28. An Assassination Attempt

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Ning Xuan had once been a cultivator with immense spiritual power and extraordinary perception. Within her room, she sensed the faint sound of breathing, deliberately suppressed. She was facing danger the moment she entered, and if she retreated now, her enemy would immediately realize that she had discovered him.

She remembered reading on the Star Network that a contract master could mentally control a contracted partner once a spiritual link had been established. This was the perfect opportunity to test it.

Ning Xuan immediately followed the instructions she had found on the Star Network. She focused her spiritual power, withdrew her consciousness into her mental sea, and “saw” a vast expanse of spiritual ocean with a passage extending outward. She knew this had to be the spiritual-link passage. Her spiritual power flowed along it and entered a place she had visited before.

Her intrusion provoked no resistance. Several clusters of light gathered around her, pressing close in an affectionate manner. She continued deeper into the mental sea, where she saw the enormous golden bird lying with its wings folded, just as before. Black matter still flowed through its body, though it was much fainter than last time, and a red mist continued to envelop it.

When it saw Ning Xuan, it let out a clear cry. Its eyes were filled with confusion, as if it could not understand why she had appeared there.

Ning Xuan raised a finger to her brow. The spiritual power that had entered Chen Nan’s mental sea through the spiritual-link passage suddenly burst apart, transforming into a soft sigh.

“Remove the suppression ring and come over!”

When Ning Xuan saw the thick red mist surrounding Chen Nan’s companion spirit, she understood why he had failed to notice that someone had infiltrated the house. He must have been wearing a suppression ring.

Upon receiving Ning Xuan’s voice through the mental link, Chen Nan abruptly sat up. Why was Ning Xuan using mental communication? He removed the ring from around his neck, gripped it in his hand, and hurried toward her room.

At that moment, the man lying in ambush inside Ning Xuan’s room saw her standing outside without opening the door. Realizing that she might have sensed something, he yanked the door open. With a wet sound, he opened his mouth and spat. A cavernous maw, accompanied by a foul stench, sprayed white venom toward Ning Xuan.

Although Ning Xuan had been prepared, the attacker was far too fast. She dodged in a panic, and by the time Chen Nan arrived, venom had splashed onto her arm and thigh. It corroded through her clothes and then ate into her flesh, leaving black pits across her skin. At the worst spots, the wounds were deep enough to expose bone.

The instant Chen Nan saw Ning Xuan injured, he let out a sharp cry. A great bird covered in golden feathers and possessing emerald-green eyes burst from his body. Spreading its wings, it lunged viciously at the man in black.

The golden eagle’s feathers were sharp as blades, and its talons could slice through metal as if it were mud. In only a few exchanges, it had beaten the man in black into complete submission.

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The man in black had seen Chen Nan when he infiltrated the house. However, Chen Nan had been wearing the suppression ring at the time, so the man had been unable to determine his rank. He had only wanted to kill Ning Xuan quietly and complete his mission, and therefore had not wished to create unnecessary complications.

The man’s companion spirit was a black serpent, and his rank was probably around Class A. The black serpent was already capable of taking physical form. However, the golden eagle was naturally the nemesis of serpents, and Chen Nan surpassed him in both spiritual rank and overall combat ability. After only a few exchanges, the black serpent was pinned beneath the eagle’s talons.

“Don’t kill it. Its gall will lose its medicinal value once it dies. Remove the gall while it’s still alive—I’m going to use it to make medicine!” Ning Xuan said through gritted teeth, enduring the pain.

By then, the man in black was covered in wounds and under Chen Nan’s control. Upon hearing Ning Xuan’s words, his body trembled and his eyes shifted. But before he could speak, the golden eagle’s talon flashed like a blade and precisely cut out an intact gallbladder.

After its gall was removed alive, the black serpent’s body went limp and died. Once a supernatural body died, it could no longer return to its original body. As the gall was extracted, the man in black let out a horrifying scream before fainting.

The golden eagle flew to Ning Xuan, holding the steaming, blood-covered gall in one talon, and presented it to her.

Ning Xuan accepted it, stroked the eagle’s head, and turned to Chen Nan.

“Carry me to the laboratory.”

She was not incapable of walking. However, moving would accelerate her circulation and cause the venom to spread faster.

“All right!”

Chen Nan took a restraint light-cord from his spatial device and securely bound the unconscious man in black. In truth, even without the bindings, the man was little better than an invalid now that his supernatural body had died.

Carrying Ning Xuan, Chen Nan rushed to the laboratory at full speed. By then, the wounds on her arm and thigh had turned purple and black around the edges. The spreading venom was clearly visible, and even the bones beneath the wounds had begun to darken.

This serpent venom seemed capable of damaging the nervous system. Ning Xuan could already feel her limbs growing numb. She placed the gall into the medicine-refining furnace, released her vines, and concentrated her spiritual power on guiding the gall’s strange energy. She refined away the impurities and extracted the effective medicinal components.

Several minutes later, a few drops of thick, dark-green liquid dripped from the outlet beneath the furnace.

Chen Nan took away the bottle containing the medicine, replaced it with a fresh one, and dripped the extracted liquid onto Ning Xuan’s wounds.

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The wounds, which had originally been swollen and blackened, quickly subsided after the refined gall medicine was applied. Black venom seeped from the edges, and only after it had drained away did bright-red blood begin to emerge.

Ning Xuan handed Chen Nan a piece of gauze.

“Don’t get any on your hands. The venom has not completely lost its toxicity.”

By the time Ning Xuan had fully refined the gall, Chen Nan had bandaged every place on her arms and legs that had been splashed with venom, except for the deepest wound on her arm.

“Fortunately, you weren’t bitten by that poisonous serpent. Otherwise…” Chen Nan had remained kneeling on the floor while treating Ning Xuan’s wounds. As he spoke, he glanced at her uneasily.

Ning Xuan could feel that the numbness inside her body had faded, leaving behind only a dense, prickling pain. Although all the venom had been removed from the wounds, the corroded flesh could not regenerate quickly. She lowered her head and looked at Chen Nan.

“You’re trying to say that your family didn’t do this?”

“I contacted my elder brother today. My father merely suspected that I hadn’t followed his instructions; he hasn’t taken any action. Aside from my father, no one in my family knows of your existence. In fact, my father only knows that you’re on a Class D planet. He doesn’t know your exact location or any specific information about you.” Chen Nan hurried to explain.

Ning Xuan recalled the contents of Chen Nan’s communications with his family. Whenever his father mentioned her, he had referred only to “the woman from a lower-class planet.” It seemed that he truly did not know her name or exact address.

If the assassin had not been sent by Chen Nan’s family, then who was responsible?

The Bai family? Ning Chuchu? The contracted family behind Ning Chuchu? Or the four other contracted partners she had never even met?