Slaying a Martial Warrior

"Die!"

Cui Xiao stared as the Protective Barrier shattered, then raised the blade in his hand again, ready to finish off the youth and seize his resources.

Just then, four or five Spirit Stones the size of copper coins suddenly fell from Jiang Ping An's robes.

The crystal-clear Spirit Stones emitted a soft, warm glow.

Cui Xiao's pupils contracted.

Spirit Stones!

That kid actually had something so precious!

This war between nations had been started over the mineral veins of these things!

Wait, why did his neck hurt so much?

Huh? Why was there a headless body in front of him...

No! That was his body!

His head had fallen off!

Cui Xiao's enormous head hit the ground, his eyes wide with disbelief.

It had been a battle he was certain to win, yet in the end, he was the one who died.

The moment he saw the Spirit Stones, his mind had wavered. In that instant, Jiang Ping An gathered all his spiritual energy into his hand and delivered a fatal blow.

The cheering soldiers fell abruptly silent, staring blankly at the scene before them.

Time seemed to freeze.

"Thud~"

The headless corpse collapsed, kicking up dust.

"The captain is dead!"

"The captain was killed!"

The soldiers who had been cheering moments ago turned terrified, mounted their horses, and fled madly.

There was no question about their captain's strength. Even when surrounded and attacked by a hundred men, he could flee with ease.

Yet he had been killed by this youth!

They feared death and did not dare linger for even a moment, terrified that, like their captain, their heads would be moved from their shoulders.

Jiang Ping An breathed rapidly, his heart pounding wildly. If he had been even a fraction slower, he would have been the one to die.

This incident taught him two things.

First, before figuring out an opponent's strength, he could not rashly make a move again unless absolutely necessary.

Second, he must never be greedy.

He carved these survival lessons deep into his heart, lest something like this happen again.

He had no teacher and no one to guide him on his path. Everything depended on himself.

Without stopping to catch his breath, Jiang Ping An searched the man's corpse.

He quickly found two books and a bottle of medicine labeled Blood Qi Pill.

The two books were called "Blood Qi Art" and "Phantom Blade."

He did not know what the Blood Qi Art was, but he knew about the Phantom Blade.

During the fight, he had clearly seen himself block the opponent's blade, yet that blade would somehow always break through his defense and strike the Protective Barrier.

He did not know what these Blood Qi Pills did either, so he put them away for now.

Jiang Ping An picked up the other man's treasured saber and gave it a quick look.

The saber was entirely black, two fingers wide, and nearly as long as he was tall. Its blade was very narrow; if not for its slight curve, it would have looked more like a sword.

That soldier's attacks had been so fierce because of this saber. An ordinary Military Saber could not possibly clash with it.

Without time for a closer inspection, Jiang Ping An took the saber, collected the several hundred taels of silver from the dead horse, and ran swiftly toward the mountains.

He had killed Soldiers. They would definitely not let him go. Flat Water County had four thousand iron cavalry, and this man had only been one captain among them. There were surely stronger people.

With his current cultivation, he could not withstand stronger opponents, nor could he even withstand being besieged by a group of ordinary soldiers.

Jiang Ping An came before the two graves and knelt directly on the ground, tears welling from his eyes.

"Father, Mother, your son is leaving."

"When you were alive, you often told your son to be a good child and not stir up trouble. I tried hard to obey."

"But in this world, good people do not live long."

"I will not be a rotten good man, but neither will I become a bastard who slaughters the innocent."

"Once I leave this time, I do not know whether I will return alive to offer incense to you."

"If there is reincarnation in this world, then in my next life, I will still be your child."

"If there are immortals in this world, I will definitely set foot upon the immortal path and bring you back to life!"

"Father, Mother, your son is leaving. Those who drove you to your deaths will all die!"

Jiang Ping An heavily kowtowed three times, then slowly rose.

He strapped the long saber to his back, wiped away his tears, and his expression became resolute.

His hair danced in the wind as the youth carried his bag and bore the long saber on his back, walking into the forest whose end could not be seen.

Before the two graves, two little white flowers growing together swayed gently in the wind, like family bidding farewell to a wandering child, softly waving goodbye.

The setting sun swept across the woods and shone upon the youth as he walked farther and farther away, lonely and desolate.

Flat Water County, inside a tavern.

A middle-aged man had an arm around two bashful beauties as he laughed and chatted. Before him was a spread of Delicacies, every dish extraordinarily valuable.

"Great General, something has happened!"

A soldier in armor hurried in.

The middle-aged man's expression darkened. He shot to his feet. "Has the Great Summer Kingdom attacked?"

"No. Middle Captain Cui Xiao was killed by a lowly commoner!" Chen Sheng, the soldier delivering the report, said.

"Damn it, you scared This Old Man half to death!"

The middle-aged man kicked the soldier to the ground, then sat back down and resumed eating and drinking with the two women in his arms.

"But Cui Xiao was a Martial Warrior, comparable to a cultivator at the Qi Refining Third Layer. How did an ordinary villager kill him?" the middle-aged man asked doubtfully.

The reporting soldier roughly recounted the information he had received, leaving out the matter of the Bandits paying money and their attempt to seize the farmland. He spoke only of their investigation into the missing soldiers.

"Interesting. There is actually a cultivator. Looks like he stumbled upon a small opportunity."

The middle-aged man took a bite of food fed to him by one of the beauties and said indifferently, "Send several other Middle Captains to deal with that brat. Whoever gets the opportunity will depend on his luck."

"Today, this lowly commoner dared rebel. Tomorrow, other lowly commoners will want to rebel. Teach these lowly commoners a lesson—kill the chicken to scare the monkeys."

The middle-aged man had no interest in Jiang Ping An's possessions, but to ordinary soldiers, the youth's opportunity held immense appeal.

Moreover, this youth had to be killed, to cool the heads of those who wanted to resist.

"Yes, General."

The reporting soldier withdrew respectfully. The women's pleasant laughter continued to drift from the room.

When the Middle Captains of Flat Water County heard of this, every one of them grew tremendously excited.

A Cultivation Method! It was something they had dreamed of obtaining!

Cultivation methods were expensive. Ordinary people like them could not obtain them and could only cultivate blood qi—that was, Body Refining.

But Body Refining had great limitations, and excessive cultivation could easily shorten one's lifespan.

Having a Cultivation Method was different. It could increase one's lifespan and make one stronger.

According to the soldiers who had been present, the reason that youth had been able to kill Cui Xiao was entirely because several white stones had fallen from his robes, causing Cui Xiao to die through carelessness.

That proved the youth was not strong!

They guessed that the white stones that had fallen out were likely Spirit Stones. Otherwise, they could not possibly have made Cui Xiao lose focus.

Spirit Stones were extremely precious. Even if ordinary people did not cultivate, carrying Spirit Stones on their person could ward off illness and prolong their lives.

The youth was weaker than Cui Xiao, yet he possessed a Cultivation Method, Spirit Stones, a protective talisman, and a Storage Treasure.

Any one of those things was enough to make them act, let alone all four appearing at once!

These Middle Captains were ecstatic, as though Jiang Ping An were already meat in their bowls.

Wave after wave of soldiers left Flat Water County's city and headed for Great River Village.

Yet they did not notice a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old youth standing at the city gate, calmly watching them leave.

Who could have imagined that the youth they were pursuing had come to their headquarters?