Chapter 49
Dragon Leaps from the Abyss
Both groups of people were taken aback at the same time.
Xu Xian looked up and saw that the man had sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, and was very handsome.
The man chuckled.
"Don't mind me, everyone. You all go ahead and fight, leave me alone! I'm just passing by to pick up something!"
The butcher turned his head and said viciously, "Take care of them all at once."
Several assassins surrounded and attacked him. The man had a slight limp in his right leg, but his movements were extremely strange. In the midst of his dodging and weaving, the blades of the assassins could not even touch the hem of his clothes.
Xu Xian caught a glimpse of this person out of the corner of his eye, and a thought struck him: to be so composed in the face of so many assassins, this was no ordinary thief.
The cripple noticed Xu Xian's gaze, grinned at him,
"Xu Xiaoqi, I've heard so much about you. You go about your business and don't worry about me. All the gold and silver in the Sima mansion were embezzled anyway. If I take it and spend it, it's like I'm robbing the rich to help the poor. Don't you think so?"
Then he dusted himself off and climbed over the back wall.
The crowd paused for a moment, then resumed their fight. Seeing that they couldn't defeat Xu Xian for so long, the butcher was quite surprised. While fighting Wang Yanni, he spoke up...
"Rumors say your techniques are strange, and you often kill enemies far stronger than yourself. I didn't believe it, but I never imagined you actually had such abilities..."
"Ding Jiu, Ding Shiyi, kill him!"
As soon as he finished speaking, two assassins who were attacking Yang Xu closed in on him. Xu Xian felt much more pressured and was slashed in the chest in just a few moves.
Seeing that Xu Xian was at a disadvantage again, Jun Jingyan flipped through the bamboo slips, bit her fingertip, and smeared a drop of blood essence on the bamboo slips, causing golden light to surge.
"You are as swift as the wind, as strong as a tiger, and as resolute as iron."
Xu Xian felt a strange power strengthening his body.
The blood and qi surging in his meridians became frenzied, and the eight-sided sword felt as light as a bamboo leaf in his hand.
He met the assassin at the forefront of the Meridian Opening Realm with a single sword strike—Sword Two!
The sword light was like water, piercing through the man's knife defenses and heading straight for his chest. The man hurriedly dodged to the side to avoid a fatal blow, but his left shoulder was slashed open with a deep gash that exposed the bone.
Xu Xian raised his hand and unleashed another sword strike!
The third move of the Holy Spirit Sword Technique: the sword light transforms into a crescent-shaped arc and sweeps out!
At the same moment, the Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique within his body finally broke through the critical point, and a system notification sounded in his mind:
"The Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique has broken through to the fifth level, and my cultivation level has increased simultaneously—the sixth level of Body Tempering."
The golden sword light pierced through the internal energy protecting the assassin in the Meridian Opening Realm. A blood flower exploded on the man's chest. He staggered back several steps, crashed into the wall, and slid down to sit. He looked down at the sword wound on his chest and tilted his head to one side.
Another assassin at the Meridian Opening Realm took advantage of Xu Xian's unfinished sword strike and slashed from the side.
Xu Xian parried with his sword, the blade striking the spine of the eight-sided sword and sparks flying. His hand went numb, the eight-sided sword flew out of his hand and stuck into a pillar.
"Impressive! Your ability to overcome superiors is the most surprising of all the cases I've handled. Even without Confucian influence, you're still very capable..."
The assassin sneered, "Your swordsmanship is indeed formidable, but even the most skilled swordsmanship requires a sword. Now that you've lost your sword, what do you have left?"
Xu raised his right hand, his five fingers spread, and golden light flowed in his palm.
"One strike remaining—Dragon Leaps from the Abyss!"
The golden palm shadow flew out.
This palm strike was far more powerful than the previous three. It was like a dragon leaping from the abyss, and it was both fierce and tearing. The air was torn apart wherever the palm strike passed.
The assassin was shocked and only had time to cross his two swords.
The blade shattered, and the force of the palm strike pierced through it, leaving a mark on his chest. He was sent flying backward, crashing into a leg of the octagonal table behind him. Splinters of wood flew everywhere, slid to the ground, and a mouthful of blood gushed from his mouth.
With the blessing of the Yi Jin Jing, I can now increase my divine skill progress by 500 points every day. It only takes two days to break through to the second level, and only twenty days to break through to the third level...
After more than a month, his Dragon Subduing Palm had already broken through four levels on the way to Qingzhou, but he hadn't tried any new moves yet.
Xu Xian took two steps, pulled out the eight-sided sword stuck in the pillar, and walked up to him.
"Didn't your master tell you? Actually, I've only been learning swordsmanship for a short time; palm techniques are just the basics!"
After saying that, he took his head with a single sword stroke.
Immediately after the killing, Xu Xian suddenly felt his power being drained from his body.
He turned to look at Jun Jingyan, who swayed, the golden light on the bamboo slip suddenly dimmed, and her face turned pale.
"Miss Jun, are you alright?"
Jun Jingyan shook her head slightly, indicating that she was fine.
Yang Xu was also nearing his limit; the old injury in his left arm had completely reopened.
He roared and with one sword stroke, he repelled the cultivator in front of him who had reached the Meridian Opening Realm. Xu Xian then thrust his sword from the side, and another assassin was cut in half at the waist by Yang Xu's sword and fell to the ground.
Seeing that his companions were all gone, the butcher forced Wang Yanni back with a single blow and turned to flee.
Wang Yanni chased after him for a couple of steps with her knife when she suddenly lost her footing. The butcher kicked her in the chest, forcing her back. With a few leaps, the butcher jumped over the back wall and disappeared into the alley.
Xu Xian leaned against a pillar, clutching his chest and panting.
Wang Yanni sheathed her knife and turned around, furious. "Damn it, he got away! The butcher is a local from Qingzhou; he knows this area better than anyone. We can't catch him."
Xu Xian looked down at the corpses lying haphazardly on the ground and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Fortunately, the other side didn't send another Bone Tempering Realm expert, otherwise we would all be wiped out here today."
"You think it's cabbage...?"
Wang Yanni rolled her eyes. "There are more experts at the Meridian Opening Realm, but there are only about a hundred at the Bone Tempering Realm in a province. They are all well-known, and the government takes up more than half of them. The rest have their own backgrounds. How can you expect to run into so many of them..."
"The ones who came to kill us this time are 'Hao Zai Lai,' a world-renowned assassin organization. That butcher is a local expert from Qingzhou, wielding a pig-slaughtering knife with unparalleled skill. He's not a formal member of Hao Zai Lai, but an unofficial member who does things for money..."
"Assassin?"
Xu Xian was slightly taken aback. "No wonder these people don't know about my big slap; they're assassins they've hired."
Wang Yanni nodded and continued.
"The rule of Good Comeback is that once you take on a job, you must finish it. This time, so many people have been lost, they won't let this go."
"However, it's impossible to organize a second wave in a short time. Experts in the Bone Tempering Realm are not as common as cabbages. Three experts in the Meridian Opening Realm have died. Even if they come back, they'll have to think twice."
Xu Xian breathed a sigh of relief and sheathed the eight-sided sword.
"That's alright. If I were to be replaced by a bunch of Bone Tempering Realm cultivators, I would have to write to Lord Mo and ask him to find someone else to do the job. I'm just a lowly flag officer. If I go out and run into someone who is at the Meridian Opening Realm, or someone who is at the Bone Tempering Realm, I really can't handle it."
The group searched Sun Buhai's house but found only Sun Buhai; they did not find any of his family members.
After searching for a while without finding anything useful, I had no choice but to head back home.
...
Xu Xian rode his horse alongside Yang Xu, walking back while sorting through the clues in his mind.
They've only been in Qingzhou for a few days, and they've already been ambushed twice... The time in the dense forest was after they went to check the accounts at the mine, which means someone had leaked their whereabouts to the Gu Master beforehand.
Today's mission is to arrest someone at the Sima residence. The other side knew when they would arrive and made preparations in advance.
The timing and location of both ambushes were perfectly timed.
The only people who knew that they were coming to arrest Sun Buhai today were him, Yang Xu, Wang Yanni, Jun Jingyan, and ten Black Cavalry Guards.
Jun Jingyan is out of the question, and Yang Xu knows him well enough to know him well, so it can't be him. That leaves only the Black Cavalry Guards of Qingzhou and Wang Yanni...
He squinted at Wang Yanni, who was walking ahead, and seemed to be deep in thought.
Xu Xian looked up and saw that the man had sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, and was very handsome.
The man chuckled.
"Don't mind me, everyone. You all go ahead and fight, leave me alone! I'm just passing by to pick up something!"
The butcher turned his head and said viciously, "Take care of them all at once."
Several assassins surrounded and attacked him. The man had a slight limp in his right leg, but his movements were extremely strange. In the midst of his dodging and weaving, the blades of the assassins could not even touch the hem of his clothes.
Xu Xian caught a glimpse of this person out of the corner of his eye, and a thought struck him: to be so composed in the face of so many assassins, this was no ordinary thief.
The cripple noticed Xu Xian's gaze, grinned at him,
"Xu Xiaoqi, I've heard so much about you. You go about your business and don't worry about me. All the gold and silver in the Sima mansion were embezzled anyway. If I take it and spend it, it's like I'm robbing the rich to help the poor. Don't you think so?"
Then he dusted himself off and climbed over the back wall.
The crowd paused for a moment, then resumed their fight. Seeing that they couldn't defeat Xu Xian for so long, the butcher was quite surprised. While fighting Wang Yanni, he spoke up...
"Rumors say your techniques are strange, and you often kill enemies far stronger than yourself. I didn't believe it, but I never imagined you actually had such abilities..."
"Ding Jiu, Ding Shiyi, kill him!"
As soon as he finished speaking, two assassins who were attacking Yang Xu closed in on him. Xu Xian felt much more pressured and was slashed in the chest in just a few moves.
Seeing that Xu Xian was at a disadvantage again, Jun Jingyan flipped through the bamboo slips, bit her fingertip, and smeared a drop of blood essence on the bamboo slips, causing golden light to surge.
"You are as swift as the wind, as strong as a tiger, and as resolute as iron."
Xu Xian felt a strange power strengthening his body.
The blood and qi surging in his meridians became frenzied, and the eight-sided sword felt as light as a bamboo leaf in his hand.
He met the assassin at the forefront of the Meridian Opening Realm with a single sword strike—Sword Two!
The sword light was like water, piercing through the man's knife defenses and heading straight for his chest. The man hurriedly dodged to the side to avoid a fatal blow, but his left shoulder was slashed open with a deep gash that exposed the bone.
Xu Xian raised his hand and unleashed another sword strike!
The third move of the Holy Spirit Sword Technique: the sword light transforms into a crescent-shaped arc and sweeps out!
At the same moment, the Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique within his body finally broke through the critical point, and a system notification sounded in his mind:
"The Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique has broken through to the fifth level, and my cultivation level has increased simultaneously—the sixth level of Body Tempering."
The golden sword light pierced through the internal energy protecting the assassin in the Meridian Opening Realm. A blood flower exploded on the man's chest. He staggered back several steps, crashed into the wall, and slid down to sit. He looked down at the sword wound on his chest and tilted his head to one side.
Another assassin at the Meridian Opening Realm took advantage of Xu Xian's unfinished sword strike and slashed from the side.
Xu Xian parried with his sword, the blade striking the spine of the eight-sided sword and sparks flying. His hand went numb, the eight-sided sword flew out of his hand and stuck into a pillar.
"Impressive! Your ability to overcome superiors is the most surprising of all the cases I've handled. Even without Confucian influence, you're still very capable..."
The assassin sneered, "Your swordsmanship is indeed formidable, but even the most skilled swordsmanship requires a sword. Now that you've lost your sword, what do you have left?"
Xu raised his right hand, his five fingers spread, and golden light flowed in his palm.
"One strike remaining—Dragon Leaps from the Abyss!"
The golden palm shadow flew out.
This palm strike was far more powerful than the previous three. It was like a dragon leaping from the abyss, and it was both fierce and tearing. The air was torn apart wherever the palm strike passed.
The assassin was shocked and only had time to cross his two swords.
The blade shattered, and the force of the palm strike pierced through it, leaving a mark on his chest. He was sent flying backward, crashing into a leg of the octagonal table behind him. Splinters of wood flew everywhere, slid to the ground, and a mouthful of blood gushed from his mouth.
With the blessing of the Yi Jin Jing, I can now increase my divine skill progress by 500 points every day. It only takes two days to break through to the second level, and only twenty days to break through to the third level...
After more than a month, his Dragon Subduing Palm had already broken through four levels on the way to Qingzhou, but he hadn't tried any new moves yet.
Xu Xian took two steps, pulled out the eight-sided sword stuck in the pillar, and walked up to him.
"Didn't your master tell you? Actually, I've only been learning swordsmanship for a short time; palm techniques are just the basics!"
After saying that, he took his head with a single sword stroke.
Immediately after the killing, Xu Xian suddenly felt his power being drained from his body.
He turned to look at Jun Jingyan, who swayed, the golden light on the bamboo slip suddenly dimmed, and her face turned pale.
"Miss Jun, are you alright?"
Jun Jingyan shook her head slightly, indicating that she was fine.
Yang Xu was also nearing his limit; the old injury in his left arm had completely reopened.
He roared and with one sword stroke, he repelled the cultivator in front of him who had reached the Meridian Opening Realm. Xu Xian then thrust his sword from the side, and another assassin was cut in half at the waist by Yang Xu's sword and fell to the ground.
Seeing that his companions were all gone, the butcher forced Wang Yanni back with a single blow and turned to flee.
Wang Yanni chased after him for a couple of steps with her knife when she suddenly lost her footing. The butcher kicked her in the chest, forcing her back. With a few leaps, the butcher jumped over the back wall and disappeared into the alley.
Xu Xian leaned against a pillar, clutching his chest and panting.
Wang Yanni sheathed her knife and turned around, furious. "Damn it, he got away! The butcher is a local from Qingzhou; he knows this area better than anyone. We can't catch him."
Xu Xian looked down at the corpses lying haphazardly on the ground and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Fortunately, the other side didn't send another Bone Tempering Realm expert, otherwise we would all be wiped out here today."
"You think it's cabbage...?"
Wang Yanni rolled her eyes. "There are more experts at the Meridian Opening Realm, but there are only about a hundred at the Bone Tempering Realm in a province. They are all well-known, and the government takes up more than half of them. The rest have their own backgrounds. How can you expect to run into so many of them..."
"The ones who came to kill us this time are 'Hao Zai Lai,' a world-renowned assassin organization. That butcher is a local expert from Qingzhou, wielding a pig-slaughtering knife with unparalleled skill. He's not a formal member of Hao Zai Lai, but an unofficial member who does things for money..."
"Assassin?"
Xu Xian was slightly taken aback. "No wonder these people don't know about my big slap; they're assassins they've hired."
Wang Yanni nodded and continued.
"The rule of Good Comeback is that once you take on a job, you must finish it. This time, so many people have been lost, they won't let this go."
"However, it's impossible to organize a second wave in a short time. Experts in the Bone Tempering Realm are not as common as cabbages. Three experts in the Meridian Opening Realm have died. Even if they come back, they'll have to think twice."
Xu Xian breathed a sigh of relief and sheathed the eight-sided sword.
"That's alright. If I were to be replaced by a bunch of Bone Tempering Realm cultivators, I would have to write to Lord Mo and ask him to find someone else to do the job. I'm just a lowly flag officer. If I go out and run into someone who is at the Meridian Opening Realm, or someone who is at the Bone Tempering Realm, I really can't handle it."
The group searched Sun Buhai's house but found only Sun Buhai; they did not find any of his family members.
After searching for a while without finding anything useful, I had no choice but to head back home.
...
Xu Xian rode his horse alongside Yang Xu, walking back while sorting through the clues in his mind.
They've only been in Qingzhou for a few days, and they've already been ambushed twice... The time in the dense forest was after they went to check the accounts at the mine, which means someone had leaked their whereabouts to the Gu Master beforehand.
Today's mission is to arrest someone at the Sima residence. The other side knew when they would arrive and made preparations in advance.
The timing and location of both ambushes were perfectly timed.
The only people who knew that they were coming to arrest Sun Buhai today were him, Yang Xu, Wang Yanni, Jun Jingyan, and ten Black Cavalry Guards.
Jun Jingyan is out of the question, and Yang Xu knows him well enough to know him well, so it can't be him. That leaves only the Black Cavalry Guards of Qingzhou and Wang Yanni...
He squinted at Wang Yanni, who was walking ahead, and seemed to be deep in thought.