, she probably wouldn’t survive without immediate treatment from a healing spell.
The guard felt only the enemy’s ruthlessness.
She hadn’t shown the slightest mercy to the woman of the Early Spring House, as if the girl’s death was merely Simon’s fault.
“Big Brother, that woman seemed to be from a demi-human race…”
“A demi-human?”
“I saw a tail under her robe. A white one.”
“Could it really be the Black Feather Cult?”
Their expressions softened slightly.
If it really was the Black Feather Cult, then it seemed to make sense.
Those lunatics from the Black Feather Cult loved performing blood sacrifices to gain power from deformed deities.
Because of this, their bodies usually didn’t look human, often possessing many non-human parts.
***
As for Shu Yue, she didn’t return immediately after leaving.
Instead, she took a long detour to dissipate her scent and wash away the bloodstains before finally returning to the inn late at night.
Entering the room through the window, she turned and shut it tight.
Her gaze drifted toward her hand.
Her hands were delicate and slender, looking quite frail.
They would surely be comfortable to hold and play with, yet when these hands were clenched into small fists, they truly could kill a man with a single blow.
‘With my current physique, I should already be at Tier 2. It’s mainly my mana capacity that’s lagging behind.’
‘The physical enhancement provided by the Dragon Blood is significant, but unfortunately, it doesn’t help much with Magic Power reserves.
However, my talent has increased a bit, and I feel like my mastery of spells has grown stronger.’
‘I need to continue collecting Dragon Blood…’
Shu Yue knew that her current self was still far from enough.
Though this trip had seemed simple, it made her realize that the leap in power between levels was a qualitative change.
She might be able to handle a Tier 2 opponent now or even kill one quickly using her trump cards, but encountering a Tier 3 would definitely not be enough.
She couldn’t afford to act recklessly in Grey Pine City yet.
‘I’ll wait for Vanessa to send the Dragon Blood that has undergone three rounds of purification. Then I can temper another drop of Dragon Blood Essence.’
She felt that her Dragon Blood was very close to reaching the threshold for transformation.
If she had just a bit more, the blood arts of the Silver Dragon Bloodline should manifest.
When that happened, she would have another powerful trump card.
Relaxing her clenched fist, she turned and walked to the bed.
She took off her cloak and her clothes, preparing to sleep for a while.
It was impossible to sleep on her back in the Dragon Maiden form; she had to sleep either on her side or on her stomach, otherwise her tail would be crushed.
Shu Yue lay on her side, hugging a pillow and covering herself with a thin sheet.
She planned to sleep until dawn.
***
The next morning.
Sunlight streamed through the window, and after reflecting off the surfaces, it made the silver-white hair on the bed shine brilliantly.
The warm sensation stimulated Shu Yue.
The eyes on the girl’s pretty face fluttered and suddenly snapped open, revealing a pair of golden eyes.
The pupils quickly narrowed into vertical slits.
“Phew…”
Shu Yue let out a long breath and rubbed her eyes with her small hands.
She tried to get up but felt a tug on her scalp.
She let out a soft hiss of pain and lay back down on the soft bed.
She had pinned her own hair with her arm…
She climbed up again, and this time there were no accidents.
After sitting up, Shu Yue looked down at her chest.
It was still a pair of slightly bulging “small buns,” tightly bound by wide white bandages.
Last night, Shu Yue hadn’t let them out to breathe; being stifled all night felt a bit uncomfortable.
After unbinding the “little bunnies” and letting them breathe the fresh air, Shu Yue looked at the two rosy peaks on her delicate, snow-white skin.
Her face couldn’t help but flush with a hint of red.
However, she had long since become desensitized to her own body.
She closed her eyes and felt her state, finding that her bloodline had passed the initial period of agitation and entered a stable state.
This meant Shu Yue could revert to her original appearance.
Although, changing back really only meant the horns and tail would disappear and her hair would become short and black.
Aside from that, there wasn’t much difference—she was a girl either way.
Shu Yue suppressed the Silver Dragon Bloodline, allowing her human form to reappear.
Only with this identity could she move freely in Grey Pine City.
In her current understanding, dragons rarely appeared, and demi-humans who entered human society were also scarce.
However, she had heard of cases where people disguised themselves as dragons to swindle others; lizardmen often did this to scare those who didn’t know better.
After retracting the Silver Dragon Bloodline, she returned to the appearance of a girl with shoulder-length black hair.
She began to put her clothes back on and finish her disguise.
After checking out of the room, she walked toward the manor of Liya White.
At the manor gates, a servant saw her and hurried to open the door with a bow.
“Master White, you’ve returned.”
“Mhm.”
Shu Yue nodded without saying much and walked straight toward the main residence.