The group spent several full days walking through the mountain forests. The supplies they had prepared in Jinling City had long been lost during the non-stop pursuit, leaving them with no choice but to search the nearby areas for wild boar, rabbit, and other wild game.
At dusk, Old Chen sat on a stone. A campfire crackled in front of him, and a skinned rabbit sizzled over the flames, dripping with grease.
After several days of constant practice, Old Chen's cooking skills had grown increasingly refined, and it didn't take long for the meat to be fully roasted.
“The rabbit is ready. Come and have a taste.”
Hearing his voice, the others gathered around. However, everyone was covered in dirt, their faces inevitably worn with exhaustion.
These past few days had been incredibly harsh, and everyone had noticeably leaned out. They had been ambushed by seven or eight waves of assassins, sometimes in the morning, sometimes at night, and sometimes in the dead of night. It was like drawing from a lottery; no one knew when the next strike would land.
Old Chen, on the other hand, slept relatively soundly. He only occasionally felt “rain” in the middle of the night, only to open his eyes and find that Xu Qing had severed someone's major artery.
Fortunately, it wasn't actually raining, or else he wouldn't have been able to sleep. As for the corpses on the ground... they served as good practice to toughen their nerves.
“Uncle Chen, I feel like I'm half-dead,” Ning Qingzhu murmured. There were dark circles under her eyes, and she looked thoroughly haggard.
She was currently averaging only about four hours of sleep a day, and her nerves were constantly stretched to their limit.
“Think of the bright side. For instance, you survived a Jianghu Pursuit Warrant by your own strength, and your reputation is bound to skyrocket. Even if you can't match the Four Supremes of the World, you'll at least be on par with the Five Heroes of the Jianghu.”
Zhang Wuji offered these comforting words. Although his current state was also quite poor, he was still doing slightly better than the others.
The group huddled around the fire, sharing the roasted rabbit and savoring this rare moment of tranquility.
Once she finished her portion of rabbit, Qiu Zhiya waited quietly until everyone had eaten their fill before speaking up. “We've been traveling toward the Northern Desert for three days. I wonder if he'll be able to find us.”
The “he” she spoke of was, naturally, Jiang Moran.
The others looked over, waiting for her to continue.
“Let's wait here for a day. If he hasn't found us by then, we'll continue our journey and head to the Northern Desert first.”
No one objected to Qiu Zhiya's decision. It was undeniable that Jiang Moran possessed a reassuring quality; it seemed as though as long as he was there, no problem was unsolvable.
At this point, a mutual question arose in everyone's minds.
“By the way, have any of you ever seen the Young Master fight at full strength?” Ning Qingzhu suddenly asked out of curiosity.
Everyone exchanged glances and shook their heads. Whenever Jiang Moran made a move, he either ended it in an instant or resolved it with a single kick. None of them had truly witnessed him going all out.
Qiu Zhiya's expression turned odd. She had seen Jiang Moran when he was displeased, and she had somehow lived to tell the tale...
However, she didn't dare say it aloud.
Otherwise, Ning Qingzhu would find out that her own Young Master had basically signed her up for a guided tour of the dangerous jianghu.
“But for someone as powerful as him, he must have grown tired of the jianghu before choosing to retire,” Zhang Wuji said with a sigh of admiration.
“Or maybe he challenged another expert and lost, causing him to lose heart and choose retirement instead,” Xu Qing speculated. He was actually quite curious to see what it would look like if that man were to suffer a defeat.
“Impossible.”
As soon as Xu Qing finished speaking, Fengqingzi immediately objected.
“Because Senior has never lost. Not even once,” Fengqingzi asserted with absolute certainty. That calm composure, that attitude of looking down on everyone else—there was no way anyone could fake it!
The others stealthily exchanged glances, quietly labeling Jiang Moran in their minds:
First-class strength, third-class temper, top-tier brainwashing.
The group chatted about their encounters over the past few days, from hunting down Zhao Wen for his bounty to their recent narrow escapes. Looking back, they couldn't help but find a strange sense of amusement in it all.
Watching them laugh and talk, Fengqingzi sat in the corner without speaking. The overly quiet surroundings made him feel a bit uneasy.
Yet, he couldn't pinpoint exactly where this strangeness lay.
“Fengqingzi, what's wrong? Why aren't you talking?” Zhang Wuji plopped down next to him.
Fengqingzi shook his head, suppressing the doubts in his mind. “It's nothing. I suppose I'm just a bit tired.”
“It is exhausting. I couldn't even sleep last night. The insects and moths in these deep mountains were too noisy. I don't know how Old Chen... What are you doing?”
Halfway through his sentence, Zhang Wuji watched as Fengqingzi suddenly stood up, his face graver than ever before.
Everyone was startled by this sudden abnormality.
Qiu Zhiya instinctively stood up. “What's wr—”
Whoosh!
Before she could finish, a short blade sank deeply into the wooden log she had been sitting on. It was thrown with such force that only the hilt remained visible.
Clang! Xu Qing swiftly drew his twin blades, glaring warily at their surroundings.
Qiu Zhiya also reacted, quickly uncoiling the Bone-Cracking Whip wrapped around her waist.
Several figures emerged in the once-quiet mountain forest, the rustling of clothes brushing against grass and leaves echoing from all directions.
Within moments, they were surrounded by no fewer than thirty people. Quite a few of them were well-known figures who had made a name for themselves in the jianghu over the past year.
The Pallbearer, Thousand-Face, Iron Claw Wang Xun, and the Confucian Scholar Xiao Guanxing were the most famous among them.
This was a meticulously planned encirclement and annihilation. Perhaps because of their nearly ten consecutive failures, the people of the jianghu had finally been forced to unite.
Seeing this, a trace of solemnity finally crossed Old Chen's face. Against an ambush of this scale, they stood no chance of escaping.
It seemed it was time to bring out the item the Young Master had left behind.
Fengqingzi swept a grave look over the crowd. He was confident he could defeat any single one of these dozens of people. But if they attacked together, he wouldn't even last ten seconds!
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted someone stepping forward.
“Old Chen! What are you doing going over there?!” Fengqingzi's expression changed dramatically once he recognized the person.
Hearing the shout, the others also saw Old Chen walking forward all by himself.
“Uncle Chen, come back quickly!!”
Ning Qingzhu cried out in panic. Just as she was about to rush forward to pull him back, she saw Old Chen turn his head and cast them a reassuring look.
“Everyone, I have something to show you. It won't be too late to fight after you've seen it,” Old Chen said in a deep voice.
With that, he reached his hand toward the inner pocket of his robes.
However, just as his fingers were about to brush against the mask, a long blade pierced through his shoulder. Intolerable pain washed over him. With a muffled groan, his fingers froze right at the edge of the mask.
“Old man, who do you think you are?”
Holding his long saber, the Pallbearer sneered at him, thoroughly enjoying the old man's agonized expression.
Thud! He delivered a heavy kick to Old Chen's chest, instantly sending him flying backward to crash against a large tree nearby.
“Old Chen!!” Fengqingzi's face contorted with rage. Just a few days ago, he had solemnly promised Senior that as long as he could still move, nothing would happen to anyone!
Damn it!!!
Fengqingzi shot forward like a sharp arrow, leaving the onlookers with nothing but a glimpse of the cold light reflecting off his sword.
The Pallbearer's pupils dilated. He quickly swung his saber at his opponent, but the collision of their weapons did not produce the expected shower of sparks. Instead, the longsword sheared straight through his saber, taking half his shoulder with it.
“Aaaah!” Screaming in agony, the Pallbearer scrambled back in humiliation to dodge another of Fengqingzi's attacks.
“Are you all going to wait until I'm dead to make a move?!” he roared. Seeing Fengqingzi's terrifying combat prowess, the others no longer hesitated and rushed forward to rescue him.
Once they made their move, the rest of the crowd joined the fray. The moment they clashed, the battle tilted with overwhelming force.
Xu Qing and Zhang Wuji were pinned down by seven opponents. In no time at all, they were forced onto the defensive, struggling to fall back while parrying blows.
Ning Qingzhu executed her strange footwork, using as little physical strength as possible to hold off four opponents, but several small cuts still appeared on her arms and legs.
Driven to extreme rage, Fengqingzi's combat strength exploded as he single-handedly suppressed Thousand-Face, Xiao Guanxing, and the half-crippled Pallbearer.
Meanwhile, the others looked for openings, launching sneak attacks to disrupt them from the shadows.
Qiu Zhiya was relentlessly harassed by Iron Claw Wang Xun, who constantly closed the distance, preventing her from utilizing the reach of her Bone-Cracking Whip.
Exploiting a brief lapse in her defense, Iron Claw Wang Xun lunged with a fierce claw strike. Qiu Zhiya's brow furrowed instantly, and she kicked out toward his chest.
Although she succeeded in kicking him away, three gruesome claw marks were left on her shoulder, the deepest of which exposed the bone.
Blood flowed continuously from the wound. Qiu Zhiya's face was pale and drawn, her injured right shoulder leaving her barely able to grip her Bone-Cracking Whip.
Iron Claw Wang Xun was naturally aware of her condition. With a sadistic grin, he charged once again.
Qiu Zhiya gritted her teeth and lashed out with her whip, but the strike carried far less power than before. It looked limp and weak, posing no threat to him at all.
With a sneer, Iron Claw Wang Xun snatched the Bone-Cracking Whip out of the air.
Qiu Zhiya clenched her jaw, pulling with all her might to retrieve her whip, but the other end remained completely motionless.
Watching her struggle, he licked his lips in amusement and yanked hard. Caught off guard, she stumbled directly toward him.
Oh no! Qiu Zhiya's heart seized. Seeing those sharp, blade-like iron claws spread slightly open, she could almost picture her own abdomen being pierced through.
Fengqingzi was pinned down, while Xu Qing, Ning Qingzhu, and Zhang Wuji could barely protect themselves.
This time, there was no one to help her...
Splat!
An abdomen was pierced by the sharp claws. Qiu Zhiya's pupils contracted in sheer shock as she stared in disbelief at the figure blocking her path.
It was Xu Qing whose abdomen had been skewered. His body was covered in slash wounds and torn flesh—the price of his desperate rush to save her.
Iron Claw Wang Xun stared at him blankly, apparently not expecting another person to intercept the blow.
Reaching into his robes with a trembling hand, Xu Qing pulled out the medicine pill embossed with the spider lily.
The Deathless Pill.
Summoning the last of his strength, he swallowed the pill and gripped his sabers once more. The constant, agonizing pain wracking his body began to vanish, and along with it, his rationality.
Iron Claw Wang Xun only saw the youth swallow some unknown object before his entire demeanor turned as placid as still water.
This calm was so absolute that it felt deeply unsettling.
In the next instant, a long blade cut through the air. He hastily raised his iron claws.
Clang! The saber clashed with his metal claws, the immense force of the impact numbing his arm. Before the numbness could even fade, the next slash was already upon him.
Like an emotionless machine, Xu Qing swung his twin sabers in a frenzied flurry, leaving his opponent scrambling just to defend himself.
Damn it! What on earth did he eat? Wang Xun cursed internally. Ever since swallowing that pill, the youth had been devoid of all emotion, fighting entirely on pure instinct.
It felt like battling a tireless monster. Realizing this, a flicker of panic rose in his eyes.
No, he had to take the initiative to disrupt his opponent's rhythm!
Gritting his teeth, Iron Claw Wang Xun absorbed a slash from Xu Qing with his left shoulder while thrusting his claws toward the youth's chest with all his might.
The saber instantly impaled his shoulder. At the exact same time, three deep gashes tore across Xu Qing's chest, exposing his faintly pulsing flesh through the wounds.
The agonizing pain of his impaled shoulder made Wang Xun gasp, and his mind slipped into a brief moment of disorientation.
In that single instant of distraction, his body was sliced clean in half from the waist.
Splat! Blood sprayed across Xu Qing's face, yet his expression didn't change in the slightest.
Iron Claw Wang Xun stared at him in utter disbelief. It was as if the youth felt no pain from the wounds on his chest; after plunging the blade into his shoulder, he had sliced sideways without a shred of hesitation.
He's not human...
This was the final thought in Iron Claw Wang Xun's mind. His severed torso collapsed to the ground with a thud, instantly drawing the attention of everyone present.
“Is that... Iron Claw Wang Xun?!”
“How is he dead? Did that kid do it??”
For a moment, the dozens of people on the field cried out in alarm. With dozens of them besieging a mere six, they had actually lost someone to a counterattack.
And the one who had been killed was none other than the renowned Iron Claw Wang Xun!
The surrounding commotion did not register with Qiu Zhiya in the slightest. She stared blankly at Xu Qing, whose body was covered in wounds.
Xu Qing's movements stiffened, and he began to fall backward.
She still hadn't fully processed what was happening, but her body instinctively moved forward to catch him.
She gazed down at him in a daze, her long eyelashes veiling the emotions in her eyes, as if doing so could keep her feelings at bay. Yet, her tightly suppressed grief ultimately dissolved into tears that slipped down her cheeks.
Her tears fell through the air, landing softly on his eyes, but they could not wash away the pale, cloudy film that had settled over them.
“I won't let that happen.”
Those words seemed to echo in her ears once more, but this time, he had fulfilled his promise with his life.
“You fool.”
Seeing Xu Qing collapse, Zhang Wuji wanted to rush over, but he lacked the reckless, self-sacrificing conviction that Xu Qing had displayed.
Now, without Xu Qing's assistance, he wouldn't even be able to last thirty seconds.
Seeing this, the others waiting in the shadows all felt their spirits lift. That dangerous brat was down!
With that in mind, several of them swiftly lunged toward Qiu Zhiya.
Qiu Zhiya sensed the fatal danger closing in, yet her eyes remained fixed on Xu Qing's face.
She held him close, suddenly feeling that death might not be so terrifying after all.
Lethal intent swept toward her, but death did not descend upon Qiu Zhiya. Only a powerful gust of wind blew past, rustling the hair on her forehead.
The noisy sounds of battle around them came to an abrupt halt. They hadn't faded away; rather, everyone had frozen in place, their gazes converging on a single spot.
Beneath that large tree.
Old Chen was holding up a mask. The mask bore a ghastly, contorted smile, and half of it was dyed a brilliant red with blood.
On the field, those who had spent many years in the jianghu instantly felt their souls leave their bodies. Half the reason was that they recognized this mask.
The other half was the man standing right beside the mask.
Those with any discernment had already dropped to their knees, their weapons slipping from their grasp. Seeing this, the others who were oblivious to the situation tried to pull them back up.
“What are you doing?! Only one more person has arrived, and there are over thirty of us!”
The kneeling man turned his head stiffly and began to laugh hollowly.
“One person? Hahaha! I regret this so much... I know who he is... I shouldn't have come! I shouldn't have come!”
“What?! Whom are you talking about?” the other demanded, grabbing his shoulder in frustration. “Who is he?!”
“Who is he? Heh... One of the Four Supremes of the World... No, the Number One in the World...”
“The Ghost-Masked God of Slaughter.”
Turning his gaze to the other man, he said softly, “Kneel down. Let's die together.”
“W-What are you saying?!”
Beneath the tree not far away, Old Chen felt the weight in his hand lighten. He forced his head up with great effort. Through his blood-rimmed eyes, he could only make out a blurry silhouette.
He couldn't see the face, nor the figure. He couldn't make out anything at all, yet he knew the Young Master had returned.
Jiang Moran turned to face the crowd. His expression was as placid as always—unchanged, and yet seemingly entirely different.
His peaceful face was soon replaced by a monstrous smile. The moment the mask was donned, a suffocating pressure instantly enveloped the entire clearing.
“You people really didn't show me any respect.”
Rate on N.U.
