Dying with Eyes Wide Open

Everything happened in the space of a lightning flash. Bao Yansong's saber was less than a meter from Chen Cheng's face, about to cleave him in two with a single stroke.

Chen Cheng suddenly accelerated as he retreated, becoming several times faster and easily evading the saber's attack.

With several flicks of his hand, he scattered more lime powder. This time, the lime covered an even wider area, turning more than half the courtyard into a vast expanse of white.

The moment Bao Yansong's strike missed, he knew something was wrong. He hurriedly dashed to the side, rushing out of the lime-covered area in the blink of an eye. Yet a small amount of lime still entered his eyes, sending sharp pain through them and forcing him to close them at once.

He had considered that Chen Cheng might use hidden weapons again, but he had never expected him to resort once more to such a lowly trick as scattering lime—and to throw out so much of it at once! What normal person carried that much lime on them?

That damned runner was utterly detestable, simply shameless and vile to the extreme!

His eyes stung from the lime and would not open. Bao Yansong was already furious beyond measure, yet the person he wanted to kill was a runner. Afraid of drawing attention, he did not dare make a loud commotion.

"Damned runner!" he cursed through gritted teeth in a low voice. With all his strength, he whirled the saber in his hand into an impenetrable storm of steel, while taking the chance to wipe his eyes with the sleeve of his other arm.

He only needed to hold on for a moment. Once he had wiped his eyes clean and regained his sight, he would chop Chen Cheng into minced meat to vent the hatred in his heart.

How could Chen Cheng possibly give him that chance?

Bao Yansong had mastered his saber technique. Forsaking offense for full defense, he was nearly without flaw—but what use was that? If there was no flaw, one could create one. Unable to see, even for only a moment, was enough to bring about his defeat and death.

Chen Cheng leaped up and kicked a stone millstone in the courtyard toward Bao Yansong. The millstone weighed two or three hundred jin, carrying tremendous force as it smashed toward Bao Yansong amid a howling rush of wind.

Hearing the movement, Bao Yansong instinctively slashed out with all his strength.

Bang!

Sparks flew as the millstone was forcibly split in two by that single saber stroke.

Yet the millstone had come with fierce momentum, and the tremendous recoil sent Bao Yansong staggering back again and again. Just as he was about to draw back his saber to defend, Chen Cheng moved like the wind, the saber in his hand seeming to chase the wind as it swiftly swept toward Bao Yansong's vulnerable neck.

A clear breeze passed through a crack, leaving no trace in the blade's shadow. It was the Wind-Chasing Form.

Bao Yansong sensed the greatest life-and-death crisis he had ever faced. The aura around him suddenly surged with violence, and the skin membrane across his body darkened, black with a dim sheen. It became more than twice as tough as before, far harder than cowhide, developing toward copper skin. He seemed about to erupt with strength no weaker than that of a Skin-Tempering Realm warrior at perfection, attempting to withstand this strike with his flesh alone.

But Chen Cheng's Chasing Wind Saber Technique was far too fast. Before Bao Yansong's explosive state could fully take shape, the saber had already cut open his neck.

Sshk!

Chen Cheng had put all his strength into this stroke, yet he still failed to sever Bao Yansong's head. He had only sliced halfway through his neck.

Blood spouted like a fountain from the cracks in Bao Yansong's torn, hardened skin membrane.

Bao Yansong dropped his saber and desperately clutched the wound in his neck with both hands. In a hoarse voice, he said, "You... you're a Skin-Tempering Realm warrior at major accomplishment..."

Before he could finish, his body remained standing motionless while his head lolled to one side, and his breath vanished. His originally fierce face was twisted out of shape by rage. His eyes bulged round like an ox's, scarlet blood dripping from them. He looked like a vengeful ghost burdened by injustice, dying with eyes wide open.

Until his death, he could not understand why Chen Cheng, a mere probationary runner, was actually a Skin-Tempering Realm warrior at major accomplishment!

And a dignified Skin-Tempering Realm warrior at major accomplishment had fought in such a despicable, underhanded way—shameless to the very extreme. Yet from beginning to end, he had not even managed to touch the corner of Chen Cheng's clothes. Who would not feel stifled and wronged after being killed like that?

"I'm still just a tiny bit short of major accomplishment in the Skin-Tempering Realm."

Muttering softly, Chen Cheng quickly searched Bao Yansong's body.

Searching corpses was already a specialty of the City Guard Office runners, and Chen Cheng was an expert even among them. In just a few swift motions, he pulled a heavy money pouch and a strange dark-green bamboo tube-shaped device from Bao Yansong's body.

Chen Cheng did not stop there. With another practiced round of tearing, he stripped the black outer clothing from Bao Yansong, leaving him only in his undergarments.

The City Guard Office runners were not only skilled at searching corpses—they were equally adept at stripping clothes.

Only then did Bao Yansong's tall body crash to the ground.

Chen Cheng briefly examined the bamboo tube-shaped device and found that it was quite similar to the hidden weapon containing corpse-corroding poison water that Liao San had mentioned.

He aimed the mouth of the bamboo tube at Bao Yansong's ghostlike face and lightly pressed the mechanism.

Pfft!

A stream of dark-green poison water sprayed from the device, splashing across Bao Yansong's face. Plumes of white smoke rose as his features were corroded beyond recognition. The flesh at the corroded spots turned into pus in an instant, giving off waves of pungent stench.

Chen Cheng hurriedly held his breath and retreated far away.

He picked up Bao Yansong's fallen saber and was about to leave when a thought suddenly struck him. He stepped forward again and tore open the inner clothing over Bao Yansong's chest, only to see that Bao Yansong's chest was bluish-black, with numerous raised lotus-shaped marks on the skin.

Turning Bao Yansong's body over, he saw that the same lotus-shaped marks covered his back.

"This man is actually from the Black Lotus Sect. I'm afraid I've accidentally stirred up a hornet's nest!"

On the other side of the alley, a skinny half-grown beggar in ragged clothes, his face smeared with mud and filth, cautiously made his way into the alley.

In his experience, such secluded alleys were dangerous, but if he searched carefully, he could often find unexpected gains—one or two valuable things that others had dropped.

As the beggar walked along, a courtyard gate suddenly flew open. Before he could even turn his head to see what had happened, a mass of black material was thrown over his head. His vision went dark, pain flared across his forehead, and he fainted.

After some time, the beggar slowly came to. He pulled the black cloth covering his head and face away, rubbing his faintly aching forehead as he looked around in alarm. The alley was empty, without a single person in sight, silent in a way that was terrifying.

Then his eyes suddenly lit up. Several copper coins were scattered by the wall beside him.

He swiftly picked up the coins and stuffed them into his clothes. Grasping the bundle of black cloth in one hand, he rose and walked to the courtyard gate, peering inside. The moment he saw the corpse in the courtyard and the blood staining the ground, his soul nearly fled his body. He spun around and ran madly out of the alley.

Though panicked, he did not dare shout. Shouting might bring City Guard Office officers or local thugs, and the few copper coins he had just picked up might be snatched away.

Naturally, Chen Cheng was the one who had knocked the beggar unconscious. He had long since left the alley and was once more strolling openly along the main street.

Although he had killed in self-defense head-on, Chen Cheng still did not want anyone to know. What was more, that guard had actually been a member of the Black Lotus Sect. Even the City Guard Office could do nothing about such a demonic sect lurking in the shadows—how could he afford to provoke them?

Was this martial guard sent after me at Jiang Rongxuan's instruction? Probably not. With the Jiang Family's influence, they could not possibly command a Skin-Tempering Realm warrior at major accomplishment from the Black Lotus Sect.

But I cannot rule out that Jiang Rongxuan knows about this. I'll observe for a while first, then decide whether to report this to Liu Yunfeng.

Having made up his mind, Chen Cheng leisurely headed toward home.