The Jianli of West City Alley

Qixia Street had returned to its usual tranquility.

The investigation into the Hun City murder case was still ongoing.

The monster Ao Yin had already been executed, but the incident involving cultivators in East Market had yet to be closed.

Jiang Wang tried walking through every corner of Qixia Street.

Though he had been exhausted to death and had needed to lie in bed for two full days before recovering, after all sorts of tests, he gained a deeper understanding of that power.

He realized that the weakness of his body was very likely caused by the Mirage.

He found that the Mirage was constantly on the verge of collapse, relying on draining his lifespan to remain stable.

And the Long Night Saber seemed able to keep the Mirage stable for a little longer.

But that was clearly treating the symptoms, not the root cause.

He had to truly become a cultivator and obtain a long lifespan before he could completely stabilize the Mirage.

Yet the Foundation Establishment process required one to endure inhuman agony. His frail body simply could not withstand it.

It would only hasten the depletion of his lifespan.

He thought of the things Master Tao had once said. If those had not merely been alarmist words, then Master Tao had truly seen something.

Perhaps he could use this opportunity to test the waters and find a temporary solution.

Hun City's temperature had dropped somewhat in recent days.

Qixia Street was empty and deserted, steeped in the bitter taste of bleak wind and miserable rain.

Jiang Wang walked ahead while Xiaoyu held an oiled-paper umbrella and followed at his side.

They had just reached the intersection of West Qixia Street and stepped onto West City Alley, where Master Tao lived.

When he looked up, he saw a man dressed in gray, wearing a veiled hat, with a sword in hand and a heavy sword case on his back, bathing in the bitter rain.

Jiang Wang's expression gradually turned grave.

He slowly tried to retreat back into Qixia Street.

But the veiled-hat man directly drew his sword, its edge darting through the wind and rain.

An intense pressure froze Jiang Wang's body where he stood.

The sword tip pointed directly at his forehead.

Though Xiaoyu reacted swiftly, she was still a step too late.

The veiled hat lifted slightly. The man appeared to be in his thirties, and he grinned. "You're quite valuable. The more valuable the prey, the more excited I become. I'll make sure you thoroughly enjoy your final days."

Jiang Wang roughly understood what was happening.

Someone had hired an assassin to kill him.

The veiled-hat man before him was a martial artist.

But Jiang Wang could not tell what realm he was in.

"I won't ask who hired you. I only want to know exactly how much this so-called value of mine is worth."

The veiled-hat man laughed. "The people I've killed fit the phrase 'all manner of strange things,' because there have been all kinds. There have been no shortage of people like you, who seem utterly unconcerned and even dare to mock me."

"After seeing enough of them, no matter how you act, you're no longer worth a second glance from me. But you truly are my most profitable job. Enough to ensure I never have to worry about food or clothing for the rest of my life."

Jiang Wang nodded in understanding. "That is indeed a lot of money. But not every kind of money can be taken."

The veiled-hat man lightly tapped the hilt with his index finger, and the blade let out a violent tremor.

Raindrops falling through the air were flung away, and some struck Jiang Wang directly in the face, making him squint instinctively.

"Business requires integrity. Though the word integrity is worthless to me, if one does business, one must still have a little of it. Since this is my most valuable job, I'll give you some special treatment. I'll use every method I've ever used in business on you."

Sword light flashed, like a rainbow in the rain.

The veiled-hat man drew his sword very quickly.

But because Xiaoyu had been watching that sword all along, she swung her own sword in time and intercepted it.

Yet the sword tip had already been very close to Jiang Wang. When the two swords collided, the flash nearly blinded him.

The veiled-hat man looked at Xiaoyu, clearly surprised.

"A martial artist already nearing the Third Realm? That sword just now was truly splendid. To stop my sword from such a distance—even a martial artist of the Third Realm would find it difficult to do so easily."

Jiang Wang was surprised as well.

He had always thought Xiaoyu might be formidable, but he had not expected her to already have one foot in the Martial Third Realm.

But then he remembered that Xiaoyu had practiced only that one sword-swinging move. Perhaps practice made perfect, and she was not actually that powerful?

The facts proved that, when facing the veiled-hat man's next attack,

Xiaoyu continued blocking with the same sword-swinging method. Gradually, she began to falter, forced back step by step.

The veiled-hat man noticed the problem as well.

"So she's merely a useless wretch who has only just begun learning martial arts. Yet she can slash out power comparable to the Third Realm when she swings her sword. Her talent truly is extraordinary. Pity you ran into me."

The moment his words fell,

Sword Qi covered the entire street.

A martial artist capable of slashing out Sword Qi had to be at least at the peak of the Third Realm.

And the veiled-hat man clearly already showed signs of breaking into the Fourth Realm.

At his age, he could already be considered highly talented among martial artists.

The rain falling from the sky froze in that instant, each crystal-clear droplet suspended in midair.

They reflected countless sword shadows.

Xiaoyu swung her sword again, drawing out a line of water that slammed into the opposing blade with a series of crisp clangs.

The rain-soaked banners drooped down. Lanterns hanging before the shops along both sides of the street shattered one after another, while doors and windows slapped in the wind, as though playing a celestial melody.

The veiled-hat man grinned.

His raised hand suddenly clenched into a fist.

A great tearing sound erupted through the rain curtain.

Xiaoyu's pupils abruptly contracted.

Her head snapped backward.

But the veiled-hat man had already closed in before her in the blink of an eye.

A strand of black hair brushed against her cheek as it fell.

Jiang Wang coughed lightly.

By then, he had retreated into Qixia Street.

The already-drawn Long Night Saber was in his hand.

The veiled-hat man's killing strike froze because of it.

His expression turned astonished.

Before he could recover his senses,

Jiang Wang held the umbrella in his left hand, gripped the saber in his right, and directly threw it at the veiled-hat man.

The veiled-hat man was equally astonished to find that he could move again, and he immediately raised his sword to block.

But when the longsword collided with the flying saber, the longsword snapped with a sound.

Refusing to believe it, the veiled-hat man opened the sword case on his back, sending several more longswords flying out.

Jiang Wang repeated the motion and threw the Long Night Saber again after it flew back to him.

The saber flew out, and the swords broke.

"Damn it!" The veiled-hat man could not understand what was happening.

He could not sense the slightest fluctuation of aura from Jiang Wang. It was as though Jiang Wang were merely an ordinary person tossing a saber around.

Jiang Wang smiled faintly. "I told you long ago, not every kind of money can be taken."

The veiled-hat man's sword case was empty, and only one sword remained in his hand.

With a dark expression, he said, "I take back what I said before. You have indeed made me see you in a new light. As expected, the most valuable business must also be worth more than its price. Though I don't know what is going on with you, there is absolutely no reason for the business I take to fail."

Without the slightest hesitation, he decisively struck with his sword.

His movement was graceful and drifting, his blade cleaving through wind and rain and drawing a thunderous boom.

Jiang Wang merely raised the saber in his hand again.

The sword in the veiled-hat man's hand still could not escape the fate of breaking apart.

And the Long Night Saber did not lose momentum, smashing heavily into the veiled-hat man's chest.

Accompanied by a crisp sound of bones breaking, the veiled-hat man spewed a great mouthful of blood, which spread over the street mixed with rainwater.

He staggered beneath his feet, staring at Jiang Wang in utter disbelief.

Jiang Wang sheathed his saber and said slowly, "You took money you should not have taken, accepted a job you should not have accepted, and appeared at a time you should not have appeared. So you have to die."

The veiled-hat man clutched his caved-in chest and kept coughing blood.

"Don't... don't kill me. I was only doing work for money. This is all a misunderstanding..."

Jiang Wang looked at the veiled-hat man slowly kneeling to the ground and said, "Do you think I believe you?"

The veiled-hat man curled up, making hoarse hacking sounds in his throat.

He raised his head with difficulty and stared at Jiang Wang's face. "The person who wants you dead is surnamed Du. I'm only a blade he bought with money. As long as you spare me, I'll help you get rid of that man, and I won't take a single coin..."

Jiang Wang remained silent.

The veiled-hat man crawled into Qixia Street and grabbed Jiang Wang's trouser leg, coughing blood again in his agitation.

His face was full of pleading, and he was even sobbing so hard that he could not speak, yet a trace of venomous resentment flickered in his eyes.

Jiang Wang bent down and pried open his hand. In that instant, a cold gleam suddenly burst forth.

The veiled-hat man actually had another two-inch sword in his hand, and it stabbed straight toward Jiang Wang's throat with ferocious speed.

"I'm going to become Kutan's strongest Jianli! I can't lose! The one who should die is you!"

The veiled-hat man was hysterical.

Jiang Wang remained bent over, his expression calm.

The tiny sword was three inches from him.

His right hand tightly gripped the veiled-hat man's sword-wielding wrist.

He forcibly twisted that wrist to an utterly horrifying angle. Amid the veiled-hat man's shrill scream, the tiny sword plunged into his throat.

The scream stopped abruptly.

As the veiled-hat man's consciousness faded, he heard Jiang Wang's indifferent voice. "If your sword hadn't stopped at the very beginning, I would have been dead beyond all doubt. You talk too much. You're completely unfit to be an assassin."

The last thing that flashed through the veiled-hat man's mind was something his teacher had once said.

Though he possessed the ruthlessness a Jianli should have, even to the point of being somewhat twisted, a Jianli's task was to kill with a single strike, not to find pleasure in slaughter and thereby forget his own identity.

Jiang Wang, somewhat weak, held onto Xiaoyu and asked in confusion, "What's a Jianli?"

Xiaoyu's face was flushed red as she struggled to support Jiang Wang's body. Pressing her lips together, she said, "They're similar to assassins in the martial world, but to become a Jianli, one must at minimum be in the Martial Third Realm. There are even cultivators among them. The people who hunted me down back then were Jianli."

Jiang Wang fell into thought.

He had never asked Xiaoyu about her identity, but the fact that she knew so much was already enough to prove many things.

"Surnamed Du..."

Though there were many people in Hun City with the surname Du, the only one who had the money to hire a Jianli and wanted him dead could only be one person, no matter how he considered it.

But he had not thought he had such a deep grudge with the Du Family.

The facts were already laid bare before him.

No matter what the truth was, he had no reason to swallow his anger and suffer in silence.

To avoid another Jianli appearing, he decided to return to the manor first.

The Du Family was in South City Alley. Once Jiang Wang left Qixia Street, he was naturally a good-for-nothing who could not go there himself.

He only needed to command from within the marquis's manor, and the Black Flame Army would trample the Du Family flat!