Timeless Assassin

(Planet Wu Tang, Su Yang's POV)

*Crackle…* *Hiss…*

Smoke billowed thick and black into the afternoon sky, mingling with the stench of burning metal and charred flesh, as Su Yang staggered out from the twisted wreckage of the transport craft.

His vision swam, blood dripping steadily down his forehead where a sharp piece of shrapnel had split the skin above his brow.

*Step*

He stumbled once, his knees buckling, before forcing himself upright, as he clutched his side as pain radiated through his ribs.

He had felt death closing in when the explosion consumed the cabin, yet in that instant, a faint blue glow had wrapped around his body, an energy barrier humming to life and absorbing most of the impact.

It was a life-saving artifact given to him by the Su Clan after the terrorist attack on Lewis Hamilton Arena last year.

However, just because he survived this assassination attempt, did not mean he felt any safer now than before.

Surrounded by the broken bodies of the dead and the ruin of the craft, he now had to find a new way to get to safety.

*Huff…* *Huff…*

His chest rose and fell in ragged bursts, each breath cutting through his lungs like glass.

He pressed a trembling hand against his wound, feeling the warmth of blood pooling in his palm, yet he pushed on, refusing to let weakness consume him.

*Step* *Step*

Outside the shattered hull, voices rang out.

"Lock down the perimeter!"

"Get a medic squad here, now!"

Dozens of armored officers had already surrounded the crash site, their weapons drawn and their eyes darting over the flames as though expecting the enemy to reveal themselves.

Transcendent and Grandmaster auras flickered around him, coming from the law enforcement elites who wasted no time establishing barriers of their own, sealing the area with layers of energy fields to prevent another strike.

"Who attacked the craft?!" one officer barked, scanning the sky as if the answer would fall from above.

Another knelt beside the corpse of a passenger, his face grim. "Dead. All dead… every last one of them."

Su Yang staggered out through the torn fuselage, his cloak burned and his hood ripped away, revealing his blood-matted golden hair that gleamed even beneath the ash.

Dozens of heads turned toward him in that instant.

"Someone's alive!"

"Over here, we've got a survivor!"

The officers rushed toward him, their boots clanging across debris, their auras pressing close as they reached to steady him.

"Easy, easy… you're wounded badly. Hold still, we'll get a healer—"

"No…" Su Yang rasped, shaking his head despite the blood trickling down his face.

"Im a Su Clan descendent, I need to return home urgently.

Craft…. Find me another craft to go home with." He pleaded, as the officers exchanged grim looks.

While everyone else on the craft was a commoner, only Su Yang seemed like a target of value, and hence they suspected that he was the main target of this assassination.

"Someone wants you dead son….. protocol says that I keep you here, but looking at the determined expression on your face, I know you don't want to stick around, so let me instead fetch you that craft you want." One of the officers said, as he soon found yet another craft for Su Yang and successfully sent him off the planet.

—-----------

(Planet Su Prime, A few hours later)

After a few nerve-wracking hours, Su Yang finally arrived on Planet Su Prime.

His shuttle touched down on the capital hangar, and the moment he stepped off, servants rushed forward, bowing hurriedly, their voices overlapping as they begged to clean his wounds, change his bloodied clothes, and restore his appearance before he met the Patriarch.

But Su Yang brushed them all aside, his golden eyes cold as steel, as he demanded to be taken to his father first.

The servants exchanged worried glances, but none dared refuse him as they guided him swiftly through the familiar corridors of the Su Clan's ancestral palace until at last the heavy doors of the Patriarch's study opened.

Inside, Su Tang sat slouched behind a long table, the weight of exhaustion etched into every line of his face.

His once proud black hair now showed a few streaks of gray, while his skin seemed to have turned slightly paler, as if he had aged 20 years in the past two days.

However, despite his worries, he smiled slightly upon seeing Su Yang, as he acknowledged his son with a nod.

"You've returned safely—" He said, as Su Yang's heart sank looking at his haggard appearance.

"Father…" Su Yang replied as he stepped closer, his boots echoing softly on the marble floor.

"What happened? Why did you call for me so urgently? Why do you look so sick?"

Su Tang raised his hand, gesturing silently for the servants to leave them alone.

Once the room was emptied, he leaned forward, his gaze heavy, his voice carrying the weight of thunder even in its weariness.

"There is something you must hear, and you must be strong enough to accept it. Your grandfather… the Su Family God… Su Ren, is dead."

The words struck Su Yang like a hammer to the chest.

"What?" he whispered, his eyes widening, his blood running cold as the world seemed to tilt beneath his feet. "Grandfather is… dead?"

Memories flooded his mind, the towering figure who had been the clan's shield for millenia, the man whose name was spoken with awe across the universe.

To think such a man could fall felt impossible.

Yet Su Tang's silence and the severity in his gaze, confirmed what his heart already knew.

"He is dead," Su Tang repeated, his voice low but firm. "And the other five clans are preparing to descend upon us like carrion birds. They will carve apart our lands, our name, our people. A storm is coming, Yang. The Su Clan is about to face its most tumultuous time in history."

Su Yang clenched his fists, his forehead still bleeding, his body trembling not from weakness but from the enormity of what he had just learned.

"How? How did Grandfather die?" He asked, as Su Tang shook his head and let out a deep sigh.

"It's not confirmed yet, but we assume it's a set-up similar to the Great Betrayal of 2000 years ago.

Where the others unexpectedly turned on him." Su Tang said, as Yang clutched his fists and felt his blood boil with fury.