22, First Blood

Huang Yaoshi's expression was blank, his gaze cold and clear. He glanced at Lu Chen, then looked toward the cave and asked blandly:

"Why did you come out?"

The question lacked context, but Lu Chen understood what he meant and answered calmly:

"The cave is too small. Rong'er is still just a young girl and understands nothing. I cannot take advantage of her because of that."

Huang Rong knew a little about music, chess, calligraphy, painting, mathematics, the five elements, strange gates and hidden formations, mechanisms, and array formations. She was even a legendary chef, practically an all-rounder. The only thing she knew nothing about was relations between men and women.

She still believed that children crawled out from under people's armpits.

Hearing his answer, Huang Yaoshi snorted coldly.

"You're quite the gentleman."

His tone was strange. It was impossible to tell whether he was praising or mocking him.

Lu Chen obviously had no good response to that, so he could only keep silent.

Huang Yaoshi said nothing either, merely watching him with cold eyes. The forest fell quiet for a time, filled only with the rustling of leaves in the evening breeze and the occasional chirping of night insects.

The atmosphere was somewhat stiff.

Huang Yaoshi's cold gaze carried immense pressure, yet Lu Chen showed no fear. His expression remained calm, neither servile nor overbearing, and his back stood perfectly straight.

After a long silence, Huang Yaoshi spoke again.

"Have you ever killed anyone?"

Lu Chen shook his head.

"Never."

Huang Yaoshi sneered.

"You've never even killed anyone or seen blood. What gives you the nerve to take Rong'er wandering through the martial world? That one sword of yours?"

Lu Chen fell silent for a moment before answering slowly. His voice was quiet, but his tone was exceptionally earnest.

"That one sword of mine! In all the world, aside from the Five Greats, anyone facing that sword must pay a price. As long as I remain standing, no one can harm Rong'er. And not only that..."

He looked Huang Yaoshi straight in the eye, his gaze filled with composed confidence.

"At most half a year from now, even the Five Greats will have no choice but to avoid the edge of my sword!"

As Sword One now stood, if the Five Greats held weapons, they could easily block it. Even if they received it barehanded, they would suffer at most a minor loss.

But Lu Chen believed that he needed only half a year. After half a year, before his Sword One, even the Five Greats would have no other option but to dodge aside.

Huang Yaoshi gave a scornful smile.

"In half a year, even the Five Greats will have to avoid your sword's edge? You certainly have quite the mouth!"

As he spoke, he flicked a soybean into the forest beside him.

A muffled groan came from the woods. Only then did Lu Chen notice that there was someone else inside.

Was that person brought by Huang Yaoshi?

As he was wondering, Huang Yaoshi said coldly:

"Get over here!"

From that tone, Lu Chen could already confirm that the person in the woods had indeed been brought by Huang Yaoshi.

He had likely had his acupoints sealed earlier, and Huang Yaoshi had now released them with the Finger Flicking Skill.

Footsteps sounded.

A middle-aged man emerged from the woods, carrying a single-edged saber. His skin was dark, his face fierce, and a centipede-like scar ran across his left cheek.

Lu Chen noticed that the man's eyes were filled with terror whenever he looked at Huang Yaoshi. He had clearly suffered greatly at Huang Yaoshi's hands.

With his hands clasped behind his back, Huang Yaoshi said blandly:

"This man is named Xue Wu. He is the leader of the river bandits on the Cao'e River. He has dozens of lives on his hands, and his cultivation far surpasses yours. His Wind Splitting Saber is also somewhat impressive. Kill him. Let me see whether your sword is truly sharp enough."

After a pause, he looked at Xue Wu again.

"Defeat him, and I will spare your life."

The river bandit leader Xue Wu's eyes lit up. Out of habit, he licked his lips and looked at Lu Chen with a fierce, bloodthirsty gaze, as though he were looking at a fat sheep ready for slaughter.

Lu Chen disliked that look. He had only just frowned when Xue Wu lunged before him in a single stride, his steel saber sweeping out a snow-bright arc as it slashed diagonally toward Lu Chen's neck.

The saber howled viciously through the air, heavy and powerful, revealing the man's solid foundation in saber techniques.

Lu Chen's longsword rang from its sheath. He raised it horizontally to block, and when saber and sword collided, a crisp metallic clang erupted, scattering several dazzling sparks.

Though he blocked the strike, Xue Wu's internal force was indeed far stronger than Lu Chen's. With one blow, he knocked Lu Chen's sword aside. The force of the impact even traveled down the blade to the hilt, numbing Lu Chen's fingers and palm.

From that one exchange, Lu Chen knew Huang Yaoshi had spoken the truth. This river bandit leader's cultivation truly far surpassed his own. Borrowing the rebounding force, he drifted backward, causing Xue Wu's follow-up slash after knocking his sword aside to cut through empty air.

Xue Wu had not expected to kill Lu Chen in one or two strikes. After testing and discovering that Lu Chen's cultivation was inferior to his own, his spirits soared, and he saw hope of survival. He unleashed the Wind Splitting Saber Technique and attacked with all his strength. His steel saber stirred up a piercing wind, like a violent gale sweeping forward in an unbroken barrage of slashes at Lu Chen.

Facing the viciously swift saber attacks, Lu Chen's expression did not change. He used his movement technique to support his swordplay as he circled and fought.

Though he had studied Peach Blossom Island's movement technique for only a few days, his footwork had already captured much of its essence. As he shifted, moved, dodged, and turned, he was not only swift as the wind but also graceful and unrestrained.

While using his movement technique to temporarily avoid the edge of Xue Wu's saberplay, his longsword would also strike back whenever an opening appeared, using the Maiden of Yue Swordplay and Falling Blossom Swordplay. At times, his sword intent was as brutal as a battlefield slaughter; at others, it was as dazzling as falling blossoms in full bloom. Each time, it forced Xue Wu's assault to falter slightly.

Xue Wu had wanted to force a collision between saber and sword, relying on his superior cultivation to overwhelm Lu Chen, knock his sword away, and win easily.

Yet Lu Chen's footwork was elusive, while his swordsmanship was both real and illusory, impossible to grasp. He never allowed his sword to clash with Xue Wu's steel saber. As a result, after Xue Wu launched more than ten consecutive attacks, aside from their first collision, saber and sword did not meet even once. The forest was filled only with the ceaseless sound of blades slicing through the air.

The first burst of effort was strongest; the second weakened; the third was exhausted.

After attacking for more than ten moves without success, Xue Wu's momentum gradually lost its earlier ferocity.

Lu Chen, meanwhile, remained patient. Without haste or impatience, he continued circling and fighting, his swordsmanship like spring rain moistening all things, yet also like a spider spinning its web, slowly laying a deadly trap.

After several dozen more exchanges, Xue Wu suddenly realized that he seemed to be an insect caught in a spiderweb. At some unknown moment, sword light had filled every direction around him, impossible to distinguish as real or false, flickering in and out of sight.

The more he struggled, the tighter the "web" woven from sword light bound him. Though his cultivation far exceeded his opponent's, he could not find any way to use his strength. Not only could he not suppress Lu Chen with brute force, even his desperate saber moves intended to counterattack were often cut short midway by one seemingly inspired stroke from Lu Chen.

As Xue Wu fought on, he gritted his teeth harder and harder. Gradually, his mind grew restless, until fear began to rise within him.

He could not understand it. With cultivation so far beyond his opponent's, with saber skills that were not bad at all, how had he ended up in such a situation? Panicked, his saberplay began to grow disorderly without his noticing.

Seeing Xue Wu's saber momentum descend into chaos, Lu Chen, who had patiently been "weaving his web," immediately drew it tight without mercy. Several feints lured Xue Wu's saber aside, exposing a fatal opening, and Lu Chen seized it with a sudden thrust.

Pfft!

Sword light flashed. Amid the sound of steel piercing flesh, the sword tip had already plunged deep into Xue Wu's throat.

The instant his strike landed, Lu Chen did not hesitate. He immediately drew his sword and retreated, avoiding Xue Wu's final deathbed counterattack.

Xue Wu's saber struck empty air. He planted the steel saber against the ground and clutched his throat tightly with one hand, yet he could not stop the blood gushing out like a fountain.

His eyes widened as he stared unwillingly at Lu Chen. A few indistinct gurgles came from his throat before he toppled headfirst to the ground. After struggling a few times, he stopped breathing.

Lu Chen flicked his sword in an arc, shaking the blood droplets from its tip. He bowed to Huang Yaoshi and said in a deep voice:

"Senior, this man's martial arts were too poor. He was not worthy of making me use the Ultimate Sword."

Xue Wu's cultivation was higher than his.

But higher cultivation did not mean absolute superiority.

Especially in a fight with cold weapons, in this low-martial world, before steel sabers and iron swords, even the Five Greats were only flesh and blood.

As for techniques, Xue Wu's Wind Splitting Saber was indeed fierce.

But Lu Chen had already thoroughly mastered the Maiden of Yue Swordplay and Falling Blossom Swordplay. He had even cultivated both sword arts until they possessed spirit and essence, allowing him to use them freely at will.

Then there was combat experience.

Though Lu Chen did not have dozens of lives on his hands like Xue Wu, he had sparred with Huang Yaoshi several times and received much guidance from him. With Huang Yaoshi suppressing his cultivation to Lu Chen's level, Lu Chen could already hold on for forty or fifty moves without defeat.

Such sparring experience was also combat experience, and it was even more precious than fighting and killing people in the martial world.

With such swordsmanship and such experience, a mere river bandit leader—even if his cultivation was above Lu Chen's—would still give him a chance to win so long as his martial arts did not utterly overwhelm Lu Chen. He would not even need to use White Rainbow Piercing the Sun.

Huang Yaoshi did not even glance at the river bandit leader's corpse lying on the ground. He only observed Lu Chen with cold eyes.

He saw that after killing a man, Lu Chen displayed neither the nervous panic of a first kill nor bloodthirsty excitement. Instead, his breathing was steady, his eyes bright, and his emotions calm and undisturbed.

After observing him carefully for a while and confirming that Lu Chen was not merely pretending to be calm, Huang Yaoshi said coldly:

"Take good care of Rong'er. If she suffers even the slightest harm, I will take your life."

After saying that, he glanced toward the cave, picked up Xue Wu's corpse, and drifted away with a flutter of his robes. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared into the forest.

Lu Chen watched Huang Yaoshi leave, somewhat surprised by his own calm after killing someone.

But on second thought, he was the man chosen by the Sword Intent of Extermination of Immortals... no, not chosen—the man who had already experienced the great terror between life and death.

Though he had not personally experienced life-and-death danger in this life in the Main World, he had seen plenty of horrifying news reports. His will had long been tempered. Remaining unfazed after killing someone for the first time was only natural.

He withdrew his gaze from the corpse and looked toward the cave. Huang Rong was walking out from its entrance with a dagger in hand. She had clearly been awakened by the commotion of Lu Chen's fight with Xue Wu, then hidden at the cave entrance after seeing the situation, ready to secretly throw flying daggers to help him at any moment.

"Rong'er, I won." Lu Chen smiled slightly. "Your father will not take you back."

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