Chopsticks Pinning a Saber

The moment those words fell, the restaurant sank into dead silence.

Several diners exchanged looks, then lowered their heads one after another, pretending they had heard nothing.

A Zhuqi Realm technique was tempting, but one had to live long enough to claim it.

The Tyrant Blade Sect had originally been nothing more than a third-rate force in Tiannan Prefecture. Its sect master, Lei Hu, had been an expert at the Ninth Stage of Body Tempering, Huajin Realm.

But not long ago, Lei Hu had broken through to the Zhuqi Realm, and the Tyrant Blade Sect had leaped from a third-rate force to a second-rate one.

What ordinary martial artist without backing would dare offend them?

"Still struggling on the verge of death? Your Vajra Sect may have a Zhuqi Realm technique, but in the past hundred years, who among you has ever broken through to the Zhuqi Realm?"

"Die!"

The leading Tyrant Blade Sect disciple raised the Goose Feather Saber in his hand and slashed toward the Vajra Sect disciple's head.

Am I going to die?

The Vajra Sect disciple closed his eyes in despair.

The shriek of the Goose Feather Saber tearing through the air exploded beside his ear. He could even feel the blade's icy chill.

Clang!

A piercing clash of metal rang out, yet the agony he had expected never came.

The Vajra Sect disciple abruptly opened his eyes. The Goose Feather Saber that had been about to cleave off his head had been pinned to the pillar beside him by a single chopstick.

The chopstick pierced through the saber's blade and sank deep into the wood. The hilt still hummed and trembled.

The chopstick was made entirely of bamboo, the most ordinary kind found in any restaurant. Yet at that moment, it was like an iron nail, firmly pinning the finely forged steel Goose Feather Saber to the wooden pillar.

The restaurant was silent as a grave.

Everyone's eyes widened as they stared at that chopstick in disbelief.

A chopstick pinning a saber?

Was that something a human could do?

And that speed just now had been too fast.

No one had seen who had thrown that chopstick.

"Who was it? Who made that move just now?" The leading Tyrant Blade Sect disciple looked around. His voice was tight, though his tone remained forceful. "The Tyrant Blade Sect is conducting business. Uninvolved people should stay away. I can pretend what happened just now never happened."

"The Tyrant Blade Sect?" On the second floor, Chen Xuan held a wine cup and took a sip. "Never heard of it. Is it impressive?"

"You—"

The leading Tyrant Blade Sect disciple's face flushed red. Just as he was about to fly into a rage, a junior brother beside him grabbed him.

"Senior Brother, he's from the Red Sun Gang. We can't afford to provoke him." The junior brother lowered his voice. "And he may have been the one who acted just now. To pin a saber with a chopstick, his strength is at least at the eighth stage of Body Tempering."

"The Red Sun Gang!"

The leading Tyrant Blade Sect disciple gritted his teeth. He looked at the chopstick in the pillar, then at Chen Xuan by the second-floor window. In the end, he swallowed his anger.

Naturally, they had heard of the Red Sun Gang after arriving in Lianshan City.

Its gang leader, Sun Tianxing, was an expert at the fourth stage of the Zhuqi Realm, while their sect master had only just broken through into the Zhuqi Realm.

What was more, the Guiyuan Sect stood behind the Red Sun Gang.

Their Tyrant Blade Sect simply could not afford to provoke such a colossal force.

"Fine. Today, we'll give the Red Sun Gang some face." The leading Tyrant Blade Sect disciple shot the Vajra Sect disciple on the ground a vicious look, then raised his head toward Chen Xuan. Feeling that leaving just like this would be too humiliating, he left behind a harsh warning. "We'll leave this man in the Red Sun Gang's custody for now, but the Tyrant Blade Sect will not let the Vajra Sect matter rest so easily."

With that, he waved his hand and led his men away.

"Branch Master, why did you..."

A Red Sun Gang member stepped forward, his face full of confusion.

Chen Xuan raised a hand to cut him off, set down his wine cup, and walked downstairs.

The Vajra Sect disciple was still sprawled on the ground, covered in blood. His breath was as faint as a candle flame in the wind.

Yet when he heard the footsteps, he still struggled to raise his head and look at Chen Xuan.

"Th... thank you..."

The Vajra Sect disciple's voice was so hoarse it was nearly inaudible. His lips were cracked and peeling, his eye sockets deeply sunken, and his face white as paper.

Chen Xuan crouched down and examined his injuries.

The saber wound across his back, running from his left shoulder to his lower waist, was the deepest. The flesh had curled outward, already blackened and foul-smelling; the wound had clearly become infected.

There were another seven or eight saber wounds on his arms, shoulders, and thighs. Some had scabbed over, while others were still seeping blood.

For him to have endured such injuries until now was already a miracle.

"The Zhuqi Realm technique..." The Vajra Sect disciple panted, using the last of his strength to clutch Chen Xuan's hem. "It's... in my clothes..."

Chen Xuan reached out to check his pulse, his brow faintly furrowing.

His pulse was as weak as a string about to snap, appearing and vanishing by turns. This was no longer merely a matter of wounds; his internal organs had already begun to fail.

The aftereffects of the Blood Burning Secret Technique, coupled with days of fleeing, infected wounds, and excessive blood loss—he had lasted this long only by hanging on to a final breath.

Chen Xuan turned and shouted to one of his subordinates, "Call a doctor!"

"Yes!"

A gang member dashed out at once.

The Vajra Sect disciple shook his head, the corner of his mouth pulling into a smile uglier than crying. "Too late... I know... my own condition..."

With difficulty, he raised his other hand and pointed tremblingly at his chest. "The technique... is... here... take it..."

"The Vajra Sect... is gone... but the technique... cannot be lost... I promised Master... I would pass it on..."

"Please... don't let the technique... be lost forever."

The Vajra Sect disciple's voice grew softer and softer, as though every word consumed the last of his strength. The hand clutching Chen Xuan's hem loosened and fell limply to the ground.

"Alright."

Chen Xuan nodded.

Hearing that word, the Vajra Sect disciple's lips curved slightly upward in a relieved smile.

His eyes slowly closed, and his breathing became weaker and weaker.

Chen Xuan reached out to feel for his breath—there was none left.

He reached into the Vajra Sect disciple's clothes and pulled out an oilcloth bundle. Opening it, he found a yellowed handwritten manual inside, with the three words "Vajra Technique" written on its cover.

The handwriting was vigorous and forceful. Though the pages were old, they had been preserved fairly well.

"Branch Master, the doctor is here!"

A gang member rushed in, dragging a panting elderly doctor behind him.

"He won't be needed."

Chen Xuan put away the manual and looked at the Vajra Sect disciple on the ground, shaking his head. Still, he had the elderly doctor step forward to examine him.

After checking him, the elderly doctor sighed. "This young man's injuries were too severe, and they were left untreated for too long. All five viscera and six bowels have failed... His heart has already stopped beating. This old man is helpless; I do not possess the power to bring the dead back to life."

Chen Xuan looked at the young, pale face on the ground.

He did not even know this young man's name.

He only knew that he had been a Vajra Sect disciple, hunted by the Tyrant Blade Sect for days and nights, only to die in the restaurant of this unfamiliar little town.

This was the martial world.

Things like this.

Happened every day, and no one could stop them.

Vengeance, profit, reputation... all kinds of grudges and entanglements formed a tangled web, dragging countless people into it.

"Find a place and bury him." Chen Xuan instructed the gang members beside him. "The back mountain will do. Set up a gravestone."

"Yes, Branch Master."

Two gang members stepped forward and gently carried the Vajra Sect disciple's body away.

After leaving the restaurant.

Chen Xuan led his men back to the branch headquarters.

It was the two-story bluestone building once occupied by the Blood Wolf Gang. The Red Sun Gang's banner had been raised there again, snapping fiercely in the wind.

Behind the bluestone building lay a row of connected courtyards.

Chen Xuan's courtyard was the innermost one.

He sat beside the stone table in the courtyard, took out the Vajra Technique manual from his clothes, and carefully read it from beginning to end.