"What kind of person are you? How could you ever change? You can't. So you can only die."
Afraid his target might not be dead, Qin Meng brought his blade down before the words had left his mouth. Lin Hai's head rolled aside, and blood sprayed across the Landscape Screen.
Qin Meng didn't stop. He searched Lin Hai's corpse with one hand, pulled out a stack of banknotes, and stuffed them into his robes. Then he sneered at the severed head. "Keep your questions. Ask Yama in the underworld."
At nearly the same moment—
"Crack!"
Someone kicked open the Warm Pavilion's wooden door, and two men wielding Ring-pommel Sabers burst inside.
"Young Master, what happened..."
The man in the lead broke off mid-sentence.
A rapidly enlarging blade tip was rushing straight at him!
Qin Meng had sensed the guards outside long ago. The moment the door opened, he struck.
His blade tore through the air and plunged into the first man's heart, bursting out through his back.
"Ugh!" The man let out a brief, strangled cry.
Qin Meng yanked out his blade, spraying blood, and spun around. His left fist, wrapped in a gust of force, slammed into the second man's face as he raised it.
"Thud! Crack!" Bones shattered with a sharp report.
The man's entire face caved in. His body flew backward, struck the doorframe, and slid to the ground.
[Life Source +3.2%, +1.9%...]
Two streams of warmth flowed along the blade and fist into Qin Meng's body.
"You dog! Pay with your life!" Zhao Tie's eyes were bloodshot. His qi and blood surged, the flagstones beneath his feet exploded, and he sprang at Qin Meng like a heavy arrow.
He held nothing back. The strength of the Body Forging Realm poured into his blade, which swept up a streak of bloody light. Its fierce wind stung Qin Meng's skin.
Outside the Warm Pavilion, footsteps and shouts drew closer. More than a dozen men came charging.
I can't let them surround me. Qin Meng's thoughts raced.
He sucked in a sharp breath, every muscle in his body tensing. The Berserker Stomp effect of the Berserker Spear Technique activated, rooting his feet to the ground.
He neither dodged nor retreated from Zhao Tie's slash. Twisting his waist and pivoting on his hips, he swept his saber upward from below in a spinning countercut, like a sudden thrust from horseback.
"Clang—!"
Steel rang against steel, sparks flew, and the flagstones beneath them cracked apart.
Taking the blow head-on, Qin Meng felt a tremendous force slam into him. His right arm trembled, and his palm went numb.
But his stance held firm, his body unmoving. He turned with the force and swept out his left leg, fast as lightning, kicking Zhao Tie in the unguarded waist.
"Bang!"
Zhao Tie grunted, his qi and blood churning as he staggered back several steps.
Figures crowded the doorway in the corner of Qin Meng's eye.
The target's dead. There's no point getting bogged down! He kicked Zhao Tie back, lunged toward the table, and snatched up the dark-colored bundle.
"Bastard, put it down! That belongs to Leiming Martial Hall!"
Lei Jun's eyes bulged with rage. His sword darted forward, its cold gleam like a venomous snake striking, aimed straight at Qin Meng's back.
Without even turning his head, Qin Meng swept his saber back and deflected the blade with unerring precision. He followed with a vicious spinning kick that sent Lei Jun tumbling away.
His other hand had already cinched the bundle tight. He swung it up over his shoulder!
"Damn it! Hurry, stop him! Kill him!" Lei Jun coughed blood and roared.
Zhao Tie's skin abruptly flushed red. His qi and blood roared as they burned, and his speed surged. He blocked the way again, bloody light flickering along his great saber as he slashed down!
Qin Meng's gaze turned icy.
That strike gave him a fierce sense of danger, but... it was also an opportunity.
"If you're begging to die, I'll send you all on your way together!"
He dropped the bundle, gripped his saber in both hands, and charged forward instead of retreating! His qi and blood flowed into the blade in fine threads as he unleashed the killing move of Evil-Slaying Blade-Breaking Saber.
He moved like a ghost. A black-red glint flared along his blade, and his whole body became a blur as he crashed into Zhao Tie!
"Clang—!" Sparks burst in a wild spray, and the shrill clash of steel shook the Warm Pavilion.
Qin Meng grunted as an immense force bore down on him. He dropped to one knee, the muscles in his right arm taut around the saber as a wave of soreness surged through him. His qi and blood churned.
But he had actually withstood a Body Forging Realm martial artist's life-or-death strike!
That brief delay was all it took for four disciples dressed in Leiming Martial Hall uniforms, silver lightning embroidered across their chests, and more than a dozen hired thugs to flood into the pavilion like a rising tide.
"Quick, surround him and kill him!" Supported by someone, Lei Jun got to his feet and shrieked.
"Kill him!" the crowd roared, surging forward.
Zhao Tie's face was flushed red. He was about to press harder and pin down his opponent when Qin Meng, trapped beneath his blade, suddenly looked up. A cold smile spread across his lips.
No good! Alarm bells rang in Zhao Tie's mind. He tried to wrench his saber free and retreat.
But it was too late!
Qin Meng clenched his left fist. A dark-red gleam coiled around his knuckles. The Black Dragon Eighteen Hands' Life-Taking finishing strike had been gathering power for a long time!
The punch shot out in silence, fast as lightning!
"Boom!" It smashed into Zhao Tie's dantian.
"Pff—" Zhao Tie's eyes bulged, and the blood drained from his face. He spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with chunks of his organs and was hurled backward.
Qin Meng pushed off the ground. Bricks and stones burst beneath his feet as he shot after Zhao Tie. His saber became a black streak of lightning, thrusting straight for Zhao Tie's chest and abdomen.
"Shhk!"
The blade sank into flesh with a sound like a thick hide being sliced open.
A Body Forging Realm martial artist had a formidable body; skin and muscle offered tremendous resistance.
But bolstered by its sharpness effect, the blade tip pierced through like a bamboo splinter through rotten wood, disappearing up to the hilt.
"Ahh!" Zhao Tie let out a dying roar. One hand clamped around the blade buried in his abdomen, while the other swung a punch at Qin Meng.
Qin Meng leaned back and evaded it. Then he twisted his wrist sharply and slashed upward with all his might!
"Pffft—"
The blade ripped a foot-long gash from Zhao Tie's abdomen to his chest. Blood gushed out, and his intestines, mixed with fragments of his organs, spilled free.
That earlier killing blow had already injured his internal organs. Now the wounds had worsened, and Zhao Tie vomited blood as he crumpled, his strength fading.
The bloody reversal had unfolded in the blink of an eye.
The disciples and hired thugs who had been charging forward stopped in terror, their faces stricken. The Zhao instructor, a Body Forging Realm martial artist, had been grievously wounded?
Fear filled their eyes.
Qin Meng didn't pause for even a moment! He yanked out his saber, flicking blood from the blade. With his Ironback talent, he didn't dodge or retreat; he charged straight into the crowd.
"Evil-Slaying Blade-Breaking, strike!"
Black light coiled around his blade. One disciple raised his weapon to block. With a crack, the blade and the man were split in two.
Another hired thug struck Qin Meng's back from the side. His blade bounced off with a sharp clang. Qin Meng slashed back, cleaving off the man's head!
One moment he swung his saber in a wild flurry; the next he seized an enemy by the arm or throat and snapped his neck with brute strength, or crushed his chest with an elbow.
[Life Source +3.2%]
[Life Source +2.9%]
[Life Source +3.5%]
The Warm Pavilion and the grounds outside became a bloody slaughterhouse. Limbs flew in all directions as screams and clashing weapons filled the air.
"Gods, he's not human! Run!" The hired thugs in the rear broke down and turned to flee.
"I am a Liangshan Hero of Dawang Mountain, Timely Rain, Song Gongming—Song Jiang himself! I specialize in killing pests like Lin Hai. You lot who've abetted a tyrant deserve to die too!"
Qin Meng bellowed the made-up title as he gave chase. He showed those wretches no mercy; whenever he caught one, he killed him with a single blow.
Steady streams of warmth continued to flow into his body. Qin Meng's gaze was icy, his blows merciless.
In just a short while, more than a dozen corpses lay inside and outside the Warm Pavilion.
The surviving servants and stable hands hid in terror, trembling in the corners.
Protected by two disciples, Lei Jun slipped out of the pavilion amid the chaos and sprinted toward the martial hall.
"Young Master Lei, you love sticking your neck out. So why don't you stay?"
Qin Meng cut down the last hired thug. Covered in blood, he raised his saber and moved to pursue.
Just then—
"Young Master... run!" A hoarse, desperate roar exploded from the blood-soaked pavilion.
Zhao Tie's abdomen had been slit open, his intestines spilling out. Yet he had planted his saber on the ground and somehow staggered back to his feet.
His face was bloodless, his gaze unfocused, but a maniacal light burned in his eyes. Dragging his grievously wounded body and trailing his intestines, he roared as he lunged at Qin Meng.
The vitality of martial artists... is this tenacious? Qin Meng's eyelid twitched. He instantly recalled what Old Man Wang had once said: Body Forging Realm martial artists possessed abundant qi and blood and fierce vitality. Unless their vital parts were destroyed, they wouldn't die quickly.
This was a dying counterattack, all to buy his young master a chance to escape.
Qin Meng reacted swiftly, not daring to underestimate him. He pivoted and brought his saber down in a furious slash.
Zhao Tie was already at the end of his strength. How could he possibly block it?
After just a few exchanges, the blade flashed, Zhao Tie's head flew through the air, and his headless corpse crashed to the ground.
[Life Source +18%]
A surge of pure, abundant warmth flooded into Qin Meng's body.
Qin Meng let out a long breath and looked toward the street corner where Lei Jun and the others had disappeared, knowing he could no longer catch them.
He suppressed the urge to give chase—the Wild Instinct was warning him of a faint, looming danger.
Qin Meng began to sweep the battlefield, moving as fast as the wind. He searched the corpses for valuables, then swept all the valuables and copper coins in the Warm Pavilion into the bundle. Finally, he smashed through the back window and disappeared into the vast darkness of night, his loot on his back.
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