Slash!
The crisp, pleasant sound of a blade slicing through flesh sounded just like a gentle breeze turning the leaves.
Crow was a killer—and an expert one at that. So he had never missed.
The fruit knife, over a foot long, plunged into flesh and then drove forward without the slightest obstruction until it stopped at the hilt.
He had stabbed straight through Li Mu Yang's palm!
"Fuck me—" Crow cursed inwardly. "How did I stab that Black Charcoal's palm?"
He brooded in frustration, finding the result impossible to accept.
He had already smashed that bastard kid over the head with a fruit tray. By his estimation, the boy should have been lying on the ground with his head split open, unable to get up.
The target of his stab had also been Cui Xiaoxin's neck, because only she was worth Killer Crow's personal attention. An ordinary person's blood would merely sully his palm and clothes.
He was a very picky killer!
And yet, how had the fruit knife in his hand ended up piercing that useless boy's palm? This was not the kind of happiness he wanted.
Blood gushed from the split flesh, surging along the blade.
Only when that bright-red blood fell before his eyes did Li Mu Yang manage to confirm that he had blocked the attack.
He grinned and said smugly, "I blocked it—"
He actually felt no pain. His entire being was still drowning in the joy of blocking the attack for Cui Xiaoxin and saving her life.
He did not know how he had done it, just as Crow did not know why his stab had pierced Li Mu Yang's palm.
He had simply thrown himself forward without hesitation and reached for the dagger in Crow's hand.
Then the dagger ended up in his hand.
Oh, no—in his palm.
Li Mu Yang did not understand the crux of the matter, but Crow did.
Just as he had seen earlier, Li Mu Yang was merely an ordinary boy. A useless fellow who would pant and sweat at the forehead whenever his emotions became slightly agitated.
But he was Crow. He was the Bird King, one of the top twenty killers in the Empire. Based on his own assessment, he should at least have ranked among the top ten—a powerhouse among killers.
The technique he had used with that stab was Cherry Blossom Slash. Once thrust out, the blade would spin into a whirlwind resembling cherry blossom petals, then carve a cherry blossom onto the target's body.
At that time, because his speed was too fast and his movements too nimble, the opponent would not even feel the pain in their body. Only when fine threads of blood seeped from the wounds would that cherry blossom truly be completed and revealed.
He had faith in his Cherry Blossom Fall. He had even more faith in the speed of his attack.
But how had a useless boy like this caught his knife in his hand?
"I blocked it."
Hearing Li Mu Yang's words, Crow felt even more as though he were being provoked. This was the greatest humiliation of his career as a killer.
"You didn't block it," Crow said coldly.
As he spoke, he had already pulled the fruit knife out of Li Mu Yang's palm.
Slash—
The blade came out, bringing a great gush of blood with it.
Only then did Li Mu Yang let out a miserable cry of pain.
A hole had appeared in the center of his palm. It was like a black hole releasing agony, swallowing his entire body into a hell of endless suffering.
The pain was so intense that Li Mu Yang's body convulsed again and again.
Slash—
Crow stabbed once more toward Cui Xiaoxin's neck, still using his favorite technique, the one with the greatest aesthetic appeal to him: Cherry Blossom Slash.
Slash—
Li Mu Yang's body lunged forward again, and once more he caught the dagger in Crow's hand.
"Thump—"
Crow's heart suddenly jolted. His pupils widened as he stared at Li Mu Yang in terror.
If the first time had been luck, an accident, then what was the second time?
This time, he had deliberately increased his speed. He had also been on guard against Li Mu Yang in the extreme. And yet, Li Mu Yang had still broken through his Cherry Blossom Fall and caught his dagger in his palm—albeit in an incredibly foolish manner, using his own hand to intercept the dagger's edge.
But that was already enough to make Crow suspicious: Could this kid be a reclusive expert? Or perhaps the disciple of one?
He had long heard that the Empire's Jiangnan City had stood for millions of years without falling, forever preserving the bustling prosperity of a golden age. It was a place where dragons and tigers lay hidden, with profound foundations. Could it be that he had carelessly run into someone like that?
"Li Mu Yang—" Cui Xiaoxin cried out. She grabbed the teacup in front of her and hurled it at Crow's face.
Crow flicked his sleeve, and the Bishui Tea splashed into the air before transforming into a cloud of steam and vanishing. The Bishui Tea cup was whipped back by the force of his energy, changing direction and flying toward Cui Xiaoxin instead.
From the assassination until now, everything had happened in the blink of an eye. It had been so fast that the nearby guests did not even know what had happened.
Crack—
Only when the teacup smashed against the wall and shattered did the guests cry out and try to flee.
"He's killed someone! Someone's been killed—"
"Report it! Hurry and get the constables—"
"Don't kill me! I didn't see anything! I don't even know there's a purple mole at the corner of your mouth—"
—
"Courting death." Crow was enraged by Cui Xiaoxin's counterattack.
He had already found it deeply humiliating to have his Cherry Blossom Slash intercepted twice in a row by that unremarkable-looking figure—well, he had to admit, Li Mu Yang was black enough to be dazzling. And now, that useless fellow's target had begun putting up fierce resistance as well. He found it difficult to accept.
He was a killer, but he was also an artist.
He loved his work. He hoped that when he killed someone, they would feel no pain at all, and would not even know they had been killed until the instant before they stopped breathing—he hoped their faces would still hold smiles. He demanded extremely high standards of himself, but today's inauspicious beginning had completely ruined the beauty he held in his heart.
He regretted not glancing at the almanac before leaving for work today. Otherwise, he would certainly have chosen a more suitable time. If he had taken even a brief look, the Empire's almanac would surely have read: Inauspicious for killing today.
Crow barked in a low voice. The Beast-Faced Pavilion waiter's uniform on his body billowed without wind, and the tiny dagger in his hand suddenly exploded with over a meter of white Sword Qi.
The dagger transformed into a giant sword over a meter long. He then raised it and hacked it down at Cui Xiaoxin.
One Qi Cleaves Mount Hua!
He was going to cleave Cui Xiaoxin in half.
If that useless boy dared to reach out and block him again, he would cleave that idiot in half as well.
This time, he began looking forward to Li Mu Yang throwing himself into the breach.
One slash, two people. He could treat it as killing that rich young lady and casually throwing in a bonus head at the same time.
Otherwise, no one would care whether a fellow like that lived or died.
He was not worthy of dying beneath Crow's blade, either.
"You can't kill her!" Li Mu Yang roared hoarsely.
His eyes were blood-red, and crimson clouds once again shrouded his pupils.
Scale-like objects once again grew across the back of his pierced right hand, only clearer and more solid than they had been at Sunset Lake. Back then, they had been translucent, impossible to notice without close observation. This time, however, they had become semi-translucent, with gray pigment settling inside. Tiny clouds and lightning patterns flew and surged across the scales.
Li Mu Yang felt his heart fill with violent fury, as though someone had snatched away the thing he treasured most.
He wanted to vent it. He wanted to destroy.
He wanted to crush the despicable, insignificant human before him.
Li Mu Yang punched.
His fist slammed toward the over-one-foot-long white Sword Qi.
Whoosh—
White light flashed, and Sword Qi filled the air.
The entire Beast-Faced Pavilion was ravaged by the force of that violent collision. The guests' teacups were blown away, while the table's four legs snapped at once and it crashed to the ground. Teacups and porcelain ware fell from the shelves behind the counter, shattering one after another, while all kinds of fresh fruit toppled from the baskets and bounced and rolled in every direction across the floor.
Bang—
Crow's body slammed heavily into the thick oak cabinet behind the counter. His throat turned sweet, and a mouthful of scarlet blood sprayed from the corner of his lips.
"You fucking—" He pointed at Li Mu Yang, who was in a berserk state, and cursed furiously. "Were you programmed to catch blades barehanded with a one-hundred-percent success rate?"
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