Chapter 656: You Guys Might Be the Worst Batch I've Ever Taught

"Stay back! Or these assassins are dead meat!" Count Seven roared in sheer panic, barking orders to several executioners. "Kill them!"

In an instant, those executioners had slipped nooses around the necks of all the assassins. The moment the floor dropped, these assassins would all be hanged alive!

Suddenly, from the surrounding rooftops, a great multitude of assassins leapt down like a cascading waterfall, their movements incredibly clean and swift. Almost the exact moment they landed, hidden blades snapped out, instantly taking the life of an executioner.

"All Templar Knights! Kill them!" beside Luther, the High Priest in red robes roared in fury and shock. Instantly, a vast number of soldiers and fully armored Templar Knights swarmed forward to surround them.

At the same time, this High Priest in red robes held his staff high and began to chant. Soon, a cascade of golden light spilled from his staff, bathing the armor of these Templar Knights.

Almost simultaneously, a faint golden glow began to emanate from the armor of every single Templar Knight.

This was the Holy Light Armor, capable of making the knights' armor incredibly sturdy—unbreakable even by magical flintlocks, let alone by these powerless assassins.

Immediately afterward, another beam of golden light descended.

The strength of these knights suddenly surged dramatically, their greatswords cleaving through the air with the howling sound of a roaring tiger!

The High Priest in red robes wore a sinister look in his eyes: "Human strength has its limits. No matter how rich one's combat experience may be, in the absence of 'Qi' and 'mana', killing six or seven fully armored knights is already the absolute limit. Now with my divine arts enhancing them, let us see how many you can kill!"

At this moment, as expected, an assassin thrust out a hidden blade, only for a crisp clinking sound to echo out; the knight he had struck did not bear even a single mark upon his chest!

"Hahahahaha!" Count Seven immediately burst into loud laughter. "They are dead meat!"

But just then, that same assassin raised his hidden blade and thrust it into the gaps of the knight's armor with almost machine-like precision, and the next moment, a fountain of blood erupted as it was withdrawn!

These divine arts had reinforced the armor and strength, but they had not reinforced the flesh.

Time and again, the blades slipped through the gaps of the armor, making those suits of armor appear before them as though they were made of paper, requiring scarcely any effort at all.

A slaughter! This was an absolute, one-sided slaughter! With their current combat skills, even if their opponents possessed a higher level of cultivation, they could easily triumph—much less now, when everyone was at the exact same level of cultivation!

"This...?!"

Everyone bolted upright from their seats.

Luther's face turned ashen: "Send me to the temple, quickly!"

In the Kingdom of Stan, on the prison square, the group of assassins sitting on the lawn watching the magical projection were already completely stupefied: Are these assassins?!

"What on earth did they do?!"

"Escort Lord Luther away immediately!" Count Seven also bellowed out. Witnessing such a scene, he was still somewhat unable to process it, but he knew these assassins had to be stopped. At this moment, his face was distorted with rage, his fat countenance twisting violently. "Elites of Grey Eagle City, kill them all for me!"

"For the Brotherhood!" Haxin roared, his eyes bloodshot as he charged into the crowd.

"For our honor."

"Leave none alive, fight to the bitter end!"

Every single moment, soldiers of Grey Eagle City or Templar Knights would fall. The assassin Haxin had already charged to the very front—counter-attacks, chain kills... one strike, one kill. The immense amount of practice in the virtual training seemed to flash through his mind at this very moment like a replay.

It made this method of fighting feel as though it had already fused into his very marrow.

Hands, feet, knees, and even objects picked up at random all seemed capable of becoming his lethal weapons. He felt that even if an assassin closed his eyes, he could still locate his opponent's weakest spot.

Haxin used one arm to scoop up the unconscious middle-aged assassin: "Oh! Brother, you're safe now!"

"Though we arrived a little late, please believe that we will be victorious!"

"Attack!!!" A nearly hoarse roar blew the horn for the general assault.

...

And at this time, Luther was striding quickly toward the temple.

"I think nothing could be more brilliant than such a plan," Luther sneered.

"Lord Luther, do you have a way?" Count Seven said in terror. "They... are these assassins demons?! How could they possibly kill so many people?!"

Luther's face was grim. Though he had entirely failed to foresee such a situation, he had clearly made a great deal of preparations, so he was not completely beside himself at this moment: "Rest assured, this is only the beginning."

Escorted by the Templar Knights, he had already stepped into the temple—a magnificent palace, splendid and majestic, where sunlight streamed through the stained-glass floor-to-ceiling windows, making it exceptionally bright.

Suddenly, a cascade of shattering glass rang out as the stained-glass windows burst inward, and dozens of assassins poured in like a surging torrent!

Aside from the remaining twenty or so Templar Knights, only Luther, Count Seven, and the High Priest in red robes were left, heavily guarded in the center.

"You have nowhere left to run, Lord Luther." Irina's hidden blade snapped out. After so many days, she had finally returned to this place.

But this time, it was not a desperate flight, but a quest to claim the victory that belonged to them!

"Don't celebrate too early, damn you!" Luther said chillingly. "If it is only to this extent, I think your time of death has come!"

The moment his voice fell, Irina suddenly felt a chill shoot straight up into her brain. The dangers lurking everywhere in *Assassin's Creed* had gradually given her a faint intuition for danger, even without relying on "Qi" or spells. It was precisely this intuition that made her duck her head almost instinctively.

A silent, dark glint passed as if brushing against her scalp; had she been a fraction of a second slower, she would have been decapitated on the spot!

"Watch out!" she cried out in alarm.

The others immediately sensed the danger as well, but by then it was clearly a step too late. Some assassins who were slow to dodge managed only to protect their vital organs, and in an instant, several assassins were severely wounded!

She had actually failed completely to notice where these ambushers had been hiding just moments ago.

They wore simple black cloth robes, looking like a group of ascetics.

From their bodies, not a single trace of aura could be felt; they were as though a vast emptiness.

They did not use the greatswords commonly favored by knights, but rather pitch-black short swords, and the moves they had just deployed were also executed in coordination with these short swords. It was absolutely a superb and ancient art of assassination, far more sophisticated than that of the Underground Council.

"This... these are assassins too?!" On the prison square, the two elders of the Underground Council were completely unable to comprehend what they were seeing.

They had never imagined that... the Arbitration Temple was actually the most powerful assassin organization of all?!

No wonder no matter how they carried out their assassinations, the enemy could easily guard against them. It turned out that the assassinations they took pride in were nothing more than child's play in the eyes of others!?

The assassins who had just been scratched, even if it was just a tiny break in the skin, saw their wounds immediately fester and ooze pus, even emitting plumes of foul-smelling black smoke.

Even though they were caught off guard, only two or three were heavily injured, yet with this single strike, almost in the blink of an eye, more than twenty assassins instantly lost all their strength, collapsing limply to the ground, entirely stripped of their combat capability!

Now, the only ones left standing were Irina, and Haxin outside who was covering the retreat of the captured assassins.

Irina could not help but assume a grave expression. The magic array in the city was clearly still in effect, yet the opponent had approached her side completely unnoticed, as if they had melted into the shadows.

Even Luther became exceedingly respectful at this moment, bowing low as he said, "We respectfully welcome Lord Muye's arrival."

"Did you call for me just to deal with this kind of trash? They cannot even withstand a single blow." The man clad in black robes, who appeared to be the leader of this group, stood with his hands behind his back. He possessed an aura of calm and composure that was quite unlike ordinary people, looking down upon the gathered assassins with utter indifference.

In truth, Luther's objective was far from just those assassins who had slipped through the net.

If that were all, he would not have mobilized the oldest assassins within the temple to such a place.

His true goal was the one known as the pioneer of assassins, "Altaïr", and the one called the Eagle of Florence, "Ezio".

Or rather... the person who had created that assassin secret realm and taught those elves the arts of assassination.

He would certainly not march up to their doorstep himself.

Because he did not believe such a person would fail to set an ambush on their own territory.

Therefore, he would naturally not be so foolish as to send men right into their hands.

Luring the snake out of its hole was the best choice.

The High Priest in red robes came to a sudden realization: "So Lord Muye is our true trump card!"

Luther laughed loudly: "You cannot possibly imagine how powerful he is!"

"In this world, I fear there are only people Lord Muye does not wish to kill, but there is no one he cannot kill."

Luther spoke, "As I see it, even if the great pioneer Altaïr or the Eagle of Florence, Ezio himself, were to come in person, they wouldn't last a single exchange against Lord Muye."

Hearing Luther's introduction, everyone nearby stood frozen in disbelief. Could such a figure truly be hidden within the temple, entirely apart from Saint Heinz?

"Did you really need to emphasize that..." Muye spoke indifferently, but before the final word could fully leave his lips, his voice suddenly hitched. Unbeknownst to anyone, a throwing knife had silently embedded itself into the center of his back.

With a sudden crash, he plunged headfirst onto the ground.

Luther was instantly struck dumb.

The red-robed high priest and Count Seven were equally dumbfounded.

Staring at the black-robed figure lying stiffly on the earth, stripped of all breath, every mind present went completely blank.

Meanwhile, the group of assassins within the Kingdom of Stan who witnessed this scene felt their very brains grind to a halt.

What on earth was happening?

Shifting the gaze forward, a white-robed assassin could be seen walking straight through the main entrance.

A vast throng of guards stood at the doorway.

A fierce instinct for survival compelled them to forcefully pretend they had not seen this assassin at all.

"Quick! Shut it down now!" Inside the Kingdom of Stan's prison, the guards watching the magical projection alongside the prisoners shrieked frantically, "Turn off this cursed projection this instant!"

"..."

...

Just today, right in the middle of compiling an informational post, Boss Fang had suddenly received a quest.

New Quest: The War of Assassins

Quest Content: Achieve full synchronization with either Altaïr or Ezio

Quest Objective: Completely annihilate all non-Brotherhood assassins within Grey Eagle City

Quest Reward: Activation of the third major online game quest, interconnection of private teleportation arrays across all shops, and an additional teleportation slot allowing the host to bring one person along.

Note: Synchronizing with any other character will be deemed a quest failure

And so, Boss Fang had dropped by to take a look.

Yet, beholding the scene before him, Boss Fang felt somewhat speechless: "You people might just be the worst batch I've ever carried."

"Aaaahhhh...!" Irina was practically driven to madness; there were still so many people around! Couldn't he leave them a shred of dignity?!

"Luther is trying to run!"

"Quick! Deactivate all the magic arrays right now—!" A long, pig-slaughtering shriek suddenly echoed through the grand hall, "Turn off the anti-magic array and we might still stand a chance against them! Shut down the anti-flight array so we can escape! Devils, they must be devils!"

"Aaaaahhhh!" The very measures originally meant for defense had now become like death-summoning talismans against them.

At that exact moment, beneath the halls of the Judgment Temple where the true gods were enshrined, a pair of eyes snapped open within a certain dark corner, a voice declaring, "To think I would lose a projection in such a manner... Who was it?!"

.