The World Expansion guard spun on his heels, turning towards the other guard. His instincts flared with warning, and his divine sense began to surge outwards while his Qi began to roil within his body.
Although it was faint, the slightest spatial disturbance behind the other guard, and knew an ambush was happening. The other guard became startled at the sudden outburst, and began to surge with his own power.
The World Expansion guard's eyes went wide as he watched a figure appear from nowhere, hand piercing towards the back of the other guard's neck before anyone could react. The other guard was not prepared for the ambush, and his defenses were not yet raised. Both guards felt as though they heard the soft cry of a dragon in the area, seeming to come from the figure who had just appeared.
John's hand, pushed to his absolute limit of power and durability, pierced directly through the thin veil of defensive Qi around the guard's body, and then pierced into the guard's neck. An explosion of blood rained out the opposite side as his hand pierced directly through the man's neck, and with a quick surge of power, John pulled upwards.
The man's neck was ripped clean off his head, a shower of blood spurting into the air above from his open neck.
"Who dares-" the World Expansion guard shouted out with rage, preparing to unleash a fatal attack towards John.
John's actions had completely enraged the man, to the point that he had failed to notice the almost imperceptible mass of shadows appear behind him. The glint of a dagger flickered in the night sky for a brief moment before it was plunged into the man's skull, piercing directly into his brain.
The man's eyes went wide with shock, his mouth still open from his cry of anger. Qi surged from Zuri and into the dagger, erupting within the man's skull. It exploded a moment later, killing the guard instantly. Both guards, now headless, slumped to the ground.
In an instant, both had been slain.
Zuri waved her hands, using her Qi to move both bodies to her. She touched both and stored them away in her spatial ring, and then used her Qi to sweep away the blood of the deceased, leaving no evidence behind.
In less than a second, both guards were successfully ambushed, killed before they could alert anyone else.
Zuri's figure reappeared, turning from a mass of shadows into her true form. She looked at John with a stunned expression, one that had most definitely been rage just moments ago. Her gritted teeth relaxed into a slightly agape mouth, unable to process what had just happened.
In an instant, an Early Dao Transformation youth had killed a Half-Step World Expansion cultivator. It was something that should have been nearly impossible, and yet it happened before her eyes. Even with a sneak attack, almost no Early Dao Transformation cultivators would have the power to break the natural defenses of a Half-Step World Expansion cultivator.
The gap in cultivation was just too great.
As one progressed in cultivation, so did their natural durability of their body, even for essence cultivators. On top of that, the man had a thin barrier of Qi wrapped around his body, for the purpose of defending against sneak attacks.
With these two things combined, it would take at the very least the power of a Late Dao Transformation cultivator to pierce the man's defenses. And to outright kill him like that with no possibility to resist, it just wasn't possible.
Zuri had been panicked by John's sudden actions, and had figured he would fail and the other guards would have been alerted. She was prepared for a hellish battle just to escape, but he had killed his targett flawlessly, and had even given her a perfect opening to assassinate her target as well.
"We should move," John said, snapping Zuri out of her stupor.
Zuri shook her head to clear her jumbled thoughts, and then nodded firmly. She vanished, turning into a mass of shadows that blended into the darkness of the night, and moved through the front gates and into the estate.
John wrapped himself in his spatial cocoon once more, and followed closely behind, using his sharp instincts to keep track of Zuri's location. The two moved through a sprawling garden that led up to the main mansion, slipping from shadow to shadow, avoiding the guards that patrolled the gardens.
They arrived at the mansion's front doors and slipped inside without anyone noticing. John scanned the mansion's interior before him, which could only be described as overly gaudy and extravagant. Gold, gems, and other valuable things lined almost every inch of the mansion's interior, as if Galvsten wanted to display his obscene wealth to any that entered this place.
Servants bustled about the mansion, which was lit but not too brightly. The servants were not cultivators, and so were unable to detect the presence of the intruders. Zuri and John moved deftly from shadow to shadow, avoiding the patrolling's of guards that moved about the mansion.
'This one. Let's follow him,' John received a sound transmission from Zuri.
The guard she had identified was in the Early World Expansion Realm and seemed to be moving with a purpose. He had entered the mansion from outside and was walking towards the back of the large mansion with purpose.
'Did they discover the guards out front are missing?' John wondered, following behind the man. If they had, then there was most likely a battle on their hands shortly.
The man strode through hallways, turning multiple times with practiced experience. He clearly knew where he was going in the maze-like mansion. He stopped halfway down a hallway, one that had no doors other than the doors at the opposite ends of the hallway.
He faced the wall and placed his hand against it. A false wall gave way a moment later, revealing a dark tunnel on the other side. The man strode into the tunnel, the wall closing behind him.
Two shimmers slipped in behind the man before the wall could close, although their fast movements alerted the man's instincts. He frowned and turned around, and saw two figures emerge from the shadows, dagger and hand piercing directly towards the man's face.
