The girl selling goods at the market had never seen money before.

While injured, Long Xiaofeng also received valuable information.

First, the opponent launched the attack from the shadows, indicating that she has the special ability of shadow stealth. Apart from that, the opponent made no sound or magical fluctuations throughout the entire process, making it impossible to sense her through ordinary means.

Secondly, she can suddenly disappear, but there is a brief process before she disappears. It is not that her whole body suddenly becomes transparent, but rather that it starts from her limbs and spreads towards her abdomen, like it is on fire, turning into black mist and drifting away.

Therefore, attacking her during this process should be able to cause harm.

He made up his mind and poured the medicine into his mouth.

Just then, the shadowy figure attacked again.

The opponent first threw out several spherical objects, which exploded in mid-air, filling the hole they had just created with new smoke, and then threw several glass bottles on the ground.

As the crisp sound of shattering glass rang out, a large area around them burst into flames.

Another fire attack?

You have quite a few tricks up your sleeve, but I'm not just good at defense!

As the team leader, Long Xiaofeng had only one mission: to seize the artifact and escape safely.

Now, thanks to the smoke, the mad dogs in the family can't bite this way for the time being, and the enormous pressure has been relieved. Dealing with this weakling in front of him who can even use such a low-level potion is very easy for him.

Since the other side isn't attacking, then we have to attack them!

He stepped onto the burning ground, completely ignoring the flames spreading across his body. With a slight dip in his upper body, he shot forward like a bullet.

In the smoke, the dark figure was clearly unaware of what was happening, still holding an unknown, mysterious glass bottle, about to throw it to the ground.

good chance!

As a seasoned martial artist, Long Xiaofeng does not make large, sweeping movements during combat. He always holds back his strength in order to be able to deal with unexpected situations more quickly.

He only exerts his strength along the way when victory is assured, and now is such a situation.

Confirming that his opponent was undefended, he immediately channeled his energy into his right arm and unleashed his martial art—the Explosive Heavy Punch.

This move doesn't require a direct punch; you can throw a punch from a distance and deal all the damage.

In this way, you can both hurt the other party and maintain a safe distance, preventing them from being caught off guard.

As a result, something unexpected happened.

The fist was thrown out steadily, but for some reason, the dark figure pulled out a piece of black mud from its body, and like putty, formed it into a shield to block the punch.

As the shield melted and transformed into a longsword, Long Xiaofeng clenched his fist even tighter.

Having lived for so long, he had been everywhere, both on the surface and underground. But he had never seen such a bizarre ability before.

Are the enemies really human?

Wait... I remember there was some black mud left at the scene after the eldest daughter of the Gu family from No. 2 Middle School was attacked...

Could it be that she did it?

She dared to attack herself, so killing a girl from the Gu family would be child's play. Besides, judging from the other party's behavior so far, if she's not an assassin, she's not far off.

Their identities matched immediately.

An alarm bell rang in Long Xiaofeng's mind. It was said that many high-ranking members of the union were alarmed and launched investigations, but all of them returned empty-handed.

It's really unlucky to be targeted by this girl. I hope she doesn't have any other special abilities.

As Long Xiaofeng pondered how to deal with the attack, a message came from the team through a magical connection.

"Old Long, what's the situation on your end? Do you need backup?"

"Don't worry about me. You guys keep holding that 9th-tier mage back. We absolutely can't let him release the sealing magic again. The decryption team, speed up your journey. The rest of you, keep an eye on my position and don't disperse the smoke from the family's side. Holding them off is victory."

He issued instructions while repairing the mask.

"Roger that!"

Because it was a direct telepathic connection, Long Xiaofeng's orders and the actions of the other members of the team were very fast, almost simultaneously.

At that moment, he keenly sensed a change in the breeze behind him, so he immediately turned around and swept his leg.

The dark figure suddenly crouched down and dodged the attack.

Her reaction time has become even faster!

Realizing he had exposed his weakness and couldn't retract his leg, Long Xiaofeng changed direction and kicked at the shadowy figure.

The opponent was forced to dodge by moving short distances, thus regaining the initiative in his hands.

If she tried to teleport directly to the other side, she would get kicked for nothing. She either had to back away or run away by disappearing into the shadows.

No matter what the opponent chooses, you can pursue them. If they retreat, follow up with a powerful punch; if they slip into your shadow, use a shockwave. Under such continuous pressure, even the strongest person will show a weakness.

I won!

Just when Long Xiaofeng thought the battle was over, the shadowy figure did something he never expected in his life.

The figure didn't retreat or hide in the shadows; she simply stretched out her hand, meeting his kick head-on.

Her goal is the divine artifact!

not good!

Long Xiaofeng realized that, without realizing it, he had closed the distance between himself and the shadowy figure to the point where he could reach out and touch the artifact. If she managed to snatch the artifact, his kick would actually send her away. Then she would disappear into the crowd, and he would have no chance of chasing her with his teammates right under the noses of a 9th-tier mage.

Damn, that's so sneaky!

However, don't think you can so easily snatch the artifact from me!

He quickly adjusted his strength, retracting the martial arts techniques he used for kicking with his legs, and instead gathered a transparent blocking shield at his waist.

"Boom!"

A shock came from my abdomen.

Long Xiaofeng's eyes widened. His shield had been shattered. His opponent hadn't just reached for the artifact casually; that was a feint. In reality, she had already prepared a powerful, explosive punch, releasing it before it even touched him.

Break the shield.

The parry shield that's forcibly activated in an emergency is too fragile; it can't withstand any damage at all...

If this continues, the divine artifact will really be stolen!

As the dark shadow's claws were about to seize the bag containing the divine artifact, Long Xiaofeng felt nothing but resentment. He had been rendered helpless by trash whose combat power was even weaker than a 5th-tier opponent, and in such a low-level way...

What a shame!

We need to stop now... If they're not too far away, we can still catch up... This mission absolutely cannot fail...

Just as he was thinking about how to remedy the situation, an accident occurred.

The moment the shadowy figure's hand touched the bag, a pure white magic circle appeared, repelling her hand.

Immediately afterwards, Long Xiaofeng kicked her in the abdomen, sending her flying through the air in an arc before landing on the ground some distance away, rolling like a soccer ball.

......

Long Xiaofeng was stunned for a moment.

What happened? The artifact... is it still there? She messed up? What happened...?

Looking down, I saw that the inside of the bag, around the artifact box, was emitting a white glow.

That's right! It's protective magic. When we got the artifact, the mage in our party had already set up protective magic, so purely physical methods couldn't touch it! Hahahaha...

After clarifying the situation, he felt relieved, turned around and used his senses to find his teammates, and began to stall for time by spreading smoke.

From this perspective, we really have to thank this black-clad assassin. Without her smoke and props, it's hard to say whether we could have protected the artifact if we had faced those old fogies of the family head-on.

About ten seconds later, the hacking team completed their objective; they had drilled a hole in the large-scale sealing spell of the 9th-tier mage.

Instantly, the pressure on the other two teams decreased dramatically. Long Xiaofeng led his team out of the smoke, and the three teams merged into one. Everyone unleashed their full power to suppress the 9th-level mage, and then quickly retreated through the hole.

By the time the 9th-tier mage had withstood their combined attack and restarted his magic circuits, the entire venue was in ruins. Apart from the old men still fighting and a few family heads who had been watching the whole thing with their guards, there was no one else there.

Flames raged, threatening to burn everything in the venue.

Corpses lay everywhere, and the pungent smell of blood permeated every corner of the place.

All these scenarios were telling him one fact.

The magical artifact has been stolen.

He used levitation magic to float into the sky, trying to find the man in black.

But each of these people is at level 8, so how easy is it to find their whereabouts? If we could really find them, they wouldn't have been able to sneak into the venue and launch a surprise attack.

"asshole......"

A profound sense of humiliation welled up inside me.

The 9th-tier mage gripped his scepter tightly, and the enormous magic crystal emitted a dazzling light under his control.

He constructed a white magic circle, which floated into the sky.

It flew bigger and bigger, until finally it covered the entire black market, and then a flash of white light appeared.

"Boom——!"

Lightning struck suddenly, splitting a large hole in the top of the venue.

The sound of thunder carried far, and the families, large enterprises, and chambers of commerce that had successfully evacuated the venue all felt a chill run down their spines upon witnessing this scene.

There's only one reason why the magician would be so angry.

The magical artifact has truly been stolen.

------------------

The outskirts of the black market.

A group of men in black gathered here. They quickly took off their black coats and took out various potions for post-battle replenishment, so that their condition could be restored in the shortest possible time.

At that moment, a female magician pointed to the lightning in the distance.

"He's furious, he's practically blasting the venue."

Hearing this, everyone laughed.

"Even a level 9 warrior can't do anything with the help of our expedition team!" A male warrior wiping the short sword at his waist exuded an air of authority.

Meanwhile, a male mage who was inspecting a combat spellbook calmly said, "A 9th-tier mage is still very strong. If this drags on for a few more minutes, we might be wiped out. Compared to monsters, I feel he gives me a greater sense of pressure."

"Cough cough... By the way, what's with that smoke? I've never seen smoke like this before. It's choking me terribly, and it seems to have side effects like rage and pain..."

Upon hearing this, Long Xiaofeng's team all echoed his sentiments.

"Yes, I saw those old fogies in the family go crazy after inhaling that smoke. They killed anyone they saw and even forgot to steal the artifact. In a way, we were able to escape safely thanks to that smoke."

"So who threw that smoke?"

The female mage from the hacking team downed a bottle of mana potion in one gulp and asked curiously.

The atmosphere suddenly became awkward.

"Forehead......"

The person speaking stammered, trying to say something, but ultimately couldn't come up with any words.

Fortunately, someone came to the rescue.

"The captain should know that he was still giving orders when the battlefield was covered in smoke, so he must have a good grasp of the overall situation."

Upon hearing this, everyone turned their attention to their captain, Long Xiaofeng.

Then, they all exclaimed in surprise.

"Captain, are you injured?"

Despite having taken the life-saving potion, the scar on Long Xiaofeng's chest and the neat cuts on his clothes were proof that their strongest captain had been wounded in the battle.

The situation took a sharp turn for the worse. It turned out that the reason they were so relaxed after the smoke appeared was because someone was carrying the burden for them.

Soon, someone realized something.

"An assassin? And someone's eyeing the artifact? To be able to isolate everyone else in such a short time and attempt an assassination on you, Captain..."

"Captain! Why didn't you tell us? If our team had cleared the smoke, that assassin would have been easy prey for us!"

"The smoke cleared, and those old fogies from the family followed, didn't they?"

"But......"