Outsider

Jiang Shuo turned around and saw a group of men in long robes of blue cloth, each with a longsword at his waist. Their Leader had a square face and was shouting at him.

"What is it?" This was Jiang Shuo's first encounter with people from outside Chiyun Village, and he maintained the caution he should have.

"Do you know if there are any strange people in these mountains?" the square-faced man asked. Seeing Jiang Shuo covered in wounds, he assumed he had encountered the beasts in the forest. Strange enough, the beasts here were extraordinarily fierce. Even on their way here, several of their brothers had been injured.

Jiang Shuo's nerves instantly drew taut. Chiyun Village had an ancestral rule—its location must never be revealed to outsiders. The vicious beasts arranged around the perimeter were meant to stop villagers from leaving, but were they not also meant to bar outsiders from entering?

He had asked more than once: since he could not leave anyway, what was the point of this ancestral rule? The Great Elder had merely repeated those rigid precepts over and over, tirelessly, until the ancestral rule had seeped into Jiang Shuo's body like blood itself. The slightest brush against it was enough to stab deep into his nerves.

"I don't know." Jiang Shuo shook his head without giving anything away, then turned to leave.

"Hm?" Jiang Shuo's actions aroused the square-faced man's suspicions. He raised one brow and barked threateningly, "I haven't finished questioning you. Stop right there."

The man's tone was that of someone interrogating him from on high, and it grated on Jiang Shuo. He ignored him and kept walking.

"Hmph. You don't know what's good for you." The square-faced man swept out a hand, and the subordinates beside him sprang forward, striding after Jiang Shuo.

"If you don't want to suffer, you'd better not resist." One enemy covered three steps in two and reached Jiang Shuo from behind, extending a hand for his shoulder. Jiang Shuo planted his feet apart and twisted at the waist, slipping past the man's palm. Then he drove his knee forward, slamming it into the soft spot of the man's abdomen. The enemy cried out in pain, clutching his stomach with both hands and hunching over like a shrimp out of water, trembling uncontrollably.

Jiang Shuo narrowed his eyes slightly at the sight. This was very strange. When he had lived in Chiyun Village, he had sparred and exchanged pointers with his clansmen. A blow of this level had neither hurt nor tickled them. How could it provoke such a huge reaction?

The other enemies' expressions changed in unison. They drew the swords at their waists and charged Jiang Shuo in a blaze of fury.

Jiang Shuo had always dealt with prey, and every move the enemies made unfolded before his eyes with perfect clarity, as though their movements had slowed. When hunting in Chiyun Village, if they encountered agile and savage prey, the clansmen would divide their tasks and work together, gradually driving it into a trap before sending skilled hunters in to surround and kill it. To prevent a prey animal's Desperate Struggle from causing avoidable harm, the clansmen all learned a movement technique for shifting and weaving through confined spaces. Now that Jiang Shuo unleashed it, the enemies could not even touch his shadow and were toyed with until they spun in circles. The occasional strike Jiang Shuo threw out carried such tyrannical force that they could hardly endure it. In no time, they were battered into a staggering mess, their wails rising one after another.

"Get out of my way. I don't want to hurt you." Jiang Shuo moved through the crowd with ease, blasting aside two enemies who stepped forward as he prepared to force a path through.

"What outrageous boasting. You only defeated a few worthless disciples—do you really think the Xuanming Sect has no one capable?" His fellow disciples' miserable performance had cost the square-faced man his face. He clenched the hilt with his left hand, drew his sword, and sent it shooting toward Jiang Shuo's back hilt-first.

A warning flared across his back. Jiang Shuo spun around, stacking his palms together and meeting the hilt. With a dull thump, the longsword spun through the air and flew back. Jiang Shuo was jolted back several steps, his palms aching faintly. He could not help but be astonished by his enemy's strength. I was too naive just now. I underestimated the people outside.

The square-faced man snorted, stamped off the ground, and leaped into the air. He caught the longsword as it came back, twisted his wrist, and sent the sword edge sweeping through the air with a chilling gleam. Jiang Shuo rapidly shifted his footing and barely evaded it. A scornful smile curled onto the square-faced man's lips as the sword edge abruptly changed direction and slashed sideways. The sword's trajectory was both swift and uncanny. Even with Jiang Shuo's agility, several strands of black hair at his temples were cut away. The square-faced man pressed his advantage, wave after wave of attacks bearing down on Jiang Shuo until he found it increasingly difficult to endure. In an instant, he was suppressed.

As the battle grew ever more intense, another group of people heard the commotion and rushed over.

The newcomers were likewise dressed in blue. A young man stood surrounded at their center. A jade button fastened the ties at the front of his robe, and a longsword with a snow-white scabbard hung at his waist. Someone wanted to step forward and help, but he raised a hand to stop them. He stared without blinking at Jiang Shuo in the heart of the fight, as though pondering something. His calm gaze was like a bottomless, secluded pool.

Jiang Shuo had only just finished battling the Giant Eagle and the Wolf Pack. Not only was he exhausted, but his body was covered in injuries. Unarmed, aching, and weary, every lift of his hand and every step he took was a painful ordeal. His movements gradually slowed, leaving him in a wretched state and surrounded by danger.

At that moment, faced with a sword thrust at him, Jiang Shuo was just about to dodge when a piercing pain suddenly shot from the wound in his thigh. His movement paused involuntarily. With a rip, his clothes tore apart, leaving a bloody wound across his chest.