Chance Encounter

Shing!

Before Chen Jue moved, frosty Sword Qi blossomed from the tip of the hat-wearing figure's sword, stabbing straight at Chen Jue's brow.

The next instant, Chen Jue suddenly lunged forward. Though he moved later, he arrived first, his long saber cleaving through the air as it struck at the hat-wearing figure thrusting the sword at him.

Clang!

The straight, freezing Sword Qi was split apart by Chen Jue's saber. The shattered Sword Qi scattered in all directions like flying needles and threads, piercing his gray clothes and leaving streak after streak of blood across his body and face.

But as the saying went, an inch longer was an inch stronger. The four-foot-seven-inch saber in his hand was simply too long. After his violent downward slash, its edge broke through the barrier of true qi first and arrived directly before the hat-wearing figure.

The hat-wearing figure clearly had not expected Chen Jue to fight in such a mutually ruinous way. In a panic, the figure withdrew the sword and raised it horizontally to block.

Clang!

The heavy saber, wrapped in tremendous force, tore apart the bamboo hat and smashed viciously onto the figure's longsword.

In an instant, a young girl with long black hair, narrow eyes, and cold, distant features abruptly appeared on the battlefield.

The longsword in her hand could no longer bear the strain. It could not withstand Chen Jue's merciless chop at all. The sword's spine rebounded into her chest, knocking her back several meters and leaving cracks in her breastbone.

Yet Chen Jue never knew restraint when fighting, and he had never had a habit of holding back. The moment his slash ended, his body instinctively surged forward, catching up to the retreating, cold-faced girl.

The girl's entire body instantly broke out in goosebumps. With a sweep of her longsword, she sent six ice spikes formed from true qi shooting outward.

Clang!

Chen Jue flicked his saber, instantly smashing the six ice spikes flying at his face to pieces.

At the same time, he stepped forward, closing several more body lengths. His left palm rose with the motion and struck the girl directly beneath the chin, sending her head snapping skyward as she flew backward.

Bang!

When the girl hit the ground, her neck bone had already been dislocated. Her entire body was rigid, sprawled on all fours, unable to move.

Mist filled her eyes as she looked at Chen Jue approaching her with saber in hand.

This man was simply too powerful. Without using a single shred of true qi, he had beaten her until she was black and blue all over.

He was at least a late-stage True Qi realm expert.

"Don't look at me with those pitiful eyes. I warned you, but you were stubborn as an iron head and wouldn't listen."

Chen Jue crouched down and reached into the girl's warm bosom.

After feeling around carefully, he pulled out three identical earthy-yellow envelopes.

After reading them, he returned two of them.

When he raised his eyes toward the girl's face, he found her eyes slightly reddened, tears on the verge of falling, her expression one of shattered despair.

"Hey, hey, hey!?"

"Am I really that scary? I said I'd take your money, not your life. You have to believe me!"

As Chen Jue chattered away, he reached out and gripped the girl's slender, snow-white neck.

A chilling crack sounded from her neck bone.

Just as the girl fell into utter despair, believing she was doomed beyond doubt, control of her body miraculously returned to her.

Chen Jue sprang backward and swiftly vanished into the alley.

The cold-faced girl stood dumbfounded for a long while before finally touching her neck in disbelief, confirming that her head was still properly attached to it.

That bastard actually kept half his word...

Chen Jue returned to the alley where he had killed the three men blocking the road.

In the direction of the black market, a towering green tree as thick as ten men linking arms had appeared at some unknown time.

Several streaks of light flew over from the inner city, carrying incomparably powerful force as they crashed into the green energy barrier surrounding the giant tree.

Bang!

Violent force exploded, whipping up sand and stones for several kilometers around until neither man nor beast could be distinguished.

Chen Jue's heart trembled. Keeping his head down against the gale, he hurried forward, picked up the cloth bags and medicinal herbs scattered across the ground, then turned and left.

"Su Limu! Do you really want to die in Linjiang?!"

A figure flew through the air.

Along with him came a gigantic sword formed from three-colored fire spiritual qi. It cleaved through the outer green barrier and shot straight toward the green tree itself, the heat waves surging like tides with terrifying force.

"Ahahaha, Su merely happened to be passing by and showed a little of his presence. Lord Wang is nearly four hundred years old and about to undergo his tribulation, yet his temper is still so explosive!"

A phantom emerged from within the green tree. Facing the disadvantage of wood true qi being restrained by fire true qi, it gathered wood on the ground into a forest, drawing away the three-colored flames burning toward the tree's main body.

"How presumptuous! Is the capital of Linjiang a place where star demons and evil fiends like you may set foot?!"

Before the voice arrived, a Five Elements formation diagram descended from the sky first.

A beautiful woman clad in silks flew in from the horizon, standing atop five-colored auspicious clouds and holding a five-colored floral ring. Like an immortal empress descending into the mortal world, her presence was magnificent and overwhelming.

"Oh my! The lapdogs of the Five Sacred Lands truly have no martial virtue! Throwing blades the moment we meet!"

Locked onto by the Five Elements formation diagram, the green phantom let out a strange cry. Its body abruptly transformed into a streak of green light and merged into the towering tree behind it.

Hearing that strange cry, Chen Jue, who was fleeing at top speed, instinctively looked back.

Yet that single glance made his soul nearly flee his body.

The towering tree coiling around the office building was streaming green fluid from all over, its trunk expanding at terrifying speed like an inflated balloon.

Fuck! If they love blowing themselves up so much, they might as well stop calling themselves the Medicine King Sect and call themselves the Explosives Sect. That would suit their sect's character better!

Chen Jue raved inwardly as he used Setting Sun Blood Reversal again, reigniting the qi and blood that had cooled within his body.

"Patrol Inspectorate on duty! Whoever comes, put down your weapons and submit to inspection!"

Just as he was about to rush out of the Old Alley District, a squad of garrison inspectors suddenly appeared at the exit, sealing off his path.

Apparently, Director Wu Yue had heard that something had happened at the black market and had deliberately sent people to deal with the aftermath in order to recover the losses.

But they had arrived at the worst possible time. Behind him, true great powers were battling. If anything went wrong, the energy would surely run wild and innocent fish would suffer in the pond.

He raised his eyes toward the inspectors at the exit.

Out of professional camaraderie, he had intended to warn them that this place was dangerous. But when he looked...

Well now! Guess who he saw?

Zhang Yaozu! Zhang San! Zhang Hu! Zhang Qi!

Chen Jue, who had been about to stop, suddenly stomped down. The blue bricks beneath his feet shattered, and he shot forward like a cannonball leaving its barrel, smashing fiercely toward the four Zhang family members gathered together.

"There's great terror in the direction of the black market! Don't block my path to survival! Get the hell out of my way!"

Shing!

Charging forward, Chen Jue boldly drew his saber. The blade flashed brilliantly, whipping up an unstoppable, icy gale.

"No!"

Facing the wind of death rushing at them, the four Zhang family members felt their scalps go numb. Their desperate pleas were answered only by a powerful, utterly emotionless sweeping slash.

Slash!

Blood and gore formed a line as it sprayed across the main street outside the Old Alley District's exit.

Like a speeding dump truck, Chen Jue was someone no one dared block and no one could block. He charged straight through the barricade raised by the inspectors and vanished from everyone's sight in the blink of an eye.

Only then did the four halves of bodies severed at the waist fall to the ground with miserable screams.

"Quick! Quick! Quick! Call an ambulance! Save us! Save us, quickly!"

After the four halves of the Zhang family members hit the ground, they begged the other inspectors around them for help while desperately stuffing the blood and intestines spilling out back into their bellies. But before long, from excessive blood loss, their voices gradually fell silent.

Seeing this miserable scene, the remaining inspectors looked at one another, a chill running down their spines.