Perfection, Listening Wind Slash

Deep in the forest, the sun gradually climbed higher.

The dense woods grew shrouded in mist.

Shen Yi moved with agile speed, leaping over the rugged mountain paths like a nimble ape.

Suddenly, a crisp explosion sounded in the distant sky, blooming into rolling black smoke beneath the daylight.

Shen Yi paused slightly and frowned.

This was a signal arrow from the Pacification Office.

It seemed someone had discovered Sun Lin and Ma Cheng's corpses and was gathering men to close in on this place.

The real breakout was only beginning now.

Shen Yi picked up his pace, heading northwest along the foot of the mountain.

He traveled for roughly half a day.

Then he suddenly spotted indistinct figures moving through the forest ahead.

Shen Yi did not avoid them. Instead, he crouched behind a large tree, one hand settling on his saber hilt.

If he turned back now,

the encirclement would only tighten further.

Even if he failed to break out this time, he had to cripple the enemy's fighting strength and buy himself time for secluded cultivation to improve.

That was Shen Yi's plan.

The search party gradually drew closer.

The scouts at the front were all constables dressed in black, moving in groups of two or three. They stayed close enough to support one another.

At that moment, two figures passed along either side of the tree trunk where Shen Yi hid.

One of them looked around, about to report that all was clear.

Then, from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a dark shape crouching in the edge of his vision.

A chill ran down his spine, and just as he was about to shout—

Shen Yi twisted his saber one-handed. A streak of blade light, like a blazing sun, swept across his throat in an instant.

Thud.

The constable toppled over and fell into the bushes beside him.

Killed a non-realm martial artist. Cultivation time gained: five months.

The unusual sound immediately alerted his companion. "Old Li!"

That man immediately used his Wild Goose Saber to part the bushes and weeds.

A dark figure suddenly sprang out.

By the time the constable saw those icy eyes clearly, a gleaming blade had already pierced his chest.

Killed a non-realm martial artist...

Although Shen Yi dispatched the two men with extreme speed, the constable's earlier shout had already alerted those following behind.

For a moment, a high-pitched rustling filled Shen Yi's ears.

Countless people were forcing their way through the brush, pursuing him from behind.

Shen Yi rose and retreated sharply to one side.

He held his saber horizontally before him.

Then he leaped at the two constables on the flank. The Array Breaker Art circulated at high speed as his blade howled, carving out a black streak.

Clang!

The blades of the two constables shattered.

They spat blood and flew backward.

This strike crushed the enemy with sheer momentum.

It was called Mountain and River Shattering!

Killed a non-realm martial artist...

Shen Yi ignored the prompts ringing by his ear.

His mind was drawn taut as a thread, constantly tracking the Pacification Office men rushing closer from all around.

"How dare you, villain!"

A furious shout came from behind him.

A man wielding twin sabers moved as nimbly as an ape.

He stepped rapidly from trunk to trunk, spun through the air, and arrived above and behind Shen Yi.

His twin sabers whirled in his hands like frost, stabbing down toward Shen Yi's collarbones.

Shen Yi narrowed his eyes.

This was genuine qinggong, not the straightforward footwork that came with the Wind Severing Blade. A flash of envy passed through his eyes.

The man wore black with a silver crane emblem.

He was at least in the Entry Realm, perhaps even a master who had stepped into the Third-Rate Realm.

Besides this Black Guard with the twin sabers, Shen Yi could see at least two more black-clad figures rushing in from the left and right.

Three experts at or above the Entry Realm, along with more than a dozen constables—and they even coordinated with one another through battle formations as they advanced.

If he became entangled in battle, more and more enemies would arrive.

In the end, Shen Yi would be worn to death.

In that flash of lightning and fire, Shen Yi had already formed a plan.

He turned and flicked his saber.

Clang! His horizontal saber collided with the twin sabers, producing a crisp ring.

The force in his horizontal saber was solid yet illusory. Borrowing the impact of the twin sabers, he shot into the distance and widened the gap.

Along the way,

Shen Yi cut down another constable blocking his path. He flipped through the opening in their encirclement, pumped his legs, and burst out of the siege like a whirlwind.

Yet such a loud and forceful breakout

left his trail impossible to conceal.

"I'll pursue him!"

The twin-saber Black Guard cried out softly. His figure flashed as he stepped on brush one moment and lightly tapped a tree trunk the next, chasing after Shen Yi at great speed.

"Ling Yu, the villain is troublesome!"

"Wait for us to move together."

The other two Black Guards hurried after him, but their qinggong was only at the beginner level. How could they possibly keep up with Ling Yu?

Shen Yi circulated the Array Breaker Art with all his strength.

Though he possessed no qinggong movement technique, he could rely on the Array Breaker Art's explosive power to accelerate over short distances and sprint at full speed.

However, after only a few breaths,

Shen Yi discovered that the twin-saber wielder was actually running through the air atop the grass. He closed in with terrifying speed, and being stuck to by him was now inevitable.

"Shen Yi, you cannot escape!"

"Stop at once and accept your death!"

Hearing the other man's arrogant words, Shen Yi remained entirely calm.

His goal had been to lure them apart.

Only then would he have an opening to exploit.

During that brief clash just now, Shen Yi had killed four constables and gained a total of twenty-two months of cultivation time.

"System, allocate twelve months to saber arts and ten months to inner cultivation. Do it now!"

You begin diligently cultivating the Wind Severing Saber Technique / Array Breaker Art...

Shen Yi immediately felt his mind split into two, entering an unfathomable mental space as if he were doing two things at once.

You diligently cultivate the Array Breaker Art, opening your meridians and completing your circulation. After ten months of secluded cultivation, your inner cultivation has improved further.

Shen Yi felt the inner force he had just expended fill up again like stored water, even becoming more abundant and powerful than before.

You train your saber technique bitterly for one year. After thousands upon thousands of failures, you finally seize that mysterious, ineffable moment of opportunity. The profound imagery behind every stance and move becomes clear to your heart. Drawing your saber has become instinctive, as obedient as an arm or finger, as natural as breathing. Your Wind Severing Saber Technique has reached the realm of Perfection. You have comprehended a supreme move: Listening Wind Slash.

In an instant, Shen Yi held his saber in hand.

It was as though he had merged with the horizontal saber, with no barrier remaining between them.

Host: Shen Yi

Cultivation: Third-Rate Realm

Martial arts: Wind Severing Saber Technique (Perfection), Bone Dislocation Hand (Beginner), Fragmentary Array Breaker Art (Advanced Entry)

Ultimate skill: Listening Wind Slash

Secluded cultivation: None

Shen Yi stood where he was and looked up.

Ecstasy shone in Ling Yu's eyes as he spread his arms like a great roc unfurling its wings.

His twin sabers crossed over one another, like the interlocking fangs of a starving wolf, as he plunged down and thrust at Shen Yi.

Shen Yi gripped his saber with one hand.

His ears twitched.

Before the blade arrived, the wind had already traced the force of the incoming sabers for him.

Clang! The horizontal saber left its sheath.

Shen Yi's body swayed like a falling leaf, slipping past the edge of the twin sabers.

Before Ling Yu could change his move, Shen Yi's blade light had already swept across his neck.

He anticipated the enemy's move, then struck after yet arrived first.

This was called Listening Wind!

Killed a Third-Rate martial artist. Cultivation time rewarded: two years.

Ling Yu's twin sabers were still mere inches from Shen Yi's chest,

but they could no longer advance even a fraction.

With a thump, he crashed to the ground.

Just as Shen Yi crouched down to search the corpse, the taut twang of bowstrings rang out in the distance.

In the next instant, a rain of arrows fell from the sky.

The Pacification Office Captains had caught up. Faced with the life or death of their own colleague, they did not utter a word and directly ordered an encircling attack.

Shen Yi performed a backward flip on the spot, evading most of the arrows. He then swept aside the remaining barrage with his saber, gathered all his strength, and charged away once more.

Ling Yu's corpse, meanwhile, had already been turned into a sieve by that wave of arrows.

Immediately afterward, two Black Guard Captains arrived with a group of bow-wielding constables.

Looking at Ling Yu's body, which had been pierced into a hedgehog, one of them spat and said flatly:

"Stupid!"

"Everyone, continue the pursuit!"

"Avoid fighting him at close range. Drive him into the encirclement!"

"Yes!"