Slaying Han Qian

Returning home, Wei Fan picked up a bag of things and headed out again. Inside were none other than the manuals he had acquired before, along with some gold and silver.

This trip to Su City to join the Demon Suppressing Division meant he had no idea when he would return, so naturally he had to leave some things behind for his sister's family.

Recently, he had done quite a lot for Cloud City, but he had also offended many people. That was why he had kept in touch with his sister's family, but now that his enemies were either dead or captured, there was no longer any need for such concerns.

After walking for a while, a small courtyard came into view. It was not even as nice as the one Wei Fan lived in himself.

His brother-in-law's family was not wealthy. They were merely an ordinary household, making a living through handicrafts.

"Uncle! Hug..."

The moment he stepped through the gate, his nephew came running over. Wei Fan immediately bent down and scooped him up.

"Xiao Fan, why are you here?!"

Hearing the commotion, his sister and brother-in-law came out as well.

"I came to see you!"

Holding his nephew, Wei Fan entered the house and sat down, casually setting aside the bag he had brought. Before long, the siblings began chatting about everyday matters.

They talked until late into the night. Only after explaining that he was going to the Demon Suppressing Division and leaving behind all the things he had brought did Wei Fan get up to leave.

"He's here!"

"The instant he opens the door, I'll cleave out with my blade. Even if he's a fifth-level Aperture Opening expert, he'll still die with hatred in his heart!"

"Once I kill him, I'll leave Cloud City overnight and catch up with Han Bai and the others. Even if people from the Demon Suppressing Division come in person, they won't be able to find out that I was the one who killed him."

Han Qian stood behind the gate of Wei Fan's courtyard, holding his breath as he waited for the instant Wei Fan opened the door.

According to the information he had gathered, Wei Fan's combat strength was roughly at the third level of Aperture Opening. Han Qian himself was at the fourth level of Aperture Opening. With a sneak attack, he was confident he could kill even a fifth-level Aperture Opening expert with one slash.

"Hm? The footsteps stopped. Did he discover me?"

He realized that the approaching footsteps had stopped just as they neared the gate, without coming forward to open it.

"Come out. Trying to ambush me from behind the door?"

Just as uncertainty filled his heart, a calm voice came from the other side of the gate.

"How did he discover me? Is he deliberately trying to bait me out?"

While Han Qian still found it hard to believe that his ambush had been exposed, an aura began rising outside.

At that moment, he understood that the other party had truly discovered him. If he did not come out now, the other party would smash the gate to pieces.

"You're quite alert, to actually notice me. But I'm curious—since you discovered me, why didn't you play along and attack me?"

Han Qian opened the gate and saw Wei Fan standing a short distance away, one hand resting on the hilt of his saber, his face showing no surprise.

Wei Fan shook his head. "Because I don't want to chop up my own gate and have to find someone to repair it tomorrow."

As he looked at the man before him with his face covered by black cloth, the panel began to flash:

Han Qian: Fourth Level Aperture Opening, murders for treasure, kills innocents indiscriminately

Kill him to obtain 40 years of cultivation

Wei Fan preferred killing demons and monsters, because they dropped more cultivation.

The black-clad man before him, Han Qian, was at the fourth level of Aperture Opening, on the same level as Old Bear's fourth grade of the True Realm. Yet Old Bear could drop one hundred and sixty years of cultivation, while Han Qian could only drop forty.

A flicker of surprise flashed through Han Qian's only visible eye. He had not expected that Wei Fan had declined to play along and ambush him simply because he did not want to damage his own gate. "It seems you're very confident. You think you can kill me even without a sneak attack!"

"Tell me who you are and why you came to kill me. Then I can give you a quick death."

Wei Fan was in no rush to make a move.

A fourth-level Aperture Opening expert was practically nonexistent in a small place like Cloud City. Ordinary families simply could not afford to keep such an expert.

Since such a person had come to assassinate him, it would be best to get to the bottom of things. If Han Qian had other allies behind him, he could wipe them out together.

"Young people really are arrogant. You killed a few demons and monsters in a place where even the inheritance is incomplete, and you really think you're invincible?"

He had already confirmed that the person before him was Constable Wei Fan, because this arrogance was almost exactly the same as the Wei Fan he had heard about.

Han Qian immediately said, "Enough nonsense. I'll send you on your way. Remember in your next life not to be so arrogant!"

He raised his treasured saber, and with a single stride, sent a streak of saber qi slashing toward Wei Fan.

Before the saber qi even arrived, an icy chill surged in all directions, causing the temperature of the air to plummet as though winter had suddenly descended.

Wei Fan's expression did not change. His palm abruptly swelled, a faint roar rising from his body, and with one slap, he shattered Han Qian's saber qi.

"Catching saber qi barehanded?"

Han Qian's eyes nearly popped out. Was his body forged from iron?

His saber qi had not even broken the other man's skin, leaving only a few ice crystals on his hand.

Wasn't Wei Fan's strongest technique Dragon's Roar Sky Shattering Finger? How had he become a Body Refinement Master as well?

In an instant, Han Qian realized that the intelligence he had gathered was completely wrong.

"That's all you've got? I thought you were something special. You're not even as good as that Old Bear outside the city."

Wei Fan moved like lightning. Without even drawing his blade, he strode forward and struck with another palm.

Giant Bear Palm was not weak. As the only True Meaning Martial Arts he had mastered, this palm technique ranked among the top of his killing moves. It only seemed somewhat weak when used against Old Bear, whose strength surpassed his and whose body was terrifyingly tough.

In an instant, the air erupted with a thunderous boom, and a horrifying pressure like Mount Tai collapsing overhead slammed toward Han Qian.

"True Meaning Martial Arts—a horizontal training palm technique!"

Han Qian's pupils contracted sharply. A huge roar rang through the night, as though he were witnessing a rampaging bear fly into a rage.

He desperately pulled back his treasured blade and hacked at the enormous palm.

In the darkness, the dazzling blade light almost condensed into solid form as it instantly struck the incoming palm.

This slash was even fiercer than the previous one.

Clang!

A dull, resounding crash echoed out. Han Qian felt as though he had struck a massive mountain barreling toward him. In an instant, his blade light shattered, the web between his thumb and forefinger split open, and his treasured blade flew from his grip, nearly shearing off his own head.

"Close one!"

Cold sweat drenched him. If not for his protective true qi knocking the treasured blade aside, he would have been killed by his own weapon.

"This is a monster. Run!"

Almost instantly, he abandoned all thought of killing Wei Fan to avenge City Lord Pan. Their strengths were not even on the same level. That terrifying, unyielding brute force, that body seemingly forged from refined steel—he did not even have the right to break through Wei Fan's defenses.

Yet the moment that thought arose, before he could act on it, the large hand that had sent his treasured blade flying smashed through his protective true qi like splitting bamboo and seized him by the throat.

"Urgh..."

The suffocating sensation, coupled with the agonizing pain of his neck nearly being crushed, forced a pained sound from him.

"Now then, can you tell me why you came to kill me?"

Wei Fan tore away the black cloth in one pull. What he saw was the face of a middle-aged man, still frozen with lingering terror.

"Dream on. If you have the skill, kill me. Someone will avenge me someday!"

Han Qian found that he could breathe again. Though frightened, he did not yield.

Wei Fan revealed a kindly smile. "There's no rush to kill you. Didn't you want someone to avenge you? But what if they refuse? Tell me who sent you to kill me, and I'll go find them. Then someone will definitely help you take revenge. Doesn't that make sense?"

It sounded perfectly reasonable!

A flicker of hesitation instantly appeared on Han Qian's face, only to vanish just as quickly. "Wishful thinking!"

That was close. He had nearly been fooled into revealing his identity.