"Brothers, the gang has fed and sheltered us well. Now it's our turn to fight for our lives."
Contrary to Lin Xiao's expectations, Cheng Liang did not flee. Instead, he fearlessly led more than a dozen men in charging at the dozens of Iron Oar Hall members—several times their number. This made Lin Xiao look at him in a new light. He had already prepared himself to fight alone.
If even his subordinates weren't afraid to die, then he had even less reason to be afraid. Besides, he had nothing to fear.
Soldiers against soldiers, generals against generals—this was an unspoken rule in the struggles between gangs of the martial world. Lan Xinghe pulled two Silver Thread Gloves from his robes and put them on. Still smiling, he strode toward Lin Xiao, clearly brimming with confidence.
Lin Xiao dismounted, drew the Hundred-Forged Fine Steel Saber with a ringing clang, tossed aside the scabbard, and turned to meet Lan Xinghe. Both sides moved faster and faster. After three steps, they were less than ten meters apart. Lan Xinghe suddenly stamped his feet against the hard road, leaving deep footprints. His speed abruptly increased as he brought his palms together, curved his five fingers into claws, and lunged straight for Lin Xiao's face.
Lin Xiao charged without yielding an inch. With a move from the Three Rivers Saber, Galloping Waves, he slashed down head-on. A full sixty years of Yang Sha internal force poured into the Hundred-Forged Fine Steel Saber, and the blade lit up with a faint radiance. Like a bolt of silk, it cleaved toward Lan Xinghe's claws.
The razor-sharp saber aura made Lan Xinghe's expression change slightly. He dared not meet it head-on and quickly changed moves, turning his claws into palms that struck toward the descending blade.
"Clang! Clang!"
The saber and palms met and separated at once. Borrowing the force, Lan Xinghe sprang back five or six meters before landing steadily. His face filled with astonishment.
"Young Hall Master Lin, your internal force is astonishingly profound for someone so young. You've truly shocked this old man!"
Lin Xiao also retreated several steps. After checking that the blade was completely undamaged, he looked up and smiled.
"Protector Lan will be even more surprised later."
"Oh? Then this old man will wait and see!"
With that, Lan Xinghe's figure blurred and split into two. Two silhouettes rushed at Lin Xiao from the left and right.
"What excellent footwork!"
Lin Xiao couldn't help praising it, but his hands did not slow. He swung his saber straight at the figure on the right.
He made no attempt to distinguish the real one from the fake. There was no need—he would simply strike first and worry about the rest later.
With the move Surging Waves, he cleaved through the figure on the right, scattering it into nothing. It was the fake. The figure on the left had already closed in. Two palms struck Lin Xiao's left shoulder and waist, sending a fairly formidable current of internal force into his body. It tore violently through his meridians, wreaking havoc. But Lin Xiao had been prepared. One hundred and twenty years of internal cultivation was no mere decoration. He easily blocked the invading force without forcing it out, pretending instead to struggle as he lured Lan Xinghe into trying to subdue him in one overwhelming assault.
Lan Xinghe fell for it. No matter how cunning and experienced he was, he could never have imagined that a young man possessed one hundred and twenty years of internal cultivation. Thus, when he changed his palm into a claw and reached for the vital point behind Lin Xiao's waist, Lin Xiao's sixty years of Yang Sha Technique internal force and sixty years of Yin Sha Technique internal force erupted simultaneously. They not only blasted out all the power Lan Xinghe had driven into his body, but also followed the hand gripping his waist and rebounded into Lan Xinghe's palm and Three Yang Meridians.
Lan Xinghe, who had thought he had succeeded, instantly paled and shouted in alarm. But it was already too late. Lin Xiao's profound internal force turned the tables in one stroke. Reversing his grip, he brought down his saber. With a crisp crack, an aged head soared into the sky, while hot blood gushed more than two meters high like a fountain.
Lan Xinghe had been killed with a single saber stroke. Only a few exchanges had passed from the start of the fight to its end—the speed was simply too fast. The subordinates of both sides, still locked in a chaotic melee nearby, had not yet noticed. Lin Xiao did not raise Lan Xinghe's head and shout for both sides to stop. Instead, he lunged into the battlefield and split an Iron Boat Gang member, oar and all, in two with one stroke.
These were all walking Potential Points. He could not afford to waste them.
Only after he had killed five in a row did someone notice the headless corpse on the ground. Someone shouted that Protector Lan was dead, and the remaining Iron Boat Gang members immediately lost morale and fled in all directions. Lin Xiao chased after them and killed seven or eight in one breath before stopping.
Afterward, they cleared the battlefield. More than a dozen Iron Boat Gang members had died in total, while only one of Lin Xiao's side had fallen, though every survivor was injured.
Fortunately, he had killed Lan Xinghe too quickly. If he had been any slower, those injured men would probably have died as well. After all, the Iron Boat Gang had the numbers, with several surrounding each opponent.
The dozen-plus wounded subordinates happily cleaned the battlefield, searching the corpses for valuables. More than a dozen oar-sabers were gathered and piled together. These were all their spoils of war.
Having survived such a calamity, everyone was elated. Their admiration for Lin Xiao rose with a whoosh, like a rocket blasting into the sky. Before, they had followed him partly because of their hall master's orders and partly because they wanted to gamble on their own futures. Now, they were simply grateful they had come. With such a powerful Hall Master leading them, their future would be far more than that of an ordinary underling.
Cheng Liang nudged the headless corpse on the ground with his foot, his face full of disbelief.
"Hall Master, do you know who he was?"
Lin Xiao was wiping his saber with a piece of white cloth. He rolled his eyes at Cheng Liang.
"Didn't he introduce himself? Protector Lan Xinghe of the Iron Boat Gang."
"Then, Hall Master, you don't feel anything at all?"
"What sort of feeling do you want?"
"Oh, heavens!"
Cheng Liang covered his forehead with one hand.
"The Iron Boat Gang's main headquarters also has four protectors, equal in rank to the four protectors at our own headquarters. You killed him, which means your martial arts are already no weaker than those experts."
"Oh. And what of it?"
Cheng Liang: ...
After everyone had collected the spoils and gathered the warhorses, Lin Xiao casually took one silver ingot and said:
"You can divide the rest among yourselves."
His subordinates immediately erupted in cheers.
He had no use for those things. What he wanted were treasures useful at his level, such as the pair of Silver Thread Gloves Lan Xinghe had worn and the one-star supreme-grade claw technique manual called Eagle Claw Technique that he had taken from Lan Xinghe's robes.
The name Eagle Claw Technique was extremely familiar and commonplace, much like Five Tigers Severing Gate Saber, which appeared in countless martial arts novels. It sounded so ordinary that one might think it cheap and worthless.
In reality, that was not the case. It was, after all, a one-star supreme-grade claw technique, and also Lan Xinghe's strongest art. He had even carried the manual with him at all times.
Lin Xiao picked up the manual and flipped through it. He decided on the spot to practice it.
For others, learning too many miscellaneous techniques was a major taboo. But for Lin Xiao, who possessed an attribute-based supernatural ability, there was no danger of biting off more than he could chew. As long as he had enough Potential Points, he could learn as many martial arts techniques as he wanted.
Killing Lan Xinghe alone had earned him eighteen Potential Points, while killing thirteen Iron Boat Gang members had given him only three. Adding the two points he had left before, he now had a total of twenty-three Potential Points.
Thus, killing ordinary soldiers yielded practically nothing. As his strength grew, the rewards would become even lower, forcing him to seek out powerful experts and challenge them wherever he could.
Of course, each ordinary soldier was worth little, but with enough of them, even trickles could form a river. After all, there were only so many experts under heaven—it was impossible to kill them all.
Perhaps it was a coincidence, but after accumulating twenty-three Potential Points in total, raising Flying Heaven Steps from the second layer to the third required ten Potential Points, while raising it from the third to the fourth required thirteen. It was exactly twenty-three points—just enough to spend them all and raise Flying Heaven Steps to the fourth layer.
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