Chapter 106: Assassination Technique?

Three days later, in the third floor...

The moment Theo broke the illusion, the air in the third-floor office snapped back to reality.

He gripped the hilt of his broadsword, his mind aching from the strain of breaking an Archon-level mental domain.

Across the room, Zelia stood by the window, her civilian disguise dissolving into crimson silk. She looked genuinely shaken.

"Your soul is unnaturally heavy for an early-stage cultivator," Zelia noted, her eyes narrowing.

Without warning, she thrust her palm forward.

It was a *Formless Shadow Palm* a supreme assassination technique executed with flawless perfection.

It sealed every escape vector, drifting toward Theo’s chest.

Theo channeled the entirety of their stored energy into his blade.

The karmic fire did not flare outward; it compressed inward, turning the steel into a dense singularity of heat.

He swung the broadsword directly into the invisible palm strike.

The shockwave pulverized the office furniture, reducing desks to splinters and fracturing the masonry.

The ambient qi in the room churned, superheated by the sheer friction of his Abyssal aura.

Zelia’s eyes widened in sheer disbelief as the force of the blow tore through her technique.

She triggered a supreme movement art, splitting her body into five distinct shadow-clones just as the energy cleaved through her position.

Four clones evaporated into ash...

Zelia reappeared near the ceiling, her breathing ragged.

That strike would have obliterated any normal Inner Scenery expert!

"You are a monster," Zelia whispered, her aura finally dropping all pretense.

The peak-stage Inner Scenery pressure flooded the room.

She flicked her wrists, unleashing dozens of razor-sharp crimson threads.

The silk whipped through the air, intending to bind Theo’s limbs and drag him out the window.

Theo ignited his *Crucible of Genesis* body art, bracing for the impact.

The doors of the office splintered into a thousand pieces.

A streak of pure moonlight sliced through the room. It was an unavoidable execution of sword intent.

The *Aurora Flash* severed every single crimson thread in a microsecond, the blade continuing its trajectory straight toward Zelia’s neck.

*CLANG!*

Sparks rained down as Zelia barely managed to block the strike with a hidden dagger.

The sheer physical force of the impact twisted her body backward, launching her through the destroyed window frame.

"I will return, Theo!" Zelia’s voice echoed through the pouring rain as she vanished into the storm.

Theo lowered his broadsword. He wasn’t disappointed...

Zelia was an Archon for a reason; in a prolonged battle of attrition, her speed and experience would have eventually overwhelmed his heavy strikes.

He turned toward the doorway.

Liana stood there, her sword already sliding back into its scabbard. Her clothes were soaked from the rain, clinging tightly to her figure, and wet strands of silver hair were plastered against her pale neck.

She was breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling.

"Weren’t you scheduled to duel the Crown Prince’s proxy at the academy tonight?" Theo asked, genuinely surprised.

"I was," Liana replied, her voice slightly hoarse.

She had realized something was wrong the moment the proxy initiated the duel.

The opponent wasn’t trying to win; he was exclusively using defensive Syndicate techniques designed to stall for time.

"Why did you return so quickly?" Theo pressed.

Liana looked at the scorch marks on the floor and the broken window.

"I did not hold back," Liana said softly.

There was only one reason the Syndicate would send a proxy to stall her. They were targeting Theo...

She had only cared about the crushing grip of terror in her chest, the fear that the only person who had ever truly understood her was about to be taken away.

On her sprint back to the estate, Liana’s usually ice-cold mind had unraveled.

For the first time in two lifetimes, the Reborn Empress had tasted the bitter flavor of genuine dread.

Seeing him standing there, unharmed, she felt as though she had just been pulled back from the edge of a cliff.

Theo understood the implication immediately.

If she hadn’t held back, the Crown Prince’s proxy was likely scattered across several courtyards at the academy.

"How did you know it wasn’t me?" Liana asked, her eyes locking onto his.

Theo paused.

Zelia’s disguise had been flawless.

The illusion had mirrored Liana’s voice, her aura, and her exact dimensions perfectly.

"She was very similar," Theo said simply, offering a small shrug. "But she wasn’t you."

Liana’s eyelashes fluttered.

A sudden heat bloomed in her chest. The icy fortress that guarded her emotions cracked just a little further, allowing a strange, tender warmth to seep through.

Her ears turned a shade of red.

"You pushed your meridians too hard rushing back," Theo concluded, his expression turning serious. "Sit down."

Liana blinked, confused.

She walked over to the only intact chair in the ruined office and sat down.

Theo stepped closer, his eyes scanning her shoulders and neck for acupressure points.

Instinctively, Liana crossed her arms over her chest, pressing her knees together as her expression cooled into a defensive mask.

"What are you doing?" Liana asked.

"I am locating your meridian nodes," Theo stated factually. "I recently refined a non-lethal variation of my martial arts specifically for massage therapy. I plan to use it on wealthy clients downstairs. You pushed yourself to the brink of qi deviation to save me. Consider this a complimentary early-access trial."

Liana’s ears burned even brighter. "That is unnecessary. I am fine."

"Do not be stubborn," Theo insisted, stepping behind her chair. "Trying it will not cost you anything. Consider it repayment for when you scrubbed my back in the World Seed."

Liana pressed her lips into a thin line, too flustered to formulate a proper argument.

She allowed him to place his hands on her stiff shoulders.

...

Meanwhile, in the hallway just outside the ruined office doors.

Elder Thorne, Vespera, and Corey were huddled together, peering around the doorframe.

They had felt the immense spike of Archon-level qi and rushed upstairs, fully prepared for a life-or-death struggle against Zelia.

Instead, they found themselves watching Theo offer a medical massage to a flustered sword empress.

"I shouldn’t have come," Thorne grumbled, rubbing his temples.

"I thought the boy was dying," Vespera sighed, taking a long sip from her wine gourd. "Turns out I am just interrupting a horribly awkward courtship."

"Why is he rubbing her shoulders?" Corey whispered. "Is that an assassination technique? Is he trying to detonate her spine?"

"Let’s go," Thorne grabbed Corey by the collar, dragging the boy toward the stairs. "I am not sleeping tonight. The lack of propriety in this generation will be the death of me."

The three of them retreated into the shadows, leaving the couple to their bizarre therapy session...