My Blade Is Fast, Bear With It a Moment

Squelch!

Cai He's force erupted.

With a pop,

an invisible force swept the arrow aside as lightly as a great hand.

Then,

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Several arrows flew in rapid succession from the dense woods.

The muffled thuds of arrows striking flesh mingled with screams.

The Mandala Flower Poison had already taken effect.

The once-ferocious bandits visibly slowed. Their eyes grew unfocused, and their reactions to everything around them dulled.

In the blink of an eye, five of them failed to dodge.

Even a hardened bandit who had undergone Mortal Shedding six times was struck squarely by an arrow.

The poison coating the arrows spread at once.

The wounded men felt their chests tighten. Their faces rapidly turned blue-purple, and one by one, they coughed up foul blood and died.

The arrows ceased for a moment.

One outlaw looked up in panic and saw three figures emerge from deep within the woods.

At first, he thought they were Liu Family men. But on closer inspection, their clothes and bearing were nothing like those of the Liu Family martial artists he had seen earlier.

The one in front was a young man in a black robe. He held a blade in his right hand, its tip angled toward the ground. The outlaw had never seen him before.

"Brother Zuo, sorry for the trouble. Circle around the perimeter and seal off every escape route. Don't let a single one live."

"Brother Su, use the chaos to get behind the carriage and take the chest of incense offerings."

Chen Ye had already explained the plan to them before they acted. Both understood, nodded silently, then split up to carry it out.

The outlaw opened his mouth to shout, only to discover in horror that his hands were shaking.

It was not fear. From the moment he saw that young man, the strength had seemed to drain from his entire body.

His limbs went weak, his inner strength stalled, and he could barely hold his blade.

"What's happening? My body... why won't it obey me?"

He desperately tried to circulate his inner strength, but the flow of energy within him had seized up, as though something blocked it. He could not move it freely at all.

Chen Ye suddenly accelerated, his figure shooting toward him like an arrow.

The outlaw struggled to raise his blade, but it felt as heavy as a thousand jun. He could only watch as a streak of cold light swept toward his throat.

Squelch.

A head flew into the air, and blood sprayed twenty feet high.

Chen Ye did not slow. He headed straight for Cai He.

Several blade-wielding bandits tried to stop him, but the Mandala Flower Poison had fully taken hold of them all.

As Chen Ye drew near, they felt their bodies grow weaker. They stumbled, unable to lift their blades.

Chen Ye swept his blade across.

Wherever its cold gleam flashed, a head fell.

His movements were clean and decisive, even more ruthless than Cai He's had been.

Chen Ye moved as if no one stood in his way. No one could stop him.

Only a few dozen paces separated the edge of the woods from the carriage, yet several corpses already lay along the way, each killed with a single stroke.

Beside the carriage, Yin Xiaoran knelt on one knee, staring in disbelief at everything unfolding before him.

He could tell the young man was no Dragon Elephant Martial Master, yet those hardened bandits in the Mortal Shedding Realm did not even have the strength to raise their blades against him.

Yin Xiaoran's eye for combat had not failed him. This was not overwhelming strength; something was wrong with the bandits' bodies.

Cai He's eye for combat was less discerning. Watching his men fall one after another beside the carriage, he wore a look of utter disbelief.

The entire exchange had taken barely a dozen breaths, too fast for him to react.

"Who are you?" Cai He asked coldly, fixing Chen Ye with a hard stare.

Chen Ye did not answer. He only stared back.

"Won't say?" Cai He laughed in fury. "Then you'll never need to speak again!"

He could see that this young man was not truly that strong.

He was more than capable of dealing with him.

Cai He drew up his inner strength, and surging force rose within him.

The Mandala Flower Poison had already spread through his body, but his Dragon Elephant Realm True Qi suppressed it enough for him to keep moving. He only felt somewhat weak.

He took it for the aftereffects of the fierce fighting and noticed nothing amiss.

Cai He tapped his toe, kicked a long blade up from the ground, and gripped its hilt. Then he drove off with all his strength.

The ground cracked as his figure shot forward like an arrow!

While still in midair, he raised the blade high and brought it down toward Chen Ye's neck with a fierce rush of wind.

If it struck, head and body would part.

The blade fell.

"Die!"

Clang!

An ordinary standard-issue blade reached in from the side and caught his strike firmly.

Numbness shot through the web of Cai He's hand, weakening his swing.

Cai He's face stiffened. He had put seventy percent of his strength into that blow, yet it had been blocked so easily?

What was going on?

Had wine and women really drained me this badly?

Had my strength declined so much?

Cai He sank into profound self-doubt.

Worse still, he found that the closer he got to this man, the weaker his body became.

Cai He gathered all his strength to strike again, but his knees suddenly buckled, and he dropped to the ground.

He looked down at his hand. The web between his thumb and forefinger was numb, and his fingers trembled faintly.

No!

This isn't exhaustion. I've been poisoned!

He finally realized he had fallen into a trap.

But it was too late.

Chen Ye grinned. "Why stand on ceremony like this?"

"Don't worry. My blade is fast. Bear with it a moment."

Cai He looked up, his eyes filled with indescribable terror.

He tried to spit out a threat, only to find even his strength to speak draining away. His teeth chattered beyond his control, and numbness spread through his entire body.

Chen Ye gave him no more chances.

He raised his blade, concentrated all his inner strength into one point, and swept it sideways.

Cai He's head flew up. A column of blood gushed from his neck, traced an arc in the sunlight, then splashed to the ground.

The martial artist of the Dragon Elephant Realm was dead!

The two outlaws left on the mountain road were scared out of their wits and fled downhill in panic.

But Zuo Dongxi was already waiting there. He blocked their path and killed them both.

Still half-kneeling outside the carriage, Yin Xiaoran watched it all. Shock surged through him like raging waves, but he also let out a quiet breath of relief.

At last... we're saved.

The young man approached him step by step, blade in hand.

Yin Xiaoran struggled to his feet, already gathering words of thanks.

But blood still welled in his throat, and he could not get a word out.

He tried to raise a hand in greeting.

Instead, the young man stopped before him and, under his astonished gaze, plunged the blade into his chest without hesitation!

Yin Xiaoran's eyes widened.

Only then did he realize that this young man had not come to save them at all.

"Hhk... hhk..."

Yin Xiaoran opened his mouth, but only bubbling sounds came out, followed by a dry rasp from his throat.

He stared fixedly at Chen Ye's face. The gratitude in his eyes had not yet faded when shock and despair took its place.

Chen Ye pulled out his blade and flicked the blood from it.

Next, he intended to take the Cui Family's incense offerings.

With this guard still alive, they could not act freely. He would only get in the way.

And too many details would not stand up to scrutiny. If word reached the Cui Family, Chen Ye might well go from "savior" to "suspect."

He could not let that happen.

So he had to strike first and finish the man off.

Only the dead were truly safe.

Besides, the man was a guard. A guard's duty was to protect his master.

His master had nearly died because of his incompetence. He ought to have paid for that with his life.

Chen Ye had merely helped him fulfill that duty ahead of time.

Wounded as he was, living would only bring him suffering. A swift death was a kindness.

Chen Ye had also checked before striking.

The Cui Family young lady's carriage faced forward, so she could not see this side. The front door had been secretly locked as well. This would not affect what came next.

Leaving the guard alive would have been the foolish choice.

Chen Ye looked around. The dust had settled.

After all that preparation, everything had gone almost unbelievably smoothly.

Half the weight pressing on his heart finally lifted. He gestured to Zuo Dongxi and Su Guang behind him.

They understood and came over.

They glanced at the corpses strewn across the ground, then at the blood still dripping from Chen Ye's blade. Neither said a word.

Zuo Dongxi tucked his heavy-backed chopping blade into his belt and bent down to clean up the battlefield. Su Guang went to the carriage and began carrying away the chests of incense offerings and jewelry.

Both worked briskly, without wasting a moment.

Chen Ye joined them, quickly searching the bodies and clearing away traces while gathering the valuables in one place.

Once they had finished cleaning up the battlefield, Zuo Dongxi and Su Guang took the money and valuables they had collected and swiftly left at Chen Ye's signal.

After watching them disappear, Chen Ye took out the Black Fat Insect Powder hanging from his body and used his inner strength to disperse it completely into the wind.

Only then did Chen Ye sheath his blade and walk up to the carriage.

He examined it for a moment, found the mechanism on the outside, and pressed it without hesitation.