I Fear This City Cannot Withstand It

A hazy curtain of rain and mist shrouded Qixia Street.

Jiang Wang's voice was not loud, yet it rang clear.

After shouting those words, he looked at Cai Tanggu with eager anticipation.

Come kill me.

Come on!

Shan Qiyu, who had been protecting Jiang Wang and Xiaoyu, found it hard to understand what the Young Marquis was doing.

After all, Cai Tanggu was a formidable figure even among cultivators at the peak of the Cave Nether Realm. Even if all one hundred members of the Black Flame Army were wiped out, they might not be able to harm him in the slightest.

To humiliate Cai Tanggu like this was truly not a wise move.

But things had already come to this.

Shan Qiyu could only prepare himself to die protecting the Young Marquis.

Sensing the slightest movement from Cai Tanggu, he did not hesitate in the least and immediately shouted for the Black Flame Army to attack!

The sudden cries of battle made Jiang Wang's eardrums ache.

Watching the Black Flame Army charge Cai Tanggu from both sides, Jiang Wang froze for a moment and hurriedly tried to stop them, but his voice was swallowed whole by the army's charging momentum.

Though Cai Tanggu had been furious, he had still retained his reason. Now, at last, he let out a long howl, and his killing intent erupted without restraint.

Jiang Wang was utterly dumbfounded.

Why did the situation always change in the blink of an eye?

Could nothing ever go the way I planned?

The hundred Black Flame soldiers formed their ranks. More than half were martial artists at the peak of the Second Realm, while Third Realm fighters and even a few at the peak of the Third Realm spearheaded the formation. Their strength was fully enough to wipe Hun City off the map overnight.

They had once followed the Xunyang Marquis into battle against cultivators more than once. Though they had never truly faced a cultivator at the peak of the Cave Nether Realm, they did not harbor the slightest fear.

Facing the hundreds of flying swords Cai Tanggu conjured in an instant, they relied on combat experience and trust in one another to guard each other's backs so tightly that not a drop could seep through.

Even as they resisted the flying swords, they continuously narrowed the battle formation. So long as they could get close, a cultivator's frail body could be crushed at a touch.

Shan Qiyu took the lead.

He would be the spear that shattered the shield in the end!

But in truth, defeating a cultivator was far from so simple.

Shan Qiyu saw Cai Tanggu rise directly into the air, reaching a height martial artists could never attain.

But at the instant Cai Tanggu took flight—

The Black Flame Army, working in perfect coordination, had already braced more than a dozen bright silver spears together. They hoisted Shan Qiyu up and hurled him into the sky, turning him into a sharp arrow that caught up with Cai Tanggu in the blink of an eye.

Shan Qiyu's arms tensed as he twisted his waist in midair, a succession of explosive cracks sounding from within his body.

With the fiercest force and without giving Cai Tanggu any time to react, he smashed down the bright silver spear in his hand!

The air burst with a deafening roar!

The aura of a martial artist was displayed to the fullest at that moment.

Yet faced with such a situation, Cai Tanggu showed no panic.

Though it was difficult for him to evade Shan Qiyu's attack in time, how could a cultivator's abilities be limited to this?

Cai Tanggu merely exhaled, and the fine drizzle on Qixia Street became a torrential downpour in the next instant.

Countless raindrops condensed into crystalline swords, enveloping Cai Tanggu before spraying outward across a wide area.

The surrounding houses and the Black Flame Army's armor were pierced through by the raindrops, and the battle formation crumbled in an instant.

The bright silver spear in Shan Qiyu's hand was also knocked off course by the raindrops. Cai Tanggu rose into the air once more, a flying sword sweeping into his hand as it pointed directly at Shan Qiyu's face!

Suspended in midair, Shan Qiyu could only watch helplessly as that sword came at him.

On the wicker chair before the Marquis's residence, Jiang Wang pushed aside Xiaoyu, who was blocking him with her sword against the splashing raindrops. The raindrops that could have taken his life successfully caused the power of Mirage to surge forth.

The rain filling the sky froze before Jiang Wang's eyes.

He slowly rose from the wicker chair.

His hand clenched tightly around the Long Night Saber.

When Cai Tanggu's sword was only three inches from Shan Qiyu's face, it suddenly stopped.

But it was not because Jiang Wang had done anything.

"May I ask which fellow cultivator has released this pressure? Please show yourself!"

Cai Tanggu landed directly atop a house and cautiously surveyed all of Qixia Street.

That aura which had appeared from nowhere was extremely powerful and seemingly filled with hostility. The instant it touched him, Cai Tanggu broke out in a cold sweat.

He could not believe that a great cultivator above the Cave Nether Realm had arrived in tiny Hun City!

When Mirage's power surged forth, the pressure covered an exceedingly broad area. Even Shan Qiyu and the other Black Flame soldiers were affected, all of them becoming listless and weak.

Had Jiang Wang not withdrawn his power in time, everyone before the Marquis's residence might have perished.

Even so, Shan Qiyu fell to the ground and immediately lost consciousness.

Jiang Wang motioned for Xiaoyu and Zhao Si to carry Shan Qiyu into the Marquis's residence.

More than half of the hundred Black Flame soldiers had lost the ability to move. They lay scattered everywhere in a dark mass, and settling them all properly would be quite difficult.

Apart from the small area before the Marquis's residence, there was nowhere else left to stand.

Jiang Wang considered it briefly, then stepped through the gaps beside the Black Flame soldiers and made his way forward with great difficulty.

In the end, he stopped beneath the house where Cai Tanggu stood.

Cai Tanggu's gaze had long since settled on Jiang Wang.

His expression was exceedingly strange.

There was even a trace of bewilderment.

"Was it... you?"

He looked at Jiang Wang with great uncertainty.

He had kept that aura locked in his senses the entire time. As Jiang Wang moved, the aura's location had indeed shifted as well.

But that only made it harder for him to believe.

Jiang Wang raised his eyes and said softly, "Of course it was me."

Cai Tanggu's mangy-dog face twitched violently.

He stepped forward with his right leg, hanging directly in midair as he slowly drifted down behind Jiang Wang.

The Black Flame soldiers lying on the ground and blocking the way seemed to be dragged aside by unseen hands. By the time Cai Tanggu landed, space had already been cleared.

Jiang Wang turned around, his brows tightly furrowed. "Though I did not intend to make such a mess at first, you injured so many of my people. I have to do something, or their willingness to risk their lives would have been for nothing."

Cai Tanggu was silent for a moment before smiling. "The Young Marquis has hidden himself deeply indeed, but no matter how I think about it, I cannot understand."

"To possess power above the Cave Nether Realm at such an age, aside from the chief true disciples of great sects and the handful of people in the Divine Capital, one would have to be some ancient monster who has lived for a very long time."

"No matter how extraordinary one's talent, without the finest cultivation, it would be hard to achieve anything. Cultivation has always been an arduous path. Or perhaps you are actually the Marquis of this residence, merely having returned to simplicity and become young again."

Jiang Wang could not help clapping. "Instructor Cai truly has an unusual way of thinking. I am my father, and my father is me—what a marvelous explanation."

Cai Tanggu said in a deep voice, "In all of Kutan, only the Sword Pavilion has the qualifications to train disciples who can rise above the Cave Nether Realm at your age. Yet in recent years, the Sword Pavilion has not produced anyone new at all. If not for that explanation, where could your cultivation have come from?"

Jiang Wang said, "Just assume I am exceptionally gifted and taught myself into success."

Before Monsters descended upon the human world, there had indeed been people who, through fortuitous encounters, stood at the peak of the cultivation world within a very short time. But in this age, such things were difficult to happen.

It was like the rumors that immortals existed in the world, yet even Cai Tanggu had never seen one.

The path of cultivation was difficult beyond measure. It could never be achieved in one leap, and the difficulty of taking even one more step forward was something those who had never experienced it could not imagine.

Cai Tanggu, who had always remained in Kutan, refused to believe that someone like Jiang Wang could exist in the world.

He had already concluded that even if Jiang Wang was not the Marquis himself, he was certainly some old fellow of advanced years pretending to be young here.

Thus, the way he looked at Jiang Wang inevitably changed somewhat.

"Little... Mr. Jiang."

Remembering how the cultivators in green and white robes had addressed Jiang Wang before, Cai Tanggu changed his form of address as well.

He cupped his hands in greeting and said, "I stated my purpose in coming here from the beginning. The same still holds: Mr. Jiang may continue investigating the Du Family's affairs, so long as no more innocents are implicated. As for what happened just now, we ought to turn swords into plowshares. Otherwise, if we truly fight, I fear this city cannot withstand it."

Jiang Wang weighed the saber in his hand and shook his head. "This is no longer about the Du Family. You injured my people. No matter what, I have to beat you up before I can face them."

Cai Tanggu's expression turned ugly again.

"Is Mr. Jiang determined to have his own way? Must we fight?"

Jiang Wang frowned. "Talking is tiring too. I do not want to talk anymore. Let us both be straightforward and finish this quickly so we can go home and eat."

As though afraid Cai Tanggu would continue spouting nonsense, he directly drew his saber and smashed it toward him.

It was clearly only a casual motion, yet Cai Tanggu felt a force like mountains calling and seas roaring surge wildly toward him.

A thunderclap exploded across Qixia Street.

The falling rain abruptly vanished.

The gale whipped Cai Tanggu's robes until they snapped and flapped, even smoothing the wrinkles from his face.

Instinctively, he drew upon all the Qi in his Yellow Court. Like rivers and seas flowing backward, the surging aura manifested behind him before finally condensing upon his longsword, which he slashed fiercely toward the incoming saber!

But at the instant they made contact, the power from the saber suddenly weakened.

The Sword Qi crushed that force as though rotting wood had met dry weeds.

Jiang Wang shifted one step to the side, and the Sword Qi grazed past his cheek.

The vacant houses behind him on Qixia Street were pierced straight through, and the force did not diminish. Billowing smoke crawled like a great serpent toward more distant places.

With that single sword strike, more than half of Qixia Street had already been destroyed.

Looking at the scene before him, Jiang Wang could not help wiping away a cold sweat.

If the two forces had truly collided here, the Black Flame Army and the Marquis's residence might both have been erased.

Cai Tanggu took a few shallow breaths and sneered. "Mr. Jiang has concerns. Then why insist on making such a mess? We could have sat down to talk freely and drink our fill. Unless Mr. Jiang does not care about their lives at all, you cannot defeat me."

Jiang Wang nodded. "Instructor Cai's words make a great deal of sense."

Cai Tanggu smiled calmly.

"But I can still defeat you."

Jiang Wang raised one finger.

Cai Tanggu's expression changed dramatically.

His body was actually no longer under his control!