In the end, Fang Shuwen was held back by his lack of lightness skill. Three li was neither particularly far nor particularly close, and he hurried along as best he could before finally reaching Lakeheart Cottage.
From a distance, he saw a man and a woman fighting, and the woman was at a disadvantage.
Without needing to think, he knew the man certainly wasn't Zhou Qingmei. The young woman was about to die at the black-robed man's hands.
He immediately shouted and flung the saber hanging at his side as an ornament.
He knew no concealed weapon techniques, so he threw the saber entirely by feel.
But Fang Shuwen possessed [Muscle Tendon Change] at the great perfection level, and his hand-eye coordination was far beyond that of an ordinary person. Even without the technique, his aim was spot on.
The blade whistled through the air, heading straight for the black-robed man.
Although the black-robed man didn't know who had arrived, that didn't stop him from decisively withdrawing the blow meant to kill Zhou Qingmei.
He snapped open the folding fan in his hand and held it before his chest, using its surface as a shield.
Thud!
The force behind the saber far exceeded the black-robed man's expectations.
The fan's surface, forged from black iron, shattered in an instant, and the saber slammed hard into his chest.
The ease vanished from his face under that blow. His eyes bulged as though they might pop out, his features contorted, and he could no longer control his expression.
The immense force drove through him and sent him flying backward with a whoosh.
He flew much farther than Zhou Qingmei, traveling more than ten zhang in one go. He tried to right himself and land on one knee as Zhou Qingmei had, but the force carrying him made it impossible.
He could only tumble and scramble across the ground like a rolling gourd for another three to five zhang.
Only then did he come to rest, sprawled in a sorry state. He spat several mouthfuls of blood in succession, his hair disheveled and his former appearance utterly gone.
He couldn't help glaring at Fang Shuwen.
"Wh... who goes there?"
"A Zhou Family guard."
Fang Shuwen actually had the leisure to answer him. By now, he had reached Zhou Qingmei.
Zhou Qingmei was badly hurt. Besides the internal injuries from that palm strike, she also had some external wounds.
She looked at Fang Shuwen with a doubtful, startled gaze.
"You're... a Zhou Family guard?
"How is the Zhou Family!?"
"When I left, everything was more or less fine. I don't know about now."
He looked at Zhou Qingmei and decided to make sure.
"You're the Zhou Family's eldest young lady, Zhou Qingmei?"
"That's right."
Hearing Fang Shuwen say that, Zhou Qingmei's heart, which had been leaping up and down, finally settled a little. Still, she couldn't help asking:
"Are you really a guard at my home?"
It was no wonder she kept doubting him. How could a mere guard, not even an Attendant, possess such martial arts?
"My name is Fang Shuwen. It's on the roster in the Zhou Family's accounting office.
"If you don't believe me, young lady, you can go and have a look.
"Master Zhou asked me to come and keep you safe this time... luckily, I arrived in time."
As Fang Shuwen spoke, he pulled Zhou Qingmei to her feet. It wouldn't do for her to keep kneeling there.
Then he walked over to the black-robed man.
His eyes showed a hint of surprise.
"Your internal cultivation is actually that profound? You're still not dead after that?"
The black-robed man's eyes were already nearly splitting at the corners, and he wished he could flay Fang Shuwen alive.
Now, hearing those words, his anger was compounded by grief and indignation.
This was an utter humiliation!
If his internal cultivation were profound, how would he have ended up in such a state?
Yet Fang Shuwen looked as though he had spoken in complete sincerity... which made him feel even more humiliated.
He didn't know that Fang Shuwen's words had indeed come from the bottom of his heart.
Fang Shuwen had now achieved great mastery in internal cultivation, and every movement he made carried immense power.
In his haste, he had used considerable force just now. Though it was still a far cry from his full strength, in his current experience, if that blow had landed on the middle-aged man from earlier, it probably would have smashed him to pieces.
Yet this fellow was still alive. Clearly, he was no ordinary man.
He was the strongest of the people Fang Shuwen had encountered tonight.
"...Y-you can kill me or carve me up, as you please. Don't... don't humiliate me!!"
The black-robed man knew none of this. No sooner had he stumbled through those words than Fang Shuwen seized him by the back of the neck, carried him over to Zhou Qingmei like a little chick, and flung him to the ground.
The poor black-robed man was a formidable fighter in his own right, but he was now badly injured and unable to resist. After being flung down, he ended up with a mouthful of mud.
In an instant, his tears nearly fell.
The pain was secondary; what mattered was the indignity.
When had anyone ever treated him like this?
"I'm just a guard. If anyone's going to kill you or carve you up, shouldn't I leave that to my employer?"
Fang Shuwen glanced at Zhou Qingmei.
"Young lady, you can kill him or carve him up, as you please."
The black-robed man's eyes rolled back, and he spat another mouthful of blood.
Purely from anger.
How had such defiant words come to sound so different when Fang Shuwen said them?
Zhou Qingmei was a little dazed too, but she pulled herself together, looked at the black-robed man, and spoke in a low voice.
"Who exactly are you people?"
The black-robed man sneered.
"Zhou Qingmei, don't think that just because you escaped disaster today...
"You... you did something you shouldn't have done and offended... offended someone you shouldn't have offended...
"I'll go on ahead. On the road to the Yellow Springs, I'll be waiting for... all of you!"
At the end, he deliberately gave Fang Shuwen another look before adding the "all of you."
After saying that, he suddenly spewed a mouthful of blood and breathed his last.
Zhou Qingmei's face darkened. She felt his pulse.
"He severed his own heart meridian."
Fang Shuwen frowned.
From what the black-robed man had said, it seemed their main target was Zhou Qingmei.
If that was the case, it would explain why, although they had clearly infiltrated the Zhou Family long ago and Song Li had been killed early on,
they had delayed making their move, waiting for nearly an hour...
They had spent that hour looking for someone!
But if so, things seemed to have gotten a little troublesome.
Fang Shuwen glanced at his mission. Sure enough, there was no sign of it being completed.
He looked again at the dead black-robed man on the ground, then finally turned his gaze to Zhou Qingmei.
"Who exactly did you offend?"
As the saying went, even a miserable life was better than a good death. Though the black-robed man had been badly injured, with his internal force, there might still have been hope for him if he had wanted to live.
Yet he had cut off his own life.
That was not something an ordinary person could do.
His way of doing things was rather like that of a death warrior.
Otherwise, there was some secret he would protect even at the cost of his life.
But either way, it showed that the man was no simple figure.
Thinking back to what the man had said before dying, there were likely other experts behind him. Zhou Qingmei's crisis had not been resolved by his death, and this matter was not over.
But that was not good news for Fang Shuwen.
Although it could extend the duration of his doubled aptitude and comprehension, the present situation made him feel that he had probably been drawn into some kind of troublesome vortex.
Zhou Qingmei opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but before she could speak, she spewed another mouthful of blood.
Then her eyes rolled back, and she fainted.