Four Brows

"So what do you want?" He Heng stood with his hands behind his back, not turning around, as though he'd known all along that someone was behind him.

"Come with me to the Six Doors and explain everything. If there are mitigating circumstances, you may receive lenient treatment," the man said.

"Hahahaha!" He Heng suddenly burst into laughter, as if he'd heard the biggest joke in the world. After a long while, he turned to look at the man.

The man stared at He Heng, his expression grave. "What are you laughing at? Do you think this will let you escape punishment?"

At that, He Heng stopped laughing and looked at him coldly. There might have been countless kinds of people in this world, but this man was certainly the kind you couldn't forget after seeing him just once. He might not have been especially handsome. His eyebrows were too thick, his eyes were small, his nose wasn't particularly straight, and his lips seemed a little too thin. Nothing about him seemed perfect, yet taken together, his features made him pleasant to look at.

"Pleasant to look at" perhaps wasn't a phrase one ought to use for a man, but this man really was a very good-looking man!

Especially since he had four eyebrows.

"Lu Xiaofeng!"

He Heng gave him a sidelong glance, certain of his identity.

"I never imagined that the famous Longevity Sword would know a nobody like me. What an honor!" The other man acknowledged who he was. In truth, Lu Xiaofeng's appearance was so distinctive that there was no way he could hide his identity.

"If even you, Lu Xiaofeng, count as a nobody, then who in this world could be famous?" He Heng stared coldly at Lu Xiaofeng. "I just don't understand why you've appeared here at this time."

Lu Xiaofeng looked at He Heng, then at the famous Longevity Sword in his hand. "Because the young lady you killed today asked me to come. I was delayed by something, and never thought she'd fall victim to you."

"So that's what happened. Yuan Zixia asked you to come. Makes sense. Who doesn't know that you, Lu Xiaofeng, have a habit of meddling in other people's business? She had no martial arts skills, and needed someone like you to help her deal with Wei Tianying and the others." He Heng sneered at Lu Xiaofeng.

Lu Xiaofeng smiled coldly. "I never thought that the famous Longevity Sword would be this kind of man—a man who'd murder a young woman in broad daylight for a Peacock Plume blueprint."

"A Peacock Plume blueprint? What a joke. If it were real, I might have been interested. But a mere fake blueprint? You think I'd care? Only a fool like you would be taken in so completely." He Heng spoke with open scorn, then laughed coldly.

"Fake?" Lu Xiaofeng frowned. He was a clever man, and as soon as he heard this, he realized that many things didn't add up. He looked at He Heng, uncertain. "How can you prove what you're saying is true? And even if there was something wrong with her, you didn't need to be so ruthless with a young woman."

"A young woman?" He Heng smiled. Yuan Zixia was far more frightening than most people in the world. At the very least, even now, he still had no idea who she really was.

Seeing He Heng fall silent, Lu Xiaofeng continued, "This matter involves the Peacock Plume and the Azure Dragon Society. The safety of the entire martial world is at stake. I must ask you, Young Master Bai, to come with me."

"Come with you? Who do you think you are? Just because you tell me to come, you think I have to?" He Heng answered Lu Xiaofeng with a cold sneer.

"In that case, I suppose I'll have to use force to invite you along, Young Master Bai." Lu Xiaofeng's expression suddenly turned icy as he watched He Heng.

"Then come on. I'd like to see whether your Lingxi Finger can catch my Longevity Sword." He Heng suddenly drew the sword from its scabbard. A streak of silvery frost gleamed brilliantly in the moonlight.

In an instant, He Heng moved. He leapt eight or nine zhang, and his dazzling swordlight flowed like streams beneath the starry sky, surging toward Lu Xiaofeng.

Lu Xiaofeng's expression changed abruptly. "The Longevity Sword has always been renowned for its swordlight. I never imagined your Lightness Skill was so impressive, almost on par with Thief Marshal Chu Liuxiang's."

As he spoke, Lu Xiaofeng lightly tapped the ground with his foot and sprang three zhang into the air, evading He Heng's strike.

"Don't even think of escaping!" He Heng shouted coldly and struck again. Silvery-white swordlight spilled everywhere, instantly enveloping the three-zhang area around Lu Xiaofeng in a blinding radiance.

After suffering a loss to Wang Bi's sword last time, He Heng had resolved to learn swordsmanship after arriving in this world. He had made considerable progress over the past twenty years. Though his skill fell far short of his mastery of Fist Technique and palm techniques, in this world it was still top-tier. He was confident he could use it to contend with the likes of Ximen Chuixue.

It was more than enough to deal with Lu Xiaofeng today.

The night was calm, the stars brilliant, and a cold breeze swept across the ground.

At that moment, Lu Xiaofeng felt himself enveloped by a terrifying killing intent. All around him stretched a vast ocean of swords, completely engulfing him.

"How terrifying!" he thought in alarm. In his life, he had made countless friends. He had met the abbots of the great sects, including Shaolin, Wudang Sect, and Huashan, as well as peerless swordsmen such as Ximen Chuixue, Ye Gucheng, and Xue Yiren. Yet he had never seen such a terrifying sword—or such a terrifying man!

The surging sword energy seemed to form a cage, sealing off every escape route and every possible move. Those utterly calm eyes were now so dark and deep, as though he were facing a god, an immortal who had transcended the mortal world and looked down upon him.

After only a few moments of fighting, Lu Xiaofeng found himself despairingly trapped with nowhere to flee. That icy swordlight had completely enveloped him.

Clang!

With a crisp ring of the sword, the Longevity Sword became something like the god of death and slashed down toward Lu Xiaofeng's chest.

Lu Xiaofeng's pupils widened in an instant. At that moment, Heaven and Earth Above and Below, there was only that single sword in his mind!

Suddenly, he moved.

He broke through the sword momentum surrounding him from every direction, bringing together the index and middle fingers of his right hand and clamping them down lightly.

Light flared in every direction. Beneath the moon, the vast shadows of countless swords blurred, while darkness swallowed everything like a thick fog.

The ringing of swords shattered the long night's silence. Brilliant swordlight drove back the darkness and revealed a sliver of light.

The sword tip pressed against Lu Xiaofeng's chest. It had already pierced half an inch in, but could go no farther, held fast between two fingers.

"Not bad. Your fingers really can catch my sword." He Heng gave Lu Xiaofeng an approving look, then suddenly pulled back his sword and sheathed it.

Lu Xiaofeng was panting heavily now, drenched in cold sweat. No one could imagine the pressure he had just faced: finding a sliver of space beneath that all-encompassing swordlight, then catching the terrifying strike at the very last moment.

"Thank goodness. Just a few inches more, and I'd have been a dead phoenix." He patted his chest in relief.

He Heng drew the Longevity Sword again and stared coldly at Lu Xiaofeng. "Don't celebrate too soon. Dodging one of my strikes isn't enough. You'll have to dodge a few hundred more. Then you can celebrate when I run out of strength."

The night was hazy. At some point, a cloud had appeared in the sky, covering the stars and plunging the world into darkness.

A biting chill followed, making people shiver.

Under those conditions, He Heng once again raised the sword in his hand. It was called the Longevity Sword, but in truth, it had only ever brought destruction and death.

Lu Xiaofeng's expression changed again, turning terribly grim.

The terrifying sword energy seemed like a grim prison as it once more closed in around him. Swordlight blazed in every direction, shattering the darkness and illuminating Long Street. It seemed as though thunderbolts flashed across the sky.

A black sword, an icy man, a pair of eyes devoid of emotion—at that moment, they burned themselves deeply into Lu Xiaofeng's gaze, never to be forgotten.

He Heng seemed like a Banished Immortal, standing above the clouds as he casually sent a blade of swordlight slashing down, severing every tie to the mortal world, breaking all cause and effect, and tearing the Mortal World apart.

No one could imagine how brilliant that strike was. It was flawless, leaving nowhere to hide and nowhere to escape. In a single instant, the strike changed a full nineteen times, its sword momentum locking onto Lu Xiaofeng completely.

At that moment, Lu Xiaofeng truly felt the threat of death. Facing that strike, he couldn't imagine how he might evade it.

"Perhaps I shouldn't have meddled," Lu Xiaofeng murmured, as if in despair.

Just then, another swordlight, equally brilliant and dazzling, flashed out of nowhere. White and powerful, it forcibly tore a gap in He Heng's impenetrable sword momentum. Like a drowning man clutching at a lifeline, Lu Xiaofeng immediately leapt through that opening with all his might.

"Oh?" He Heng murmured, looking at the suddenly appearing sword. It was a strangely shaped black-scabbarded sword, three chi and seven cun long, weighing seven jin and thirteen liang.

Through the sword, He Heng sensed a bone-deep chill rushing toward him, like a snow lotus atop the Tianshan Mountains, lonely and pure. A pure sword energy, like the ice of the far north, seeped into his very soul.

Infinite loneliness. Infinite cold.

"A fine sword," He Heng praised softly, though it was unclear whether he was praising the sword or its owner.

"It is indeed a fine sword," its owner replied, his words carrying an oncoming chill.