When Chen Zui reached the middle of the valley, he came to a halt.
He lowered the spear from his shoulder and planted the butt into the ground, producing a dull, resonant clang like metal striking stone.
“You three, since you’ve come down, there’s no need to hide.”
The moment his words fell, three figures swept out simultaneously from behind a pile of boulders ahead on the official road.
The lean man charged in the lead, a short halberd clutched in each hand.
The other two disciples flanked from the left and right, both wielding narrow fast blades.
The blades were concealed behind their elbows, exposing only the gleaming upper half of their tips.
“Kid, this road is closed.”
The lean man came to a halt ten paces before Chen Zui, crossing his twin halberds before him with an ear-piercing metallic scrape.
“The Azure Dragon Sect is conducting business here. If you know what’s good for you, take a detour.”
Chen Zui glanced at him, then looked at the two blade wielders eyeing him covetously from left and right, the corner of his mouth curving slightly.
“What if I don’t go around?”
“Then leave your life behind!”
Wasting no more words, the lean man kicked off hard against the gravel ground, lunging at Chen Zui like an arrow loosed from a bowstring!
The twin halberds carved two intersecting arcs through the air, one aiming for the throat and the other for the lower abdomen, vicious moves leaving zero margin for survival.
The two blade wielders moved in the very same instant.
The narrow fast blades sprang out from behind their elbows, blade light slashing toward Chen Zui’s ribs from both flanks simultaneously like two streaks of gleaming lightning.
The three attacked together in seamless harmony, clearly a killing formation drilled countless times.
Chen Zui did not retreat.
He didn’t even raise his spear.
He merely gave the spear’s butt a gentle twist against the ground. The shaft sprang upward with the borrowed momentum, sweeping through the air in a half-arc.
The spear’s butt tapped precisely against the spine of the left blade wielder’s weapon, jarring the fast blade right out of his grip.
Riding the rebound, the spear shaft swept horizontally, its middle smacking solidly into the chest of the right blade wielder. The man groaned as he flew backward, slamming his back into the cliff wall.
Meanwhile, the lean man’s twin halberds sliced empty air the instant before they could touch Chen Zui’s lapel.
Chen Zui’s figure shifted faintly as the Dragon Roam footwork unfolded within inches of space.
The lean man saw only a blur before his eyes as his short halberds stabbed into an afterimage.
By the time he realized what had happened, Chen Zui was already standing behind him.
The spear reversed, its butt gently resting against the Dazhui point at the back of his neck.
“I advise you not to move.”
Chen Zui’s voice was not loud, yet it froze the lean man completely stiff.
The Dazhui point was a vital acupoint along the Governor Vessel. If the spear butt advanced merely half an inch further, he would spend the rest of his life bedridden.
“Go back and tell your Sect Master Duan.”
Chen Zui withdrew the butt of the spear and took a step back.
“Withdraw your people from this valley right now, and I can pretend nothing happened.”
The lean man turned around cautiously, the ferocity on his face thoroughly replaced by sheer terror.
Gritting his teeth, he glanced at the two disciples still groaning on the ground, then looked at the young spearman before him who hadn't even broken a sweat.
Without a word, he turned on his heel and fled up the mountain.
Chen Zui didn’t pursue him.
He hoisted the spear back onto his shoulder and looked up at the dense woods on the western side of the valley.
He knew Duan Tianhong was hiding right there, and he could feel dozens of killing intents locked firmly onto him from within the trees.
The mountain wind blew past, stirring waves of rustling pines.
After several breaths of silence in the valley, a deep, gloomy voice rang out from the woods.
“Young man, state your name.”
“Chen Zui.”
After stating his name, Chen Zui added another sentence:
“Sect Master Duan might not have heard of me.
That doesn't matter.
But surely Sect Master Duan knows of a man named Cao Zhengchun?”
The woods fell silent for a moment.
“The Directorate of Ceremonial’s Seal-holding Eunuch Cao Zhengchun?”
“The very same.”
Chen Zui took the spear down from his shoulder, its tip angling diagonally toward the ground.
“A few days ago, I exchanged a few moves with him outside Qingya Academy.
I wounded him with a spear strike.
Later, his life was cut short halfway on the road.
Although it was the people of the Ghost Gate Chamber who struck the killing blow, in the end, part of the credit belongs to me.”
The moment these words were spoken, an irrepressible commotion stirred within the dense woods.
What kind of person was Cao Zhengchun?
The Directorate of Ceremonial’s Seal-holding Eunuch, a Wind-Riding Realm Grandmaster—a figure whose stomp would send tremors through both the Grand Zhao imperial court and the martial world.
Yet this young man barely in his twenties claimed to have struck him with a spear?
And even indirectly claimed his life?
“Kid, you’re boasting way too shamelessly!”
Unable to hold back, an Azure Dragon Sect elder stepped out from the woods, his longsword drawn three inches from its sheath, the blade glinting with cold light in the twilight.
Duan Tianhong also swept down from behind the mountain boulders.
His build was burly, standing a full head taller than an ordinary martial artist.
The bulging muscles beneath his dark martial attire stretched the fabric taut.
A massive nine-ring broadsword trailed behind him, the nine brass rings on the blade’s spine clattering against one another in an ear-piercing cacophony.
With every step he took, the rock beneath his feet fractured a fraction more.
A suffocating pressure unique to a Wind-Riding Realm Grandmaster rolled over Chen Zui like an overwhelming tide with every step he advanced.
“Kid, putting aside whether your tale about Eunuch Cao is true or false.
This Mount Danyue territory belongs to my Azure Dragon Sect.
You dare demand that we make way for you?
What breathtaking arrogance!”
Facing the Grandmaster’s crushing pressure, Chen Zui remained completely unfazed, his expression indifferent.
After all, the likes of He Bailou and Cao Zhengchun whom he had faced before were both far stronger than this so-called Martial Arts Grandmaster before him.
“Duan Tianhong, do you truly believe no one in this world knows of your filthy deeds?”
Chen Zui’s tone suddenly turned a few degrees colder.
He took a step forward, the spear’s butt dragging across the gravel ground with a sharp, screeching scrape.
His gaze swept across Duan Tianhong’s sinister face like the edge of a blade.
“The Azure Dragon Sect.
Thirty years ago during the war between the two dynasties, the old sect master led three hundred disciples to hold Fengming Pass to the death, slaying eight hundred enemies.
Fewer than fifty survived.
After that battle, the old sect master succumbed to his heavy injuries.
Before dying, he took the successor’s hand and spoke eight words.
Better to take through the straight than seek through the crooked.
But what did you, Duan Tianhong, do?”
His voice suddenly rose, sending wave upon wave of echoes through the valley.
“For three months, you slipped Energy-Dissipating Powder into the successor’s tea.
When his internal power was completely depleted, you shattered his skull from behind with a single palm strike.
Then, you took that successor’s severed head to present to a provincial prefect.
Using it as a pledge of loyalty, you secured the imperial court’s protection for yourself.
From that moment on, you led the Azure Dragon Sect to its knees.
Kneeling to officials, kneeling to the imperial court, kneeling to the Directorate of Ceremonial...
Kneeling to any backer who could grant you wealth and glory.”
“Shut your mouth!”
Duan Tianhong’s face turned ash-pale with fury in an instant.
Murderous intent exploded from his triangular eyes.
The nine brass rings clattered harshly against the spine of the broadsword, and the mountain rock beneath his feet fractured inch by inch under the force of his internal energy!
Behind him, all four Mountain-Viewing Realm elders paled in unison; a look of profound embarrassment even crossed the faces of several older ones.
The rest of the Azure Dragon Sect disciples exchanged bewildered glances.
Some gripped their weapons unconsciously, their eyes darting furtively toward their sect master.
Duan Tianhong had never allowed anyone to speak of these past scandals.
The veterans in the sect who knew the truth had either been expelled on trumped-up charges or met mysterious, untimely ends in various “accidents.”
But the question remained:
How on earth did this spearman before them know so many of the sect’s deepest secrets?
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