My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

Dark as ink.

The markets and wards of Chang'an were locked up early, and the sound of the night watchman's clapper echoed leisurely through the empty streets.

The backyard of Samurai Go's mansion was quiet.

Three shadowy figures, like ghosts, silently clung to the high walls of the Wu family compound.

They made no sound, and even their breathing was remarkably synchronized.

They are the sharpest blades in the Hundred Riders Division.

They have no names, only code names.

Each one of them is a top-notch assassin who has crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and is proficient in various deadly methods such as assassination, poisoning, and infiltration.

"Number 3, get on the roof for cover; Number 5, guard the backyard retreat route."

The leader of the men in black made a very brief hand gesture.

This was a mission that they found utterly absurd.

The mighty Emperor of the Tang Dynasty summoned them late at night and issued a top-secret death order, which turned out to be to assassinate a mere twelve-year-old girl!

Although it felt like a waste of talent, the emperor's orders were hard to disobey, and the principle of the assassins was to kill without asking why.

"Whoosh."

Number Three of the Heavenly Rank was like a weightless withered leaf. He lightly touched the top of the wall with his toes and instantly rose into the air, landing lightly on the roof of the Wu family's backyard.

The tiles didn't make even the slightest sound of colliding.

He lay on the roof, gently lifted a tile, and peered down through the crack with eyes like a venomous snake.

A dim oil lamp was lit inside the room.

On the carved wooden bed, a girl with delicate features and a touch of childishness in her brows was fast asleep, hugging her blanket.

A trace of drool clung to the corner of his mouth, clearly indicating he was having a sweet dream.

This is the goal. The future wicked Wu Zetian, now a twelve-year-old girl, Wu Meiniang.

"Too easy."

Number Three in the Heavenly Palace sneered inwardly.

He didn't even need to sneak into the house; all he needed was a blowgun or a drop of deadly poison dripping through a crack, and the little girl would die peacefully in her sleep.

He skillfully pulled a steel blowgun coated with deadly poison from his waist.

Hold it in your mouth.

His gaze was fixed on the slender throat below, his chest slightly contracted, preparing to expel that fatal breath of true energy.

At this critical moment.

A faint streak of light flashed across the sky without warning.

It was a meteorite, only the size of a fist, that had been drifting in the vast starry sky for countless millennia.

It pierced through the clouds with incredible precision, plummeting straight towards Chang'an.

There was no terrifying whooshing sound, nor any blinding flash of fire.

It crashed down quietly, yet with unstoppable force.

"Bang!"

A dull, muffled thud of flesh colliding suddenly rang out on the roof of the Wu family's house.

Number Three didn't even have time to let out a scream.

The fist-sized meteorite struck him squarely and with perfect precision on the back of the head.

The terrifying impact struck him instantly. This top assassin of the Tang Dynasty rolled his eyes back, swallowed the blowgun in his mouth, and instantly lost consciousness.

He was like a tattered sack.

It tumbled down the sloping roof and finally landed with a "thud" in a tall haystack in the corner of the yard, where it was completely buried.

The room under the roof.

Wu Meiniang, fast asleep, turned over, smacked her lips, and continued to drift off into a deep sleep, completely unaware of what had just happened on the roof.

The other two assassins guarding outside exchanged a glance upon hearing the commotion, a look of horror flashing in their eyes.

They waited for half an hour, but Number Three still didn't come out.

"withdraw."

The leader of the suicide squad made a decisive decision: the mission had encountered an unknown variable, and the fate of the third member of the Heavenly Team was unknown; they could not act rashly.

The first wave of assassinations ended abruptly in a way that was both laughable and absurd.

the next day.

The early summer sun is just right.

The young Wu Zetian, accompanied by two personal maids, went to play by the Ba River outside Chang'an City.

The clear river water reflects the green willows, and several little girls chase butterflies on the bank, their silvery laughter echoing across the riverbank.

They were less than three zhang (approximately 10 meters) below the river.

The two elite cavalrymen who withdrew yesterday were biting hollow reed tubes in their mouths, like two cold, sinister water ghosts, silently lurking in the mud at the bottom of the water.

They are waiting.

When the little girl approached the water to wash her hands, he suddenly attacked and dragged her into the deep water, drowning her.

Disguised as an ordinary accidental fall into the water.

"Target is close."

The leader of the suicide squad made a hand gesture underwater.

Through the reflection of the water, they could clearly see that Wu Meiniang was lifting her skirt, her bare, tender little feet stepping into the shallow water, preparing to pick a white lotus floating on the surface.

It's now!

The two assassins suddenly exerted force with their legs, preparing to burst out of the water like arrows released from a bow.

but.

At the very moment they exerted their strength.

The once calm water flow at the bottom of the lake suddenly and without warning formed a strange miniature whirlpool.

As the water churned, the green water plants that were usually soft and weak and drifted with the current on the riverbed suddenly became like living chains, frantically wrapping around the ankles of the two assassins.

They tightened their grip, holding onto their figures firmly!

"Hmm!"

The leader of the assassins was greatly alarmed and immediately drew the dagger from his waist, intending to cut the water plants at his feet.

But as he struggled underwater, his foot slipped on a moss-covered pebble.

The body instantly lost its balance.

"Thump!"

A dull thud echoed underwater.

The leader of the suicide squad slammed his temple hard against a sharp, hidden reef at the bottom of the river.

Blood instantly spread underwater, his eyes rolled back, and a violent wave of dizziness caused him to faint on the spot.

The reed tube in his mouth fell out, and icy river water poured wildly into his mouth and nose.

Another assassin was terrified by this bizarre situation.

He desperately cut the water plants, scooped up the unconscious leader, and, no longer caring about the assassination mission, swam frantically towards the deep water on the other side of the river to escape like a stray dog.

If they had been even half a step later, the elite of the mighty Tang Dynasty's Hundred Cavalry Division would have been drowned alive by a few weeds in the two-foot-deep riverbed!

shore.

Wu Meiniang happily picked the white lotus.

She looked at the murky water splashing in the center of the river with a puzzled expression, tilting her head slightly.

"Strange, what a big fish!"

The little girl had no idea that in just a few breaths, death had brushed past her twice.