Jiang Pan's furrowed brows, tense just moments ago, relaxed at once.
He spat out a mouthful of phlegm with a "Ptooey," then laughed and cursed. "Damn it, in the middle of the night, I thought I'd run into a real ghost! Who'd have guessed one of our own brothers would scare me half to death!"
"Dear brothers, we've been on the run for so long, and it's been several days since we last had a score. Your big brother's itching for a fight. This time, don't you dare steal my prey!"
Before Jiang Pan had finished speaking, he had already swung the ring-pommeled saber in his hand, chopping straight at Meng Qingshan.
At the other end, Meng Qingshan looked perfectly at ease, as if he had everything under control. He didn't seem to take this "Mountain-Splitting Saber" seriously at all.
Just as "Mountain-Splitting Saber" Jiang Pan drew near, Meng Qingshan suddenly moved!
He slapped the saddle, and the Brocade Cloud Saber leaped up.
With a "clang!"
The blade sprang from its sheath, and a bright flash of saber light streaked past.
Meng Qingshan's saber work was swift, sweeping in like a gale. With another "clang," the two blades clashed in midair.
Meng Qingshan had now cultivated the Long Wind Heart Method to the twelfth level. With the internal technique boost from [Ride the Wind], he was more than a match for Jiang Pan, even in a head-on clash.
What was more, he had quietly set things in motion when he came inside.
Watching the whites of the man's eyes grow yellower, Meng Qingshan suddenly drew in his True Qi. He poured it into his left hand and unleashed Wind Rises Pushing Clouds, a move from the Eight Directions Palm Technique, striking Jiang Pan hard in the side of the abdomen.
The palm strike was swift and sudden, fierce yet steady.
Though the Eight Directions Palm Technique was only a crude martial art, Meng Qingshan had now mastered it completely. With True Qi bolstering it, its power was already considerable.
Jiang Pan had meant to pull back his saber and turn to block, but suddenly his head spun and his arms went weak. His movements slowed.
In that split second, Meng Qingshan's full-force palm struck him in the abdomen.
"Mountain-Splitting Saber" Jiang Pan was nothing more than a hardened bandit who had practiced external saber techniques. How could he withstand Meng Qingshan's thunderous strike?
The palm sent him flying in an instant, and he crashed several paces away.
"Big brother..."
"Big brother, what happened?"
The second brother, "Cunning and Wise," and the third brother, "Six Hands," both cried out in alarm at the sight and immediately rushed to help.
"Six Hands" Liu Ying swiftly drew two throwing knives from his waist. He was about to put force behind them and use them as concealed weapons, but found his body growing light and his limbs weak, his strength failing.
A sense of foreboding surged through him. I've been poisoned?!
Even so, he summoned all his strength and hurled the throwing knives.
"Whoosh, whoosh~"
As the two blades rapidly closed in, Meng Qingshan remained expressionless. He swung his saber in a flash, and two crisp "clinks" rang out as he knocked the knives aside.
At the same time, "Cunning and Wise" Wu Yong charged up to Meng Qingshan with his sword, its point aimed straight at him, intent on piercing his throat in one thrust.
However, after practicing the Nine Forms of Swift Saber, Meng Qingshan's agility had improved.
He swiftly withdrew his saber and turned, nimbly dodging Wu Yong's deadly thrust.
Then, using the momentum of his full-body spin, he slashed hard at Wu Yong's neck.
[You successfully killed "Cunning and Wise" Wu Yong, one of the Three Evils of Guyang, and gained 500 cultivation points!]
Liu Ying had witnessed the whole thing. He watched helplessly as the young man severed his second brother's head with a single saber stroke.
"Damn it, what's going on?"
Jiang Pan, whom Meng Qingshan had knocked to the ground with a palm, quickly came to his senses after a brief daze. He cursed, shook his still-dizzy head, and struggled to retrieve the ring-pommeled saber that had been knocked away.
Just as he was about to reach the hilt and grip the saber, a heavy foot suddenly stamped down on it.
He looked up. The figure before him had blurred into three or four overlapping shapes, swaying and wobbling until he could no longer make out its true appearance.
He rubbed his eyes with all his might until the yellowed whites were red, crisscrossed with blood vessels.
Then he finally realized. "It was you! What poison did you use?!"
The answer was a sharp, silver-white streak. Blood sprayed into the fire, and after the flames flickered briefly, they settled again.
"Big brother!"
Liu Ying watched "Mountain-Splitting Saber" die with his eyes wide open. His own body was weak, and he was even beginning to convulse in pain.
In the blink of an eye, "Six Hands" Liu Ying had watched this expressionless youth kill his two "older brothers" one after the other.
A chill rose in his heart. He felt that the youth seemed more like a ruthless killer than he was.
He quietly pulled two more throwing knives from his right sleeve, swallowed with a dry throat, and broke into a cold sweat. His voice trembled as he asked:
"Who are you? The three of us brothers have no grudge against you. Why are you so ruthless, determined to wipe us out?"
Meng Qingshan turned to look at Liu Ying coldly, his voice as icy as winter frost. "I suggest you keep your right hand still!"
Liu Ying looked shocked. His right hand trembled involuntarily.
Meng Qingshan pointed the blood-dripping Brocade Cloud Saber at him and warned coldly, "I don't want to kill you yet. But if you make me feel threatened, then I'll have no choice but to kill you!"
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