Starting with a beautiful woman's private doctor

Chu Nan's voice wasn't loud, but in the deathly silent dense forest, every word was as clear as a nail driven into a tree.

Li Guanqi knew that there was no point in continuing to hide.

He raised his right foot and stepped into the void. Although there was nothing beneath his feet, it felt as if the sole of his shoe was stepping on something solid, and he steadily took a step upward.

Then, with his left foot, he took another step upwards.

He emerged step by step from behind the tree where he was hiding, his moon-white robe fluttering gently in the night breeze, the hem drawing an arc in the air.

Her feet landed without making a sound, and the jade bracelet on her wrist shimmered with a faint halo in the moonlight.

"I never expected you to be a martial arts master. That's quite a surprise."

Li Guanqi tilted his head slightly, his tone still gentle and polite, as if he were exchanging pleasantries with an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time.

When he met Chu Nan at the Xu residence before, the other party did not show any fluctuation of true energy. He simply thought that he was a young doctor with extraordinary intuition.

It wasn't until the golden lotus burst open his veil of illusion that he truly saw the man's true nature for the first time.

"By the way, how did you guess it was me?"

"The Queen once said that the Mirage is good at using fog to drive away pirates. The moment I saw this gray fog, I knew it was you who was behind it."

Chu Nan looked directly into the other person's eyes, "I just wanted to test just how bizarre this technique was, which is why I didn't attack you immediately."

Li Guanqi smiled, a smile exactly the same as his at the banquet at the Xu residence, gentle yet with just the right amount of restraint.

"So you're saying that you could have taken my life at any time, even in the situation just now?"

The moment Chu Nan realized he was under an illusion, he began to release his aura to pinpoint the caster's location.

The gray mist obscured his vision and hearing, but the fluctuations of true energy emanating from the caster could not be completely hidden.

Whether Li Guanqi believed it or not, he could indeed launch a surprise attack immediately.

"Alright, enough with the nonsense, what exactly are you planning?"

"Even if I were to set my sights on something, it would be the Xu family."

Li Guanqi put his hands behind his back, tilted his head and looked at Chu Nan, "What are you meddling in, you outsider? Do you really think you're one of the Xu family's own nephews?"

He noticed the interaction between Chu Nan and Xu Yi while he was at the Xu residence.

The two had a special relationship, but their interactions lacked the casualness and intimacy typically found between blood relatives.

Xu Yi felt genuine gratitude and trust towards Chu Nan; rather than considering him family, he felt more like a close senior and junior.

"Since you won't talk, then I'll beat you until you do." Chu Nan took a step forward.

The explosive power of the Lotus Step allowed him to cover a distance of three zhang in an instant, and his right fist, wrapped in golden true energy, slammed straight into Li Guanqi's face.

The fist whistled through the air.

"call--"

The fist struck, but at the instant of impact, Li Guanqi's body suddenly transformed into a cloud of gray mist, dispersing from around the fist.

The fog churned in the air for a moment before dissipating into the night.

At the same time, Li Guanqi's voice came from all directions.

Behind the trees, in the fog, overhead, on the ground—every sound was exactly the same, down to the slightest change in tone.

"I must say, it is truly remarkable that you have reached the Grandmaster level at the young age of twenty-something."

"But... with your skills, you're still too green to kill me."

Chu Nan released his aura again in an attempt to pinpoint Li Guanqi's location.

This time, he didn't just capture one person, but dozens.

Li Guanqi's aura was present in every direction, and every aura was exactly the same as the clone he had just destroyed.

The mist surged silently in the dense forest, reflecting and scattering all the energy. What he heard and perceived was all real, yet all unreal.

"Originally, I didn't want to kill you. I just thought you were an ordinary person with excellent medical skills and keen intuition, and I could just use some tricks to scare you into going crazy."

Li Guanqi's voice still came from all directions, still in that gentle and polite tone, but the content of his words had completely changed: "But I never expected that you would actually be a master with extraordinary skills."

"Keeping you alive would be extremely bad for my next plans, so I have no choice but to send you to your death."

Before he could finish speaking, a figure suddenly emerged from the mist to Chu Nan's right.

Li Guanqi moved as fast as a snake emerging from deep water, his right fist aimed straight at Chu Nan's temple.

Chu Nan retaliated with a punch, the golden true energy on his fist about to collide with the opponent's fist force in mid-air.

Just as the two fists were about to collide, a faint light flashed from the jade bracelet on Li Guanqi's wrist.

His right hand, which was originally clenched into a fist, suddenly transformed into a dagger in the stream of light.

The blade was bluish-gray, with a pale blue halo flowing across its surface, the same as that of the jade bracelet. The tip of the blade was less than an inch from Chu Nan's fist.

Chu Nan immediately withdrew his fist and turned to the side, the tip of the knife grazing his knuckles, drawing an extremely thin arc of cyan light in the air.

He had just dodged the first stab when a second Li Guanqi appeared from the fog on his left, his dagger aimed straight at his ribs.

Chu Nan shifted his feet, unleashing the Lotus Step technique within a small space, moving his entire body half a foot backward, causing his second dagger to miss its mark.

Immediately afterwards, the third Li Guanqi descended from above, holding a dagger in reverse and aiming for his throat.

The three Li Guanqis all aimed their moves at vital points.

The blow to the temple shattered the skull, killing him instantly.

The stab to the waist and ribs was so powerful that the dagger pierced through the gap between the ribs and went straight to the kidney, causing him to go into shock from blood loss within seconds.

Needless to say, a stab to the throat is fatal; even a miracle couldn't save him.

The three moves were linked together extremely closely, almost completely blocking any room for dodging.

This is clearly the style of a professional assassin: efficient and direct.

Chu Nan changed his right fist into a palm, and used the "Drooping Cloud Hand" to slash at the third Li Guanqi who was hanging upside down. The golden true energy at his fingertips sparked a series of sparks on the dagger.

At the same time, the Lotus Step changed direction continuously within a small space, and the body twisted its direction in mid-air, passing through the extremely narrow gap between the tip of the second strike and the blade of the third strike.

His foot landed on the muddy ground, but there was still no footprint.

The three figures retreated into the fog at the same time.

From beginning to end, Li Guanqi's attacks did not stop for a moment, and the landing point and timing of each move were extremely precise.

It's not a friendly spar between sect disciples, nor a passionate battle between martial artists; it's assassination, a precisely calculated assassination targeting vital organs.

Li Guanqi's voice came again from all directions, with a hint of sigh in his tone, "You're really hard to kill."

Chu Nan flicked the lingering blue light from his fingertips. "Everyone says that Mirage is a reputable sect that heals the sick and drives away thieves and bandits, but to me you look more like a professional assassin."

"You're not just some outcast using the name of Mirage, or someone who was expelled from the sect by Mirage, are you?"

There was a moment of silence in the fog, and then... Li Guanqi smiled.

"I didn't expect you to be so smart, you actually guessed the true nature of the mirage directly."

He slowly emerged from the mist, the dagger in his right hand transforming back into his palm in a flash of light. "To be honest, Mirage is actually the largest assassin organization in the four seas, and as its young master, I am naturally one of its best!"