Shattered Blades! Broken Swords! Armor Piercing! Begging for Reader Engagement! Please Vote!

When away from home, it is best not to recklessly expose one's blood relations; otherwise, it is very easy to attract the attention of compassionate, greatly merciful figures like Jiang Lin.

People like Jiang Lin had one major flaw: he was too kind-hearted, unable to bear the slightest parting of ways through life and death in this mortal world. Whenever he witnessed such a thing, he always thought of contributing a bit of the strength within his power.

"I thought there would be a lot of incoming people, but I didn't expect it to just be you lot?" Jiang Lin glanced at his notched Flame Sword, then stood up and looked at the Rock Tiger not far away, along with the four remaining Dou Masters.

From start to finish, he had basically been fighting using his physical stamina, rarely using Dou Qi. Thus, the Dou Qi within his body was still quite abundant.

Upon hearing this, the four opposing Dou Masters turned cold. They looked at the notched Dou Artifact weapons in their hands, then looked at the cuts running along Jiang Lin's Black Knight Armor, shock filling their hearts.

From the relentless chase all the way down the mountain, lasting nearly half an hour, Jiang Lin—whose stamina was like an ox's—had stubbornly endured their attacks and rapidly cleared out the black-robed men below the Dou Master rank. Without the Dou Qi Garments condensed by Dou Master cultivation, they couldn't withstand Jiang Lin's Flame Sword at all. They collapsed at a single touch, and upon collapsing were either dead or maimed. As for their attacks landing on Jiang Lin, aside from ceaselessly sparking and leaving blade marks, they had almost zero effect.

If any ordinary Dou Master had been swapped in, several terrifying and fatal wounds would already have been left on their body under these attacks.

Yet their opponent was unexpectedly still just an utterly ordinary, mediocre two-star Dou Zhe?!

Bang!

Rock Tiger activated his Dou Qi Armor, directly and bare-handedly hurling a phantom Dou Qi fist toward Jiang Lin. Jiang Lin blocked horizontally with his sword. The earth-yellow Dou Qi fist violently slammed into the Flame Sword, and under the force of the recoil, Jiang Lin rapidly retreated. He then activated the lightness effect on his combat boots, swiftly fleeing toward the distant, blazing forest.

"If you have the guts, stop right there!!!" The black-robed Dou Masters in the rear were momentarily stunned, then flew into a rage, rapidly giving chase to Jiang Lin—who looked completely covered in severe injuries. Rock Tiger also pursued, but his speed was a weak point, and he could barely keep up with the other black-robed Dou Masters.

Soon, the other black-robed Dou Masters caught up to Jiang Lin once more. Amidst flashing blades and sword shadows, Jiang Lin detonated a Magic Core, forcefully slaying one black-robed Dou Master, and then began running again until he was caught by the other Dou Masters once more.

Bang!

Amidst the encirclement, Jiang Lin brandished his heavy sword and executed a Triple Whirlwind Slash. While shattering the weapons of three men simultaneously, during the final leap, the last Magic Core on the Flame Sword was explosively ignited. Borrowing the momentum, Jiang Lin let out a furious roar, enduring the soreness in his arms to guide the momentum. Drawing an arc, the potent force directly blasted three Dou Masters flying, inflicting extremely severe fractures upon them. They tumbled down in the distance, their eyes filled with terror, no longer daring to step forward.

Jiang Lin, who had just wanted to catch his breath, suddenly felt his eyelids twitch. He rolled straight across the ground, using the battle-scarred Flame Sword as a shield to protect his body.

Swish, swish, swish!

In the night, three Dou Qi arrows suddenly blasted out from the dark forest in the distance!

Clang, clang, clang!

Jiang Lin had no time to linger, rapidly shifting sideways. Along the way, he glanced at the Flame Sword in his hand, and his eyelids couldn't help twitching because he saw a pale-golden arrow directly pierce his Flame Sword, wedging itself into the side! If he had taken that arrow and paid the slightest bit of attention, his Black Knight Armor would have been shot clean through!

He had appeared—the Artifact Forger in the shadows, Pei Suo!

Meanwhile, because of his speed, Rock Tiger—who had been left behind by them all this time—arrived fashionably late, blocking right on Jiang Lin's escape route.

"Oh?" Behind Jiang Lin, a somewhat surprised voice rang out. In the darkness, a black-robed person holding a Dou Artifact bow of exaggerated design slowly walked out.

"You keep surprising me, Jiang Lin." Pei Suo, a three-star Dou Master and Intermediate Yellow-grade Artifact Forger, held the Yellow-grade mid-tier Dou Artifact Golden Feather Bow, looking with an admiring gaze at Jiang Lin, who was continually retreating sideways.

"Ahem, I don't know you!" Jiang Lin slowly backed away until the positions of the three formed a triangle, at which point he slowly stopped. He fished a red crystal out from his bosom, then gripped it tightly in his palm.

"Of course, you don't know me. I was just passing through Wutan City on my way to the Jia Ma Imperial Capital when I happened to hear news of you, which caught my attention," Pei Suo said coldly.

"A Dou Zhe of less than two years of cultivation, various mysterious weapon refinings—all of this ceaselessly demonstrates that you have obtained the inheritance of an artifact forging senior of at least Mysterious-grade low tier."

"..." Jiang Lin didn't know how to explain either. With a loud clank, he simply silently pressed the red crystal in his hand right into the slot of the pierced Flame Burst Armor-Slaying Sword.

"So you didn't even ask, and prepared to forcefully take it?" Jiang Lin actually couldn't understand at all why this bastard Pei Suo had started preparing to secretly beat him to death without a single word.

If this bastard had just exposed the fact that he was also an Artifact Forger, Jiang Lin—an artifact forger from humble roots—might even have proactively crawled up to suck up to him.

"Hmph! There are no seats for the weak in the world of the strong!" Pei Suo snorted coldly.

"..." Jiang Lin understood. He had bad luck and met an idiot. Such a fine matter, yet they had to make it so complicated. If you explained it to him, this idiot still maintained a refusal-to-listen attitude.

"Hmph! Strong one! Or someone who thinks himself strong!" Jiang Lin also snorted coldly. This pretension was one he had to return in kind.

"So, I am waiting for my cooldown, and you—what are you waiting for?!"

Dou Qi surged throughout his entire body, rapidly converging toward his lower half. Explosive Step activated, dark thunder rumbling, and Jiang Lin instantly transformed into a black blur, dragging his heavy sword as he charged straight at Pei Suo.

Screech!

Under the instantaneous burst of speed, Jiang Lin tilted his head slightly, and an arrow grazed a spark across his helmet. Dragging his blade upward in an upper cut, he directly sent Pei Suo's Golden Feather Bow flying with the shock.

The time between the two seemed to instantly slow down. Pei Suo voluntarily released the Golden Feather Bow, and taking advantage of the moment when Jiang Lin's heavy sword swept past the top of his head and his fresh strength had not yet connected, his hand already reached for the sword at his waist. This armored fellow on the opposite side could run way too damn fast; after his sneak attack failed, Pei Suo understood that if he didn't show himself to act as bait, the target would definitely turn around and run.

Besides, who said an archer was necessarily bad at close combat? Pei Suo had chopped down quite a few enemies relying on this Bow and Sword Technique.

Yet just as his fingers touched the hilt, Pei Suo's gaze suddenly noticed that Jiang Lin had released the Flame Sword at almost the exact same time as him, his palm reaching toward his lower back.

The next instant,

Clang, clang, clang, clang!

Both parties simultaneously drew swords and blades, executing a frenzy of wild slashing. The rat-a-tat crashing sounds exploded continuously like a torrential rain, countless blade lights, sword shadows, electric arcs, and fire sparks erupting between the two!

"Ah!!!" Pei Suo roared furiously, attacking without defending as he clashed blades with Jiang Lin!

Clang, clang, clang, clang!

In merely a fraction of a second, the two hacked at each other dozens of times. Sparks continuously erupted from Jiang Lin's armor, while cuts and sparks likewise kept appearing on Pei Suo's robes. The identical Yellow-grade mid-tier swords and blades in the hands of the two had already developed dense, saw-toothed notches!

When Rock Tiger finally rushed over from the side, he discovered that the swords and blades of the two had snapped at almost the exact same time. Amidst the flickering mountain fire, the fragments reflected countless dazzling colors in the air!

The instant the weapons shattered, Jiang Lin—whose armor already showed bloodstains—picked up the Flame Sword that he had specially repositioned to appear beside him. A shield suddenly materialized in Pei Suo's hand, and the Flame Sword erupted with dazzling fire, colliding directly against the shield!

"Ah!!!"

Bang!

The second-grade Fire Magic Core instantly exploded!

Suddenly, the internal lines of the battle-scarred Flame Burst Armor-Slaying Sword flashed, and with a loud boom, the moment it contacted the shield, a violent explosion directly occurred. The already-notched blade snapped amidst the firelight, directly blasting past the side of the shield to leave a cut that shredded the inner armor on Pei Suo's shoulder.

Yet, before Pei Suo could feel the pain—his arms having been numbed by the shock, and with his shield pressed nearly against his head—he instinctively used the shield to block the blinding firelight and fragments of Jiang Lin's exploding Dou Artifact. However, a pair of hands suddenly reached out from within the flames, embraced him, and a broken blade stabbed with a squelch directly into his neck!

"What are you barking at?!!" Jiang Lin, whose armor was shattered to pieces, let out a furious roar right in Pei Suo's ear!