Lin Xiaoyan didn't plan to give Mingyu a breathing space.
He immediately unsheathed his sword, and ran towards Mingyu, his feet light as a feather on the snowy ground.
On getting close, he leapt up from the ground, raising his sword in preparation to strike.
"I won't be defeated easily." Mingyu spat under her breath, and her grey eyes gleamed as she braced herself for the powerful hit that was to come.
She muttered a spell, fueling her sword with spiritual power, in order to reduce the expected impact.
Lin Xiaoyan landed right before Mingyu and slashed at Mingyu who was on the defense.
Their swords and powers clashed, which resulted to a burst of energy.
Lin Xiaoyan was barely pushed backwards by the repulsion of their powers, while Mingyu who had used up most of her powers, and had also suffered a terminal injury, was sent flying in the air, crashing down to the ground with a loud thud.
Groaning and grunting in pain, Mingyu slowly got up on her knees, the impact had made her wound much worse—making it bleed more profusely.
This won't end well... Mingyu thought to herself.
She knew she couldn't defeat Lin Xiaoyan in his current state, and a desperate need to escape clawed at her mind.
With a surge of panic, she quickly reached for a talisman within her robes which she always carried in case of emergencies.
Chanelling some of the little power she had left to her fingers, she drew a symbol on the talisman.
Realizing what Mingyu was about to do, Lin Xiaoyan's eyes widened.
He charged towards Mingyu with his gleaming sword, but before he could get to Mingyu, the talisman glowed with a blinding silver light which enveloped Mingyu, and right before the Jinxing Mages eyes, Mingyu disappeared.
The rest of the Mages immediately joined their leader by his side, looking at the spot where Mingyu had once been —the spot, stained with a pool of her blood.
"She is at her weakest, so she wouldn't be able to teleport far. Find her!" Lin Xiaoyan ordered and his men scattered about in search of the assassin.
✷✷✷✷
Mingyu materialized in the middle of a lonesome street, her vision blurry from the teleportation.
It was nighttime, so there were little number of people going about.
Due to the high amount of spiritual power she had used up, the teleportation spell wasn't powerful enough to teleport her far, and she could already hear the sound of footsteps approaching her.
"Shit!" Mingyu cussed as she stumbled forward, his chest throbbing tremendously as she moved. The Jinxing disciples were hot on her heels, their shouts and footsteps closing in by the second.
With adrenaline coursing through her veins, Mingyu sprinted through the market, dodging the few merchants and civilians she came across on the streets.
She hid behind buildings and structures, and even used the little strength she had to climb the roofs of some houses.
"There she is! Get her!" One of the Jinxing Mages who had spotted Mingyu, alerted the few others that were with him, and they immediately chased after her.
Mingyu too, was quick to react, and ran as fast as she was able.
As she ran, she spotted a large, old water barrel, tucked away in a narrow alley between two buildings.
The barrel was partially hidden by a tattered awning and some stacked crates, making it the perfect concealment.
Mingyu quickly dove behind the barrel, holding her breath and hoping the Jinxing disciples wouldn't think to look there.
The heavens seemed to be against her, as not even a minute later, a few of the Jinxing Mages approached her hiding spot.
"Her blood trail ends here." One of the Mages said, on noticing that the droplets of blood from Mingyu's chest wound had suddenly stopped.
The droplets of blood on the ground was what they had used to track her.
"That means she is hiding somewhere around here." Another Mage said.
"So that's how they found me." Mingyu muttered, feeling stupid for not realizing her blood had been leaving a trail for the enemy.
I'll have to make a move before they find me, or it's game over!
Mingyu thought to herself, as the sneakily came out of hiding, swiftly attacking the Mages from behind.
With precise strikes of her sword's hilt, she targeted the pressure points on the Mages bodies, rendering them unconscious in a matter of seconds—without making a sound.
The move she made proved to be detrimental to her, as it strained her injury.
With a huff of breath, Mingyu got on her knees, exhaustion eating at her bones as her strength waned by the second. Her eyes began to drift close, and she slowly succumbed to unconsciousness.
The sound of cheers and merriment suddenly reached Mingyu's ears, and with difficulty, she opened her eyes to see where it was coming from.
With dazed eyes, she saw a bar at the side of the street, and an idea popped in her head.
I cannot die like this.
Mingyu's desperation fueled her body with strength. She stood up in determination, and made her way to the bar, dashing inside.
The patrons at the bar, turned to stare at the stranger that had entered, while Mingyu's eyes scanned the room frantically as if in search of something.
Her eyes landed on the backside of a waitress with fiery red hair, and without hesitation, Mingyu went over to the woman, grabbing the woman's collar.
However, as she looked into the waiter's face, she noticed the woman was putting on a blindfold and was holding a walking stick.
"Sorry." Mingyu said with a wince, immediately releasing the blind woman from her grasp.
She then looked around once more, before grabbing a nearby woman instead, dragging her into the inner part of the bar—away from the eyes of the others—despite the woman's protests.
No one in the bar even tried to intervene, sensing that Mingyu was definitely not an ordinary person.
With shaking hands, Mingyu let go of the woman, after taking her to the kitchen of the bar.
"Don't be scared." She said to the woman, but instead of her words to reassure the woman, it only made her fear heighten.
"I don't want to do this, but I've no other choice. I'm not going to hurt you, I'm just going to be borrowing your body for the meantime."
As she spoke, she brought out a blue scale from her inner robe, not bothering to wait for the woman to process what that she had said.
The scale was glowing like a gem, and it was stained with Mingyu's bloodied hands—blood which contained potent amount of her spiritual power.
Mingyu looked at the woman with a piercing gaze, as if trying to see into her soul. She whispered some inaudible words, and the woman's eyes widened in terror as Mingyu's body began to glow with a faint, silver light.
As she spoke the words, Mingyu allowed the little amount of power she had left to flow out of her body and move into the scale, intending to transfer her soul into the woman's body.
Mingyu's vision began to blur, and her consciousness slowly faded. Summoning every last ounce of strength she had, she moved closer to the woman to place the scale on the woman's forehead.
But just as the scale was about to touch the woman's forehead, a hand shot out from the shadows, pushing the woman aside. The culprit then stepped forward and stood in front of Mingyu, replacing the woman.
Nooo!!! Mingyu internally screamed, her eyes widening in terror, as she immediately recognized the person standing in front of her—but it was already too late.
When the scale touched the person's forehead, Mingyu felt a shivering chill course through her, and the scale burst into a radiant light, dissolving into the person's skin and pulling Mingyu's soul along with it.
The last thing Mingyu saw, was the person's face, as they said, "My body is yours to possess."
Mingyu's eyes slowly closed, and her consciousness finally faded as her soul left her body.
Her lifeless body fell to the ground with a loud thud, and a blue symbol of a dragon appeared on her orehead, before it disappeared a second later.
✯✯✯✯
Moments later, Lin Xiaoyan and the remaining Jinxing disciples burst into the bar, using the trail of blood Mingyu left behind, to trace her.
With their swords drawn, they stormed into the inner part of the bar, paying no attention to the terrified patrons that were cowering on their seats.
What greeted them as they got to the kitchen was Mingyu's lifeless body, on the ground.
Lin Xiaoyan's aide knelt on one knee beside Mingyu, and checked her pulse before shaking his head, grimly.
"Mingyu is dead."