When the Eunuch Took a Step Back, Wuxia Took Twenty Years' Step Back

The moment the bandit chief lost his nerve, Lu Bai moved again.

A person's state of mind was an important factor in how well they performed. Once it was thrown off balance, how much of their strength could they still bring to bear? That was anyone's guess.

Lu Bai lunged forward. The bandit chief's first instinct was to retreat, and that retreat diverted even more of his strength away from the fight.

With Iron Shirt mastered, every movement could use the body's rebound force to gather the strength within him in one place.

It was certainly powerful, but it also consumed a tremendous amount of energy.

If you were skilled enough, you could control this effect. But the bandit chief had forced Iron Shirt to this level with a module.

Even he couldn't master the rebound force within his body that quickly, let alone someone who had trained Iron Shirt to mastery on their own.

And so, when the bandit chief retreated, Chinese wuxia films and TV shows went back twenty years.

The bandit chief's surname wasn't Cao, but a eunuch was a eunuch all the same.

At that very moment, Lu Bai surged forward and jabbed with two fingers, striking the man in the throat.

The man's breath had already been unsteady. In an instant, it became completely ragged.

An army could collapse like a landslide, and so could a person's life: one rise, then fall after fall, until death.

Lu Bai was barely holding on, while the bandit chief could no longer draw another breath. That was the difference between them.

After the throat strike came Twin Peaks Piercing the Ears. Lu Bai raised both hands high and slapped them against the man's ears.

As his hands pulled away, blood ran from the man's ear canals.

"Ahhh!" Terror seized the bandit chief, and he couldn't help crying out. The moment he opened his mouth, Lu Bai's next flurry of attacks was already upon him.

Lu Bai snatched up an arrow and thrust it straight into the man's mouth. It sank deep, and blood sprayed everywhere.

Once one of his vital points had been breached, the bandit chief could no longer maintain White Jade Body.

Blood gushed from the fissures cracking his entire body.

The man's body flailed wildly, then toppled backward like a rag doll.

Lu Bai stepped in front of him and punched him hard in the head. Only after the man's head lolled to one side did Lu Bai exhale and stop his skill.

By then, Lu Bai's own body was cracked all over, and his skin looked as if it had been burned. Even the slightest movement hurt.

He had also grown much thinner, like someone who had been ill for a long time and was just one breath away from starving to death.

He slowly approached the bandit chief's corpse and laid a hand on it. Before long, one module after another was extracted.

Lu Bai had no time to inspect them, so he simply put them all away.

Then he began searching the bodies.

The archer from earlier lay buried in the rubble. It was impossible to tell whether he had died of exhaustion or been crushed to death.

Lu Bai crouched beside the body and extracted only two modules.

Perhaps too much time had passed, and the factors associated with him had begun to dissipate.

If Lu Bai had come sooner, he might have gotten something worthwhile.

After all, that archer had caused Lu Bai plenty of trouble. Every arrow he fired had demanded a great deal of Lu Bai's attention.

Of course, it was also thanks to him that Lu Bai had found a chance to deal the bandit chief his first serious wound.

Lu Bai placed the extracted [Internal Force] module into [Combat Mode], using the internal force to fill his body and protect it from within.

Then he pushed the rubble aside and slowly crawled out.

The fighting around him gradually subsided. Bodies lay along the streets, and broken swords and shattered blades were scattered everywhere.

The people of Lianwu Mountain had lost, and lost utterly.

Aside from a handful who had escaped, most had perished here.

It was no longer nearly as lively as it had been early that morning.

The most common sound now was groaning.

Those who had tried to run earlier now lay nearby, their backs covered in wounds.

The young man who had wanted to kill the bandits was now sobbing as he clutched his father's corpse.

Most of those who had tried to rescue Lin Haixian had also been killed or wounded.

The commotion at the Heshan Pavilion ruins had caught everyone's attention.

The battle had only just ended, and their nerves were still taut.

Any sound would draw their attention and put them on alert.

When Lu Bai, covered in blood, crawled out, many eyes turned toward him.

Though gravely wounded, Lu Bai showed no sign of fear. His gaze swept imperiously across the crowd.

Most people looked away, not daring to meet his eyes.

Lu Bai walked slowly out of the rubble. Only then did the young man sobbing over his father's corpse notice the commotion.

He looked up and saw Lu Bai.

"Blood Monk, you'll pay with your life for my father's death!"

Blaming someone else was a common emotional response. The young man had chosen to stay and kill bandits. He hadn't been strong enough, and only survived because his father had risked his life to save him.

Yet now, he blamed it all on Lu Bai.

He believed that if Lu Bai hadn't sparked this grand gathering of the Martial Forest and stormed Lianwu Mountain's lair, those people wouldn't have gone berserk, and his father wouldn't have died.

This sort of reasoning, which could blame everything on the very origins of the universe, was plainly unreasonable.

Watching the young man approach with his blade, Lu Bai wasn't about to indulge him. His eyes tracked the man's movements, then swept over the surroundings.

The Heshan Pavilion signboard, broken swords, corpses, stones, bits of wood, and more.

Lu Bai took a slight step forward, planting his foot on a broken blade as he watched the young man approach.

As the man was about to step over a corpse, Lu Bai shifted his foot, and the broken blade flew toward him.

The spinning blade was so fast that the young man couldn't react. Their combat experience was simply worlds apart.

Some in the crowd couldn't bear to watch. He had just lost his father, and now he was about to die too. But there was no time to stop it.

"Thud!"

A pebble flew in from afar and struck the broken blade, knocking it aside.

Lu Bai looked toward the direction from which it had come.

Flower Face stood there, a mocking look on his scarred face.

It was as though he were saying, Now you've finally fallen into my hands.

The young man who had narrowly escaped now gasped for breath and looked at Flower Face too.

Flower Face nodded amiably at him. That simple gesture gave the young man immense courage. The Hundred Flower Grave was on his side, while Lu Bai was nothing more than a wanted criminal of the Hundred Flower Grave.

"Lu Bai, meet your end!" The young man raised his blade and charged at Lu Bai once more.

After that kick, several more cracks had opened across Lu Bai's body. He seemed to have lost the ability to fight back.

Excitement flickered in the young man's eyes. If he had first come out of resentment, now there was something to gain.

By killing Lu Bai, he could not only win the Hundred Flower Grave's favor, but also use Lu Bai's reputation to make a name for himself.

At that moment, the pain of losing his father seemed to have healed.

Happy Winter Solstice, everyone! Did you have dumplings or tangyuan?