Killing the Heart

Looking at the noodles, wontons, and beef scattered on the ground, Li Ke's temper flared instantly.

"You can have issues with me, and you can have issues with Elder Souma. After all, even gold has those who dislike it, but..."

Li Ke's sword began to hum. He no longer cared that this weapon belonged to Yone; his qi forced the blade to submit to his will, and he applied a buff to it.

Overdrive.

"...what issue could you possibly have with food?!"

Li Ke had known hunger in this world; the winters in Ionia were harsh, and a woodcutter's income was naturally meager. Seeing this person trample a table of good food into the dirt right in front of him, one could easily imagine the extent of Li Ke's rage.

"Oh?"

The intruder wore an arrogant smirk, stepping onto the beef and noodles that might have still been salvageable, grinding them into sludge with his expensive boots.

"My apologies. Human food is for humans, not for cowardly dogs. Souma's disciples are only fit to go to hell and act like dogs!"

Li Ke had no interest in wasting more breath on this man; the opponent's killing intent was already painfully obvious.

"I'm going to kill you, you coward! And then I'll go kill Souma!"

The man roared, but Li Ke did not reply. The moment the man opened his mouth, Li Ke surged his qi throughout his body. The qi that should have been calm and balanced turned razor-sharp, and Li Ke's figure accelerated. The man saw only a black blur before feeling a sharp, agonizing pain in his chest.

He was sent flying backward, and Li Ke's figure vanished into a shadow.

Though his strength was nothing compared to Yasuo, who wielded the Wind Technique, and even less than a child's play compared to Meimu—and he was currently severely wounded and exhausted—he was more than enough to deal with a guy who didn't know the value of food!

A cold, biting sword light flashed in the eyes of the man on the ground. He felt no pain, but as he scrambled in terror, he felt his topknot come undone.

No, to be precise, his hair had been severed.

With his vision obscured by his falling hair, he could only see a blurry figure. He swung his blade to parry, but an enraged Li Ke had no intention of letting this guy put up a fight.

Qi flooded the blade, manifesting a two-to-three-millimeter-long, shimmering white glow at the tip of the pristine steel. The blade's vibration became so fine and rapid that it was impossible to tell if it was still trembling at all.

The sword light danced with a speed the man couldn't even fathom. The moment he swung his own sword, Li Ke's blade was already circling around it.

Sparks flew as the edge easily sheared off the tip of the man's sword. But Li Ke wanted more than that; to ensure the man understood exactly what was happening, he announced the length of every piece he cut off.

"One inch! Two inches! Three inches!"

Feeling his sword grow lighter and lighter in his hand, the provocateur grew increasingly terrified. He tried to retreat, tried to parry, but the more he backed away, the lighter his weapon became.

"Four inches! Five inches! Six inches!!"

The blade continued to spin, but Li Ke's chanting couldn't keep up with the speed of his strikes. With a flicker of his hand, only the hilt remained in the man's grip.

The shattered fragments of the blade clattered to the ground in a continuous, unbroken rhythm. The sound was like a nightmare, making the brawling swordsman feel as though he were trapped in a hellish dream.

Li Ke ceased his assault, yet the man continued to back away, wildly swinging the hilt of his sword. With disheveled hair, he let out a series of shrieks, as if he were still locked in combat with Li Ke.

Glancing at the man's footwork, Li Ke sneered.

"Your swordsmanship is trash, your footwork is sloppy, your character is vile, and your judgment is pathetic—not a single thing about you is decent! What gave you the courage to ambush me and trample my meal? Was it your own ignorant and arrogant heart?"

With that, Li Ke charged again. Things had reached a point where not killing him was no longer an option. Furthermore, by Ionian custom, this man had insulted his master, threatened his life, spoken filth, compared him to livestock, and was a swordsman himself—all while wielding a blade.

Under these circumstances, no one would blame him for killing this man!

The only reason he hadn't killed him in one stroke earlier was simply to break his spirit before his body.

Under Li Ke's accusations, the man finally snapped back to reality. After blindly swinging his hilt at the air a few more times, he glared at the onlookers with a flushed, angry face and pointed at Li Ke.

"Impossible! It's impossible! You're clearly the disciple with the least talent under Souma! My master told me I was the greatest genius swordsman in the area!"

Li Ke nearly laughed out loud.

That was true; he was the least talented disciple under Elder Souma because he lacked magic and the formidable physical constitution of the Ionians.

But!

What kind of dog-shit swordsman was this?

Li Ke might have been born with a disadvantage, but this guy's effort didn't even reach the level where Li Ke needed to compare talent!

He possessed the strong, magic-infused body of an Ionian, yet his swordsmanship... he probably hadn't even trained half as long as Li Ke!

Yasuo was arrogant, but he practiced his swordsmanship bitterly every single day, training his Wind Technique under the dangerous waterfalls. Yone might have lacked talent compared to Yasuo, but in the eyes of others, even without the Wind Technique, he was capable of upholding Elder Souma's reputation.

Even the other disciples who weren't working hard were still giving ninety-nine percent effort out of a hundred, whereas Li Ke, even before he obtained the simulator, had always pushed himself to one hundred and twenty percent!

Did a mere, bottom-tier young master who thought he was a swordsman just because he held a blade deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as him?

Did he deserve to make Li Ke lament his own lack of talent?

"Does your effort match your talent? Does your character even deserve the talent you have?"

Li Ke raised his sword. The man clearly came from a wealthy, powerful family, but so what?

His figure vanished. Li Ke charged straight at the young master; he wanted the man to watch his own death with his own eyes.

If he hadn't blocked that first strike, he would have been the one lying on the ground. When dealing with an ambusher, no mercy was required!

He would make this young master see his own brains!

"Show mercy!"

Just as his blade was about to strike, another sword closed in on his shoulder. It was clear that the attacker was attempting to save the young master by besieging the rescue point.

Not only that, but another person swung their sword toward Li Ke's blade, hoping to deflect his weapon.

Furthermore, they held no malice toward Li Ke; if he simply withdrew his sword to parry, he could easily block the strike.

But Li Ke let out a disdainful snort.

His hand darted across the chopstick holder to the side, and a single chopstick appeared in his grip, instantly coated in a sharp, piercing aura.

Block, pivot, thrust.

He parried the blade.

And between the swordsman's brows, a chopstick was now embedded!

Who said you couldn't kill a man without a sword?