?


    The other masked man stepped forward, frustrated at all the dys. However, as he stepped closer, even his footsteps stopped.


    The man on the bed who appeared to be peacefully sleeping was awake. His eyes were opened,zily ncing at them as if mocking them.


    "How are you still awake?" The Inn Owner stuttered. The gas was strong enough to even put the strongest person in the Royal City to sleep, yet Xu Shan waspletely unfazed.


    "And here I was wondering what tricks you were going to use. You can''t imagine my disappointment," Xu Shan''s calm voice fell in everyone''s ears,as hezily stood up, yawning.


    Even when there were so many assassins in the room, he appearedpletely uncaring.


    Xu Shan''s nonchnt demeanor infuriated the masked men, but they were too shocked to react immediately.


    "I know you are wondering how I managed to stay awake," Xu Shan said, stretching his arms leisurely. "Well, let''s just say I have my ways. Now, if you don''t mind, would one of you be kind enough to bring some tea for me?"


    The Inn Owner''s brother couldn''t hold his frustration any longer. "Enough of this! We won''t be fooled by your act any longer. So what if you are awake? That''s the extent of the help you can get from your tricks."


    "Even if you''re awake, everyone else in this inn is deep asleep. No one wille to help you even if you scream at the top of your lungs!" the second Assassin stated. "It would''ve been less painful for you if you had kept pretending to be asleep!"


    With a swift motion, he unsheathed a hidden dagger and lunged at Xu Shan. However, to his utter surprise, Xu Shan effortlessly avoided the attack, almost as if he had known it wasing.


    Before the masked man could regain his bnce, Xu Shan''s hand shot forward, striking a precise pressure point on his neck.


    The masked man''s body froze, and he dropped to the ground, unconscious. The other masked men, seeing theirrade defeated so easily, hesitated for a moment, but then they all rushed towards Xu Shan, their weapons at the ready.


    Xu Shan, however, remained calm andposed. He moved like a shadow, gracefully avoiding the attacks and striking back with precision. It was evident that he was highly skilled in martial arts, and each of his movements seemed effortless and calcted.


    Despite their initial advantage in numbers, the masked men found themselves struggling to keep up with Xu Shan''s agility and speed. One by one, they fell, either knocked out or disarmed.


    Strangely enough, Xu Shan didn''t kill a single person in the group, even though they had attacked him. It was as if he still had more use for them.


    The Inn Owner was cursing himself in his mind for not realizing that this was a trap. He finally understood that it wasn''t his intuition that was wrong. Instead, it was their stubbornness to not dy the n which was wrong.


    He understood clearly that Xu Shan wasn''t a merchant. Everything he said in the application was a lie! There was no way an ordinary merchant could take down the Assassins so easily.


    Unfortunately, it was toote to regret now. In the end, he himself tried to attack from the side when Xu Shan was distracted. ,


    He swiftly approached Xu Shan with a small Dagger behind him, but before he could even get close, he saw Xu Shan looking in his direction. A devilish smile appeared on his face.


    The Inn Owner felt his heart skip a bit as he dropped all the ns to attack. Instead, he ran toward the door.


    It was Xu Shan who picked up a dagger of the Assassins and tossed it back. The dagger stabbed straight in the Inn Owner''s left leg, making him fall with a thud before he could even reach the door.


    With all the masked men defeated, Xu Shan turned his attention back to the Inn Owner. The Inn Owner was now trembling, fear written all over his face.


    "Please... spare me," he pleaded. "Don''t kill me!"


    Xu Shan sat before the Inn Owner who was lying on the ground, blood rushing out of his legs, painting his pants red.


    "Don''t kill you?" he asked the Middle aged man, slowly removing the Inn Owner''s mask. "I wasn''t nning to. You are still of you to me."


    The Inn Owner''s face waspletely pale. Pain was clearly visible on his face.


    "W-what do you want?!" The Inn Owner asked. His intuition was again warning him. It was an even stronger feeling, as if he was being stared at by a snake.


    "I want the same thing that you want," Xu Shanughed in response, standing up. He walked back to the bed where he sat with one leg resting over the other.


    "I like your n quite a lot, and I want you to seed in it. However, I can''t sacrifice myself for your n. Take another guest from the Inn, and execute the n tonight. If you can''t, you can have one of the two fates..."


    The Inn Owner didn''t even want to ask what. He already had a sense of doom. What he really wondered about was how Xu Shan knew so much about their n. He wondered if the young man before him could read his mind or if he could see the future.


    Even though the old man didn''t ask, Xu Shan still told the middle aged man. "The first fate is that I''ll kill you myself if there''s a dy. And the second fate is that I''ll tie you and drag you to the Divine Queen to tell her everything about you."


    " I have a feeling that you would want to avoid that at all cost, because I heard she is quite ruthless when ites to killing people, unlike a kind person like me. Your death won''t be peaceful if she''s the one deciding how to deal with you."