Stairwell War God (Part 1)

Chen Jue was utterly unaffected by the half-dead man howling on the floor. With a Windward Saber slash, he twisted his waist and spun, his blade dancing with him as it swept out a horizontal arc of death.

The next instant, within the semicircular forbidden zone traced by the blade—

Two martial artists in black short tunics, who had rushed out from behind the door to attack from both sides, had no time to react before they were sliced cleanly in half at the waist, their organs and blood spilling across the floor.

A clamor of shock and fury reached Chen Jue's ears.

He looked up to see a dark mass of thugs wielding every kind of restricted blade pressing toward the restaurant entrance.

He raised his saber to parry and swiftly retreated into the restaurant.

"Rat Gang! You've got some nerve! You actually dare to ambush and murder Guard Station inspectors!"

"You all tired of living?"

Lin Shoucheng put on a fierce front despite the fear within, his face still pale with lingering fright. Rising to his feet, he looked at the three severed corpses by the doorway, his expression complicated.

Who knew what He Yuanshan's nephew had grown up eating.

His strength was simply monstrous. With true qi, he could split a man apart on the diagonal; without true qi, he could still cut someone in half with a single stroke.

No wonder those scum from the Fourth Group had gone looking for trouble with Little Chen twice in a row and been utterly defeated every time they came to blows.

With such freakish strength, he truly had few rivals among his peers.

Outside the restaurant, the Rat Gang members hesitated slightly under Lin Shoucheng's threats.

Seeing this, a true qi realm martial artist dressed in a gray fitted outfit stepped out from the crowd and raised an arm, shouting, "What are you afraid of?! Dead men don't talk! If anything happens, the boss will smooth it over!"

"If we don't make those dog officials of the Kaiyang Guard Station feel pain, how are we supposed to get back that shipment from the boss?!"

"If we can't get it back, we can only die alongside the boss!"

His urgent cries spurred the hesitant Rat Gang members into surging toward the restaurant entrance.

Seeing that the enemy was tough, Lin Shoucheng had called for Guard Station reinforcements from the very start.

But with the situation at a breaking point, they had no choice but to fight for their lives.

Chen Jue shifted aside half a step, and he and Lin Shoucheng guarded the restaurant doors, one on each side.

At that moment, a burly man at the very front was already being swept along by the crowd behind him as he swung his saber at Chen Jue.

Seeing that the man's slash lacked force, Chen Jue twisted his waist and cut left, bringing his saber straight down against him.

The two sabers collided with a ringing clang.

Unable to withstand Chen Jue's powerful chop, the man's long saber jolted to a halt in midair.

Chen Jue did not hesitate. After twisting left, he twisted right, and as his blade wheeled back, it swept across the man's neck, sending a huge head flying.

In an instant, blood gushed forth like a spring, making hearts pound in terror.

Within the rain of blood, Chen Jue took advantage of the chaos to drive out a kick to the chest. Another unlucky man was sent flying with blood spraying from his mouth, crashing into the crowd behind him.

Seeing that the Rat Gang had truly developed murderous intent, Lin Shoucheng could no longer afford to conserve his strength. True qi flowed through his entire body as he and Chen Jue held the restaurant entrance to the death, hacking and slaughtering the Rat Gang members charging fiercely into the fray.

Just as the two of them guarded the entrance and kept up their assault—

A true qi realm martial artist hidden among the crowd suddenly burst forth, his flashing blade shooting straight for Chen Jue's throat and forcing him to retreat violently.

The martial artist was at least at the second level of true qi. Earth-attributed true qi coated both his hands, lending immense force to every chop and thrust. Chen Jue was forced to meet him saber to saber three times in succession before barely stabilizing his footing.

The martial artist pressed his advantage and brought his saber down in a vertical chop.

Holding his saber in both hands, Chen Jue raised it to block. As he knocked aside the opponent's long blade, he used the momentum of the parry to sweep horizontally.

The martial artist whose blade had been knocked aside could not dodge in time. Terror filled his heart, and his eyes flew wide with disbelief.

The young man before him wielded his saber with the fluency of instinct.

The advantage his surprise attack had brought him had been erased without his even noticing—and then one slash decided life or death!

Slash!

A great spray of blood splashed across the restaurant entrance, coating the heads and faces of those rushing in.

Lin Shoucheng used the Mountain-Splitting Horse-Driving Saber, a compact saber art built mostly around close-range interceptions, blocks, and force-deflecting techniques.

Thus, his killing was somewhat slower, entirely unlike the Six Directions Saber Art Chen Jue used, which opened and closed in grand sweeps, every motion carrying the certainty of life and death.

"They've broken in. This place is unfavorable to us—fall back farther inside!"

After Lin Shoucheng burst forth with true qi and violently knocked aside three chopping sabers of varying lengths, he seized an opening to stab one man to death and swiftly retreated.

In twenty years on the job, this was the first time he had fought such a brutal battle.

After all, Linjiang was the greatest metropolis along the lower reaches of the Heaven-Piercing River, where the four first-rank great clans and the Jiangnan Myriad-House Office were stationed.

Even when local gangs had been at their most powerful in the past, they had never dared grow so brazen as to lay hands on officials.

This was a heaven-shaking crime that would bring down the government's iron fist, not some jianghu dispute that could be settled by throwing out a couple of scapegoats.

The two fought as they retreated under mounting pressure.

Chen Jue's saber style was too uninhibited. Though he constantly used the Wrapping Head and Binding Brain Form to protect vital points such as his neck, the back of his head, and his arms, in his sweeping, domineering attacks, he could not avoid being nicked by the sabers thrust out by Rat Gang members.

At that moment, Lin Shoucheng, who had been fighting desperately beside him, quietly moved to Chen Jue's side and used his dense, rapid saber techniques to shield Chen Jue's entire right flank.

In an instant, the pressure on Chen Jue plummeted. Without realizing it, he countercharged, cutting down three Rat Gang lackeys in succession before safely retreating to the central bar counter.

"Uncle Lin, let's fight like this. You guard my right flank, and I'll handle the killing."

Chen Jue could see that Uncle Lin's saber art was utterly unsuited to head-on open combat. It was better at entangling enemies in alley fights and providing support from the side.

It was only because of his status as an elder that he had been unwilling to push the pressure onto a junior like him.

But now, at this moment of life and death, if they still stubbornly clung to their own views and preserved an elder's dignity, would that not be courting death?

"Little Chen, you've only just reached the first level of true qi. Can you hold out?"

Lin Shoucheng was not a pedantic man. Compared to saving face, he was more worried that Chen Jue's cultivation was still shallow. If he faced the battle's pressure as the main force, he would soon run out of stamina.

If Chen Jue fell first, then even with his third-level true qi cultivation, how many more people could Lin Shoucheng kill?

"Don't worry! My foundation is solid, and my blood and qi are far beyond ordinary. Even if I fight for another half hour, it won't be a problem!"

Chen Jue and Lin Shoucheng formed a diagonal line. Alone at the very front, Chen Jue kept the Wrapping Head and Binding Brain Form constantly at hand, nearly turning himself into a spinning top. One moment he followed with the Night Battle Eight Directions Hidden Saber Form, the next with a Shoulder-Splitting Saber Slash, then with a Waist-Level Sweeping Slash...

The two killed as they retreated, all the way back to the stairwell on the second floor. Though Chen Jue had suffered several wounds, Rat Gang members had also left corpses strewn all over the ground.

Yet upon reaching the second-floor stairwell, Chen Jue suddenly felt the pressure lessen dramatically, and he miraculously stabilized both himself and the battle line.

The stairwell passage was narrow, allowing only two or three Rat Gang lackeys to charge onto the landing side by side.

Using this terrain where one man could hold the pass against ten thousand, Chen Jue hacked six lackeys rushing up the stairs to death in less than a minute, greatly increasing his killing efficiency.

Meanwhile, the corpses tumbling down the stairs severely delayed the lackeys behind them, making them like batch after batch of leeks delivering themselves to the blade. In the blink of an eye, several waves had been cut down.