With Bai Zhixing out of their way for the moment, Cheng Qingshi and Chen Jing fought as they retreated toward the window.
Cheng Qingshi settled into a fighting stance. Blood and qi surged around him, almost tangible. As he unleashed the Nine Forms of the Mountain Lord, he looked like a mighty, awe-inspiring tiger.
Every punch and kick struck with a thunderous thud. Chests caved in, and bodies flew backward.
Watching from beside him, Chen Jing finally understood just how much Cheng Qingshi had held back when they sparred during his entry training.
If Cheng Qingshi had used this much force then, Chen Jing might not have gained the slightest advantage even with [Tiger Valiance] at full strength.
On Chen Jing's side, the scene was even bloodier.
Mountain Lord Energy coursed through him, while the [Mountain Lord] talent steadily increased his strength and speed by fifteen percent.
With a butcher knife in his hand, the [Butcher] talent increased his attack speed, striking force, and Bone-Breaking attributes by another fifty percent each.
His own foundation had already reached Minor Accomplishment in blood and qi. With such terrifying boosts from his talents, the butcher knife became a blurred black shadow in his hand.
His blade rose and fell. Severed arms and limbs flew in every direction.
Blood sprayed across the walls, leaving crimson marks everywhere like splashes of ink.
He split one swordsman open from shoulder to waist, spilling his organs across the floor. With a backhand slash, he severed another's neck. The head rolled into a corner, while the headless body took two more steps with its blade raised before crashing to the floor.
The carnage was so brutal that the first few swordsmen, splashed in the face with hot blood, felt their legs go weak on the spot.
Their hands shook so badly they could barely grip their hilts. They scrambled backward, only to be shoved forward again by the men behind them.
Zhou Yunhan's lips had gone pale with fright too, but he had spent more than a decade in the martial world. He knew there was no turning back tonight.
He gritted his teeth and shrieked, his voice cracking:
"Get in there, all of you! If we fail, do you think the Six Gates will let you leave Green Mountain City alive?"
"If we don't kill them, we all die!"
At his words, a cornered beast's ferocity returned to the eyes of the swordsmen who had been scared out of their wits.
They were dead either way. If they fought, they still had a chance to live.
Howling, they surged forward again.
Their assault was even more frenzied than before.
Blood coated Cheng Qingshi's fists. He could no longer tell whose it was.
Breathing a little harder, he said coldly, "Onto the roof!"
Chen Jing had been thinking the same thing.
They kicked over the swordsmen in front of them, darted nimbly through the window, and landed steadily on the eaves.
Both had solid foundations in stance training.
Even on the smooth glazed tiles, they stood firm as boulders.
Bai Zhixing had already crawled to the far end of the eaves. Crouched in the distance and clinging to an outer pillar, he nearly burst into tears when he saw them emerge.
Their pursuers had no such footing. The swordsmen jostled one another as they squeezed through the window, and several missed their step. Screaming, they fell straight from the third floor and struck the Bluestone-paved street, dying on the spot.
Pedestrians shrieked at the bodies falling from the sky and fled in every direction. In an instant, all of Flower Moon Street was thrown into chaos.
Chen Jing made a snap decision. "Split up!"
The eaves were narrow. Crowding together would only hinder them. Apart, they could each cut a swath through the enemy.
He and Cheng Qingshi moved to opposite sides, each taking a stretch of the eaves. Butcher knife in hand, Chen Jing stepped back as though wading through mud.
On the long, narrow eaves, only two pursuers could come at him abreast. Chen Jing cut them down one by one as easily as chopping melons and slicing vegetables.
His proficiency in the Pig-Slaughtering Blade Technique kept climbing, and his heart bloomed with delight.
Clinging to the outer pillar, Bai Zhixing watched Chen Jing kill one man after another on the eaves as easily as slaughtering pigs and dogs. He could not help cheering again and again.
Cheng Qingshi fought with his fists, but each punch carried the weight of a thousand jin. Anyone he struck suffered broken bones or internal injuries.
Nor was he rigid about it. More often, he swung his fists or swept his legs to send the swordsmen charging him tumbling off the eaves.
It was as if men were raining down from the Hundred Flowers Pavilion. One after another, swordsmen screamed as they fell from the third floor and struck the street with dull thuds.
Those who survived lay groaning in pain; those who did not died on the spot. The men behind them watched in terror, their hearts and courage shattered. No one dared take another step toward Cheng Qingshi.
The burly man from earlier leaned out through the window and barked, "Leave this one to me! Go after Bai Zhixing!"
He shook his arms, and his joints crackled. Blood and qi roiled through him like an enraged giant python.
He lunged at Cheng Qingshi.
The Six Gates agents secretly watching the Hundred Flowers Pavilion had sensed something was wrong the moment the armchair flew through the window.
They immediately sprinted to the nearest outpost to report it.
Before long, Duan Mu hurried over with a squad of constables.
Meanwhile, Liang Youheng and Liu Yunfei were returning from work at the docks. When the gatekeeper told them Chen Jing and Cheng Qingshi had gone to the Hundred Flowers Pavilion, they headed over to back them up, lest someone make another underhanded move against Chen Jing.
Neither of them could have imagined that the moment they stepped onto Flower Moon Street, they would see the horrifying sight of men raining down from the Hundred Flowers Pavilion.
Seven or eight bodies already lay in the street. Some were smashed beyond recognition; others were still twitching and groaning.
Every pedestrian on the street had fled.
The two groups met right outside the Hundred Flowers Pavilion. Liu Yunfei grabbed Liang Youheng and charged into the building with the Six Gates squad.
The proprietress threw herself at them, her makeup smeared into a mess by her tears. "Officers! Shopkeeper Zhou from White Horse Pharmacy has gone mad! He's slaughtering people on the third floor!"
Duan Mu shoved her aside.
With his men and the two others, he rushed straight for the third floor.
At the third-floor stairwell, a dozen or so swordsmen took turns holding the narrow passage.
With the high ground on their side, they hacked back every wave of Six Gates constables that rushed up at them.
Whenever one swordsman died, another immediately took his place. They refused to yield an inch, plugging the stairwell with their own flesh and blood.
"Master, the Six Gates men are coming up!"
A swordsman turned and shouted hoarsely into the private room.
Zhou Yunhan stood behind the others, his eyes bloodshot, his expression nearly crazed.
He stared at the shadow on the eaves outside the window, butcher knife in hand, and roared with the desperation of a man staking everything on one throw. "Chen Jing!"
"Set a fire! Set the place on fire!"
"Burn them to death!"
Wine and lamp oil were splashed over the gauze curtains, screens, and wooden furniture in the private room. Someone tossed a fire starter.
Flames whooshed upward!
The fire spread at a shocking speed, from the private room into the corridor. Thick smoke billowed, and firelight painted the night red.
Chen Jing, who had been fighting with ease on the eaves, suddenly caught a sharp smell of burning.
He whipped his head around.
Firelight flickered behind the window paper. Orange-red flames licked the window frame, and thick smoke poured through the broken opening.
Clinging to the outer pillar, Bai Zhixing shouted in despair:
"Brother Chen! Zhou Yunhan's gone mad! He's burning down the building!"
Chen Jing's heart tightened.
If the fire took hold, flames and thick smoke would cut off their escape. They would have no choice but to jump. The three-story Hundred Flowers Pavilion stood at least a dozen meters tall.
A jump from that height...
Bai Zhixing, an ordinary man with no martial skills, would certainly die. Even if Chen Jing and Cheng Qingshi survived, they would break both legs.
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