Eight Directions Wind and Rain

"Clap, clap, clap..."

More than ten zhang away, a middle-aged scholar in white robes walked out, applauding.

His features were gentle, his bearing composed.

As if this were not a desolate wilderness, but a grand hall in some splendid residence.

"What exquisite swordsmanship. Originally, I had little interest in the Yuanling Swordplay Manual. I only made this trip on a whim.

But after seeing your swordsmanship, I realized I was wrong.

At such a young age, you can make your sword so swift. No wonder Old Master Lu once shook the southern heavens with his might. The Primal Spirit Swordplay truly makes one covet it; its great reputation is well deserved."

Had Lu Wu-bing not known that this man had once lurked furtively in the grass and launched hidden weapons without warning,

he might well have misjudged him, thinking him a rare gentleman, a learned and refined scholar.

Rumor had it that Baicao Shusheng had led the Hundred Victory Marquis's second son astray and ruined his future, and everyone said it was a pity, something to sigh over. Yet judging by the way he acted, Lu Wu-bing felt that perhaps he had not been wronged at all. Perhaps he deserved it.

Lu Wu-bing shook his head, holding his sword at a slant toward the ground as he slowly advanced. "The world says Baicao Shusheng Duanmu Tong possesses astonishing talent, with clever hands and a clever mind.

But I think not only are your eyes useless, your brain is as well. Instead of thinking about running, you actually dared to swagger out in front of me."

The other man was too far away.

His cultivation was insufficient. If he crossed more than ten zhang to pursue and kill him, he might be unable to manage it.

It would be all too easy to let him escape.

Once this man got away, the eye in the sky would remain there like a maggot clinging to the bone. Neither he nor his senior sister would ever escape.

Moreover, Lu Wu-bing was certain that this man had some connection with Gu Dongting, the Eastern Sea Sect's leader.

They had won two small victories now.

Unless Gu Dongting was a fool, once he saw such a result, he would surely come after them in person.

If they did not destroy their eye and remained passive at every turn, this battle would be lost no matter how one looked at it.

Fortunately.

When he had fought Lu Zhongkui, Tan Siwu, and the others earlier, he had deliberately held back, never truly using his proficient Inch Step. He had only dodged and shifted within a very small range.

This Baicao Shusheng was cunning by nature and had been secretly watching from the side.

Naturally, everything he had seen was not the truth.

That was where the opportunity lay...

"You want to kill me? You're thinking too highly of yourself."

Duanmu Tong burst into laughter.

"Your swordsmanship may be strong, but your inner force is shallow, and your lightness skill and movement technique are not worth mentioning. I can leave whenever I please.

As for you two, once the Eastern Sea Sword Sect's experts gather, how will you respond?"

"Oh?"

Lu Wu-bing paused for a moment, then continued forward. Yet inwardly, he silently calculated the distance. There were still nine zhang.

As long as he got within three zhang of the man, he could launch a surprise attack.

Then the initiative would be in his hands.

Before his fully accomplished swift sword, no matter how extraordinary this man's lightness skill was, he could forget about retreating unscathed.

"Even if you can rely on your swordsmanship to struggle a little, your senior sister was struck by Queen Bee Poison on the Paired Swallows. Even after the poison is purged, her muscles and bones will be weak for three days. How could she escape pursuit?"

Duanmu Tong laughed merrily.

He paid no attention whatsoever to Lu Wu-bing's little attempt to draw closer.

"Take my advice. Sometimes, people have to accept their fate. If you hand over the Yuanling Swordplay Manual, I'll spare your life. I can even help delay Gu Dongting and make it harder for him to catch up. What do you say?"

"Not much. You talk too much."

Seeing that only five zhang remained between them,

a smile suddenly appeared at the corner of Lu Wu-bing's lips. His raised right foot crashed down, and with one step covering three zhang, he left a long afterimage as he shot forward.

"Naive!"

Duanmu Tong's body drifted diagonally backward like a puppet pulled by strings.

Though it was not as incomparably swift as Lu Wu-bing's Inch Step... it appeared even lighter and more graceful.

Just as expected, as he drifted backward, he flicked both sleeves. Four black shadows let out sharp, shuddering whistles.

He had already launched an attack.

They were four black swallows.

Some flew straight, some darted at an angle... tracing chaotic arcs through the air, yet somehow never colliding with one another.

"Take my Eight Directions Wind and Rain."

Amid his wild laughter, the four swallows that had flown before, behind, left, and right of Lu Wu-bing suddenly trembled in unison, splitting into eight swallows...

They shot forth and slashed from eight directions at once.

"Watch out!"

Only then did Ouyang Lan cry out. She wanted to rush forward, but her inner force lay sluggish and lifeless within her, leaving her unable to help.

Her eyes were filled with panic.

Man plotted against the tiger, and the tiger plotted against man.

Ouyang Lan had guessed that her junior brother had hidden a lightness skill, intending to catch Duanmu Tong off guard.

But she had not guessed that the other man was harboring the same plan.

The Paired Swallows hidden weapons flew soundlessly, exquisite and nimble.

But they also had a flaw: from too far away, they could easily miss.

All hidden weapons were like this.

Heavy arrows and flying knives could reach far, but they made too great a commotion and were easy to evade.

If one chose lightness and ease of ambush, then the hidden weapon could not be made too heavy, and some compromise had to be made in its flying speed.

This was especially true of a hidden weapon as exquisitely crafted as the Paired Swallows.

They belonged to the extremely lightweight kind.

Their swallow beaks were like needles, while their wings were forged as thin as cicada wings.

Launched with a unique technique, they could turn with the wind and fly in twisting paths, making them hard to guard against and harder still to block.

Therefore, the best range for launching them was within a few zhang.

Her junior brother thought his plan had succeeded, only to plunge headfirst into the other man's net of hidden weapons.

What could be done?

Just as anxiety burned her heart like fire,

Ouyang Lan heard Lu Wu-bing give a low shout.

He took four consecutive steps, his feet shifting and crossing, dancing around him like flowers being arranged in a vase.

In an instant, his body turned in all directions and thrust out eight swords.

Light and shadows flowed. The blue-robed figure struck by the eight incoming swallows seemed to split from one person into four, with four faces and eight arms.

Buzz...

Eight brilliant white arcs of light stabbed out almost at the same time.

The swallows flew away in response.

"This..."

"Four faces and eight arms, a thousand hands and a thousand eyes."

Watching those arms draw layer upon layer of afterimages, Ouyang Lan's eyes shone with wild joy.

She knew her junior brother's sword was fast, faster than she had imagined, faster than common sense could comprehend.

But she had never imagined it could be this fast.

Sword out, sword withdrawn—his arms overlapped in layers. She could only see arcs of light stabbing again and again. In that instant, she could not even tell how many times he had struck.

Fully accomplished swordsmanship—this was absolutely fully accomplished swordsmanship.

Though it was only one move, it had already surpassed her by an unknown distance.

For the first time, Ouyang Lan felt no bitterness at all. Her eyes reddened with tears, her heart full of excitement.

Eight swords in an instant.

Eight swallows struck down.

What astonishing swordsmanship was this?

Lu Wu-bing only felt a faint swelling in the Lesser Yin Heart Meridian of his arm, accompanied by a slight tearing ache.

But he did not care in the slightest. His body turned like a willow brushing in the wind, and in a flash, he was within half a zhang of Duanmu Tong.

"You've fallen for it."

At the same time as he heard a cold sneer, what met his eyes was Duanmu Tong's left arm aimed directly at him.

Within an inch, life and death hung by a thread.

There was neither sorrow nor joy in Lu Wu-bing's heart.

His feet turned, and he moved like a frenzied bolt of lightning, changing from a direct charge to a diagonal path and stepping behind the large tree to his left.

The next moment, his body collapsed backward like a boneless snake, pressing close to the ground.

Sure enough.

As Lu Wu-bing dodged, Duanmu Tong's pointing arm changed direction even faster.

Buzz...

A vibrating hum sounded beside his ear, like a swarm of bees beating their wings.

Amid a series of popping sounds, Lu Wu-bing felt a fierce wind sweep through the air.

Lying on the ground, his brows twitched wildly...

The thick tree he had hidden behind, wide enough for two people to embrace, looked as though insects had gnawed through it, now riddled with dozens of tiny holes. A dense mass of tiny black shadows pierced through the trunk and flashed through the air.

They shot into the trees and grass behind him, crackling like rain beating plantain leaves.

If this book is not enough for you, you can check out Little Fish's previous novel, Yin-Yang Mirror. It's quite exciting.

You won't be disappointed.

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