"Twelve Story Building"

"Hadn't you already obtained the 'Twelve Story Building'?" Shan Xu asked.

"My friend, I found a few people to practice it! Not a single one of them could master it!" Ye Qiandeng said, his brows furrowing.

Even when it was a manual taught to him by someone he considered a friend, he still had to get someone to practice it first.

One could never be too wary of others in the jianghu!

"The 'Twelve Story Building' requires exceptional insight and talent. Not everyone can master it!" Shan Xu said.

"Hmph! What insight or destiny? What sword art can't be mastered? You just don't want to teach it to me, so you're making excuses about my lack of talent!" Ye Qiandeng didn't believe any of that.

He stepped forward, his figure swooping like a great bird, and said, "My friend! Rest easy and die!"

Beneath the moonlight, the blade gleamed with a faint chill, like a bright, solitary moon. Bearing its cold light, it slashed toward Shan Xu.

Shan Xu knew that the Night Blade, the Ye family's blade technique, was at its most powerful at night.

Beneath the bright blade light was another shadow, black as ink. In the darkness, one blade cast two shadows, one bright and one dark—eerie and difficult to defend against.

So he drew his sword!

"White Jade Capital in the heavens, five towers in the Twelve Story Building!"

His sword swept out, its light bright and utterly graceful, seeming not of this world but from beyond the heavens, piercing through layers of clouds!

A sword fit for an exiled immortal!

With two clangs, Shan Xu's sword light blocked Ye Qiandeng's two blades, the bright and the shadowed, but he had no strength left to strike at Ye Qiandeng.

He was simply too weak.

"Good! What a good sword technique!" Ye Qiandeng watched the sword light slash open the clothes on his chest. If Shan Xu had used a little more force, he might have been disemboweled.

It was humiliating to admit, but he and Shan Xu were both at the Qi Sea level, and every time, Shan Xu had beaten him senseless.

The "Twelve Story Building" sword art was simply too powerful!

He really wanted it, even if that meant betraying his friend!

"My friend! You were poisoned with Bone-Corroding Gut-Severing Powder, yet you've held on until now and still managed to strike with your sword. You nearly took my life! I'm truly astonished!" Ye Qiandeng gazed at Shan Xu with admiration.

"The 'Twelve Story Building' is just an external possession. Hand it over, and I'll give you the antidote. We can still be friends!" Ye Qiandeng said earnestly.

"My friend, you once saved my life! A mere copy of the 'Twelve Story Building'—I've already taught it to you!" Shan Xu said. His face was pale, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. He leaned against the temple door to keep himself standing.

He was truly at the end of his strength.

This time, no one was coming to save him.

"Alas! I have no choice!" Ye Qiandeng sighed. "You're forcing my hand!"

He swung his long blade, sending another bright blade light slashing toward Shan Xu.

Watching that blade light, Shan Xu couldn't even stand steadily. All he could do was wait for death.

Shi Feizhe had originally been hiding in the ruined temple. When he saw Shan Xu's sword strike just now, he had thought the fight was settled. He'd never seen such an incredible sword art, not even a few days ago at Three Talents Manor.

But in the blink of an eye, it had only managed to tickle Ye Qiandeng!

You're no good at all!

He could see it clearly. The two of them kept calling each other "friend," but each wanted the other dead! Ye Qiandeng especially, going on and on about how he had no choice and how they could still be friends if Shan Xu handed over the manual. He'd already decided to kill Shan Xu, then kill him!

Better to rely on himself than on anyone else. He had to save himself!

Fortunately, he'd kept up his martial arts practice for the past half month, and with his threefold cultivation speed, the True Origin True Qi from the True Origin Sword Finger Technique had gathered into a small ball in his Dantian.

He had one chance!

So he rolled forward, taking advantage of Ye Qiandeng's talking, and reached the inside of the temple entrance, right in Ye Qiandeng's blind spot.

When Ye Qiandeng flew forward and slashed at Shan Xu, Shi Feizhe knew this was his only chance!

He took aim at Ye Qiandeng and raised his right hand. The true qi in his body followed the route it had taken days earlier, starting from his Dantian, passing up through Chengjiang, then entering his right arm at Jianliao before flowing down to Guanchong on his ring finger.

With a strange "whoosh," like a bird's cry or an object tearing through space at high speed, something flew in from Shan Xu's side just as Ye Qiandeng was about to strike him.

"What's that!" he wondered. The bright blade did not change course, but the shadow blade instead slashed toward the incoming object.

Unfortunately, he was too slow.

True Origin Sword Qi pierced through his chest at incredible speed, punching a finger-sized hole through it!

The sword qi shot out with blinding speed, like a flying swallow piercing the clouds, and vanished in the blink of an eye. Thus, it was named "Flying Swallow Pierces Clouds"!

"You... how..." Ye Qiandeng clutched the gaping hole in his chest, hurriedly striking his acupoints and circulating his true qi to seal his blood vessels. It was a pity the sword qi hadn't struck a vital point. If it had hit his throat or heart, Ye Qiandeng would have died on the spot!

Just then, Shan Xu struck again.

His sword light drifted, dreamlike and illusory. In the moonlit night, it carried a faint mist as it gently swept across Ye Qiandeng's throat.

After the sword light passed, a red line appeared on Ye Qiandeng's throat. Then his head flew up, blood spraying everywhere and soaking Shan Xu.

"If you had a move like that, you should've said so earlier!" Shi Feizhe couldn't help saying when he saw Shan Xu's strike. The headless Ye Qiandeng toppled over, and Shan Xu fell too.

That truly had been Shan Xu's final strike. He had been waiting for Ye Qiandeng to cut him down so they could die together. He never expected the passing Shi Feizhe to help him, giving him a chance to survive.

Although he had survived, he fainted after that one strike.

"Hey, hey, hey... don't die!" Those were the words he heard before losing consciousness.

After an unknown amount of time, he woke again. It was already daytime.

"You're awake! You've been unconscious for seven years. Your child's already six!" Shi Feizhe said, slowly sitting up when he saw Shan Xu awaken. He rarely joked, but made an exception.

It was no wonder he was in such a good mood. That fellow named Ye Qiandeng had been loaded! He had more than twenty or thirty taels of gold and silver, not to mention the fine jade he wore and his long blade.

The blade was about three feet long, gleaming with cold light. At a glance, it was clearly no ordinary weapon!

In Shi Feizhe's estimation, that blade had to be worth several hundred taels of silver!

Sure enough, no one got rich working for a living in the jianghu. Killing and robbing people was the only way to make a fortune overnight.

Shan Xu saw that he was still in the ruined temple, with the fire gone out and daylight all around. It was obvious he'd only been unconscious for half a day, not seven years as Shi Feizhe claimed.

"I'm Shan Xu of Yan Province. Thank you, young brother, for saving my life!" Shan Xu clasped his hands toward Shi Feizhe.

"I'm Shi Feizhe! No need to thank me! You're the one who killed him, not me!" Shi Feizhe pointed at the two small ceramic bottles and the copy of the "Twelve Story Building" in front of Shan Xu. "These are the pills I found on him. I don't recognize them. See if one of them is the antidote for your poison."

He'd worked as a laborer at a medical clinic, but all he'd done was heavy lifting. He hadn't even learned to identify herbs, let alone pills.

Shan Xu opened the two bottles, sniffed them, then swallowed the contents of one. "They're just ordinary pills for regulating the breath and treating wounds. My friend never brought an antidote in the first place."

It made sense. What kind of normal person carried an antidote around for no reason, especially an antidote to their own poison?

If you carried an antidote when you went out, then what if someone turned the tables on you? Wouldn't that make poisoning them a waste?