Sword Elder

Clang!

The piercing clash of metal rang out again and again.

Gu Chen had lost count of how many times they had crossed blades.

Even his own sword was now riddled with several notches.

But at last, that strike severed Lei Chao's weapon.

Lei Chao's expression shifted. Caught off guard, he stood there with his broken blade, momentarily stunned.

He hadn't expected his Yellow-Rank, low-grade battle saber to be cleaved in two by Gu Chen's standard-issue sword!

Seizing that brief opening, Gu Chen drove a heavy kick into Lei Chao's chest.

With a dull, thunderous impact, Lei Chao's body hurtled backward and smashed into a towering tree. He let out a pained groan.

Lei Chao spat out a mouthful of blood and glared at Gu Chen with bloodshot eyes.

"Did you hold back last time, at the Military Camp?"

He could hardly believe it. Just seven days ago, he had been able to overpower this man completely.

Now, in a matter of days, Gu Chen had turned the tables, suppressing him and even defeating him!

It made no sense at all!

Gu Chen smiled and shook his head, a flash of killing intent in his eyes.

"You frog at the bottom of a well. You think everyone is as talentless and jealous of the capable as you are?"

Gu Chen wasn't underestimating Lei Chao because he had the sword-shaped pendant or because he was supposedly the new Sword Master.

He simply had enough confidence in his own talent.

In the Gu Family, as a collateral descendant, he hadn't received much in the way of resources. He'd also been shut out of the path to proper cultivation, so his progress had naturally been slow.

But now that he was at the border, he had access to what could only be called the ideal training for Martial Artists. Even without the Nine Heavens Immortal Sword Art, it was only a matter of time before he grew stronger.

Perhaps Gu Chen hadn't been a prodigy from childhood. Otherwise, the Gu Family wouldn't have ignored him.

Accumulating strength over time and blooming late—perhaps those were the words that suited him best.

Just then, the anxious voice of the sword-shaped pendant suddenly sounded in Gu Chen's ear.

"Gu Chen, I sense someone approaching at incredible speed. Hurry and kill him!"

Gu Chen's heart tightened. He and Sword Elder were bound together now, sharing both glory and ruin.

Sword Elder would never deceive him.

Gu Chen took a deep breath and brought his sword down.

"Blame yourself for attacking us without learning the truth, just because Li Xuan came after us!"

In the forest, Guan Shan saw that Gu Chen hadn't tried to turn Lei Chao against his own side and had instead chosen to kill him outright. For an instant, Guan Shan hesitated.

If Gu Chen was an enemy spy, he would surely have tried to recruit Lei Chao, weakening the Running Wolf Nation as much as possible.

What Gu Chen was doing hardly seemed like the behavior of a competent spy.

If Gu Chen wasn't a spy, he couldn't possibly stand by and watch Lei Chao die here over nothing but an internal conflict.

But Gu Chen's sudden leap in strength seemed even less like the progress of an ordinary Gu Family disciple!

After growing suspicious of Gu Han, Guan Shan had looked into the Gu Family's records.

Wushan City was little more than a small, low-ranking city in the Running Wolf Nation.

The Gu Family was one of Wushan City's four great lineages, but in Guan Shan's eyes, that didn't amount to much.

Not even the Gu Family's direct descendants could make progress like Gu Chen's.

That seemed to suggest that Gu Chen and Gu Han really were spies.

Despite his suspicions, Guan Shan still chose not to intervene.

The Running Wolf Nation and the Sword-toothed Country were locked in constant border clashes, and war could break out at any moment.

If Lei Chao's death could bring a greater reward, then it would be worth it!

At a time like this, Guan Shan chose to gamble!

He gambled that Gu Chen was a spy from the Sword-toothed Country, and that there was an even bigger fish behind him!

But Lei Chao hadn't given up on surviving.

He abruptly raised his left hand and held it in front of his chest!

The sword pierced Lei Chao's arm, and he let out a scream of agony.

"Argh!!!"

Lei Chao was clearly willing to sacrifice an arm to stay alive!

He clenched his teeth and turned sideways, clamping Gu Chen's sword tightly beneath his arm. Then he rolled wildly across the ground, trying to dodge Gu Chen's attacks.

But Gu Chen's blows kept falling on him without pause.

Even Guan Shan, whose heart was as hard as stone, felt a trace of pity at Lei Chao's pitiful state.

Just then, Guan Shan noticed the hurried sound of footsteps nearby.

The noise was grating to his ears, and it even brought him out in a cold sweat.

If this had been a battlefield, noticing footsteps from so close only now could have put his own life in danger!

And he'd let his guard down just because of the fight between the two of them!

"Did you think I'd come looking for you alone?"

Lei Chao was in a wretched state, his mouth full of blood, but now he sneered.

"Gu Chen, today is the day you die!"

Gu Chen seethed with rage. He wanted nothing more than to smash Lei Chao's head with one punch, but Lei Chao was slippery as a loach and gave him no chance.

Sword Elder's voice rang urgently in Gu Chen's ear.

"Gu Chen, forget him and run! The enemy has already surrounded us."

Gu Chen sighed inwardly and immediately tried to pull away.

That was when Lei Chao showed his viciousness once more.

His arms had gone limp, but he still clamped his teeth onto Gu Chen's trouser leg.

Gu Chen's face darkened. He kicked Lei Chao away, shattering a mouthful of his teeth, but that bought the newcomers enough time to arrive.

Four people surrounded Gu Chen.

A young man in blue held a long staff and sneered.

"Lei Chao really is useless. He couldn't even handle a new recruit."

"And he dared to call himself my equal back then. What a useless piece of trash."

"Enough talk. Let's finish this and leave before anyone finds us."

Three of them traded remarks as they readied their weapons to attack Gu Chen.

"Wait."

But the one who had remained silent suddenly stopped them.

He looked at Gu Chen, who was on guard, and spoke with scorn.

"I can give you a chance. If you're willing to join the Sword-toothed Country and remain undercover in the Running Wolf Nation, secretly recruiting War Soldiers, you can walk away alive today. What do you say?"

Guan Shan's body trembled in his hiding place.

So this was it. This was what a damn spy was supposed to act like!

But he'd never imagined that the real spy wasn't the Gu brothers, whom he'd suspected all these days.

It was Lei Chao, the man everyone considered brawny but dim-witted!

He'd suspected the wrong person!

Of the four men, Guan Shan recognized only the last one to speak.

That was because he had ranked among the top three in strength among the War Soldiers who'd joined the Military Camp in the same year as Lei Chao!

Xue Wen!

But Xue Wen had chosen to leave the Military Camp two years ago. Guan Shan hadn't expected him to show up now.

The Sword-toothed Country's spies must have far-reaching plans!

At the same time, Sword Elder gave a quiet sigh in Gu Chen's ear.

"Since it's come to this, there's no other way."

Gu Chen thought Sword Elder would urge him to endure for now and save his own life. Instead, Sword Elder said,

"Gu Chen, release the seal. I'll slaughter them for you today!"

Because the sword-shaped pendant had already acknowledged him as its master with his blood, Gu Chen knew Sword Elder wasn't trying to seize control of his body.

He truly meant to act himself and deal with these men for Gu Chen.

Gu Chen didn't hesitate. With his current strength, defeating Lei Chao had already been a struggle.

There was no way he could defeat four enemies who were no weaker than Lei Chao—and might even be stronger.

Just as Gu Chen was about to release the seal, footsteps sounded again in the distance.