Carrying a Blade, Not an Umbrella

"Setting Sun Blood Reversal!"

Every hair on Chen Jue's body stood on end. In an instant, he went all out, consuming 1 point of Blood-Qi to immediately raise his strength boost to 15%.

Whoosh!

Blade light flashed through the side alley, its piercing howl swept up the rumbling curtain of rain and turned into a blossoming half-moon.

Like bullets, raindrops swept along the blade toward the three silver needles shooting at Chen Jue's face.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Dense sparks burst from the silver needles against the horse-chopping saber. Splashed droplets pierced through the rain curtain and struck Du Kui's face, stinging like knife cuts.

Du Kui's heart tightened at the sight. He turned to flee at once.

The newcomer was immensely strong. In merely two strikes, he had revealed an unfathomable mastery of the blade.

Not knowing the other man's background, Du Kui naturally chose to run first and ask questions later.

Seeing Du Kui about to flee, Chen Jue directly hurled himself into the wall where Du Kui stood.

Boom!

Bricks and stones from the high wall flew everywhere as Chen Jue smashed it down in one charge.

Du Kui lost his footing. Instinctively circulating Azure-Wave Sun-Shooting True Qi beneath his feet, he stepped on his own right foot with his left, shooting diagonally toward a nearby rooftop like a missile launched by steam.

Chen Jue stepped on a protruding remnant of wall submerged in pooled water and finally unleashed his full strength. His foot crushed the bricks beneath it as Five Elements True Qi fused with the power of his Blood-Qi, violently propelling him like a ballista bolt toward Du Kui on the neighboring rooftop.

"So fast!"

Du Kui's pupils shrank sharply. When he turned back, it was as though he had seen a ghost.

Chen Jue was equally startled. He had not expected that, when he erupted with full force, his speed would be this fast—so fast he did not even have time to swing his blade.

Bang!

Without a second thought, the two of them nearly simultaneously threw their strongest palm strikes at each other.

Azure-Wave Sun-Shooting versus Blood-Qi Fusion.

Boom!

A muffled thunderclap erupted amid the torrential rain. Violent force exploded outward from the two men like a shockwave, scattering the rain curtain into tatters and forming an extremely brief hollow.

When their palms collided, Du Kui felt as though his mind had gone blank.

The other man possessed prehistoric strength, like a hundred-ton dump truck roaring straight at him. Even though he instantly erupted with a hundred strands of True Qi and exerted every last ounce of strength he had, he still could not budge his opponent in the slightest.

Whoom!

Du Kui's right arm dislocated. Bare-chested, he flew backward at high speed like a cannonball leaving its barrel.

Bang!

Du Kui smashed through the roof of a house and fell diagonally into a resident's courtyard, setting off a burst of panicked screams.

Under the recoil, Chen Jue's body paused briefly in midair before he landed steadily atop the roof.

As for Du Kui, who had crashed into the courtyard, he spat out a mouthful of blood, swiftly reset his dislocated arm, then turned to run again.

Chen Jue had never trained in lightness skill for long-distance pursuit. Once Du Kui opened the distance, it would be hard to catch up and hack him down again.

Fortunately, Chen Jue was strong, and his short-range burst speed was anything but slow.

The moment he landed on the roof, he kicked off the ground. Blood-Qi Fusion erupted, and he once again transformed into a ballista bolt, smashing toward Du Kui on the ground.

Du Kui jumped in fright and darted sideways, allowing Chen Jue's landing to blast a large water-filled crater into the courtyard.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!!!

Steam Flying Needles poured through the courtyard like pear blossoms in a rainstorm, shooting toward Chen Jue after he landed.

Without regard for cost or consumption, Du Kui retreated while repeatedly erupting Azure-Wave Sun-Shooting True Qi. The hundreds of silver flying needles formed in his hand were all fired away in the blink of an eye.

Chen Jue did not know how many flying needles Du Kui had fired.

But from the steam-white mist that suddenly spread before him, nearly swallowing half the small courtyard, he could tell—

Du Kui had saturated him with fire!

At this moment, unless Chen Jue was willing to erupt more than half the True Qi in his body and form crisscrossing blade Qi, no matter how profound his blade technique was, it could not keep him unscathed.

Naturally, Chen Jue was unwilling to squander his "half-moon's worth of work."

He stepped half a pace to the left. The long blade in his hand flashed with fierce light, smashing apart the stone washboard a woman had used for laundry in the courtyard. It turned into a sky-filling shower of rubble that scattered into the dense silver needles within the white mist.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Sparks flew in all directions within the white mist.

The little courtyard seemed to have been swept by a barrage of machine-gun fire, filled with an unbroken series of bangs.

Chen Jue grunted. Though he had used his long blade to guard his vital points, silver needles still pierced muscles across his body in several places.

His feet struck the ground as he gritted his teeth and charged through the steam-white mist. Broken roof tiles clattered without end. He sprang into the air and chased after the sound.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Du Kui turned and fired several more needles in succession, but every one was cut down by Chen Jue's blade.

As the two fought in a relentless chase, the previously silent alley district was awakened. Cries of alarm and angry shouts rose one after another.

Chen Jue pursued Du Kui across the rooftops for half a li. At last, relying on the extreme speed of his short-range bursts, he caught up.

Swish!

The blade split wind and rain, striking toward Du Kui's back like a bolt of lightning.

The vicious wind pressed down on him. At the last possible instant, Du Kui spun around and swung his hammer at Chen Jue's descending horse-chopping saber.

Clang!

A horizontal hammer still could not break the force of a vertical chop.

Chen Jue's blade came down. This time, it did not merely slice off a strip of skin—it severed Du Kui's entire left arm at the shoulder.

"Aaaah! My hand!"

Du Kui screamed as he fell backward from a rooftop five meters high, crashing toward the bluestone bricks in the alley.

Chen Jue pursued without mercy, leaping down with his blade raised.

Bang!

Du Kui barely rolled aside. The long blade smashed fiercely into the bluestone bricks, cutting a terrifying three-inch-deep slash.

"Die!"

Another handful of silver needles appeared in Du Kui's right hand. Just as he was about to erupt Azure-Wave Sun-Shooting True Qi and scatter a pear-blossom rainstorm point-blank into Chen Jue's face, the long blade that had struck the ground suddenly sprang upward, slashing toward him at tremendous speed.

Swish!

Du Kui's needle-holding arm froze in midair. After the blade light passed, his forearm was severed at the elbow, spraying a rain of blood into the sky.

"Who are you?! Who the hell are you?!"

"Why are you trying to kill me?!"

"Why?!"

Both arms severed, Du Kui knew he was doomed tonight. His eyes widened like bronze bells as he stared venomously at Chen Jue, his face twisted as he let out a beastlike roar.

Villains died from talking too much!

Chen Jue thrust his blade directly into Du Kui's gaping mouth.

Rumble!

As thunder rolled, a sudden change erupted in the alley. A wildly howling gust descended from the rooftop together with a water-and-fire staff.

Chen Jue's pupils contracted sharply as he pulled back to dodge.

Yet at the critical instant, pain shot through his left calf. A glance from the corner of his eye revealed that Du Kui had summoned his last strength and bitten down on his trouser leg.

Chen Jue's expression hardened. He could only lay his blade across his shoulder, turn sideways, and use his flesh-and-blood body to withstand the crushing force of his opponent's descending staff.

Clang!

Pfft!

The tremendous impact struck the long blade.

Overwhelming force traveled from the back of the blade into his arms, then poured from his arms into his five viscera and six bowels.

Chen Jue felt sweetness rise in his throat and suddenly spat out a mouthful of bright red blood.

"Third Brother! K-kill him!"

Du Kui's eyes flashed fiercely. Still biting Chen Jue's calf, he spoke in a muffled voice.

He had finally caught up!

Seeing his long staff suppress Chen Jue, Third Boss Ding Ze finally let out a breath of relief.

On a whim tonight, he had wanted to find Du Kui for a chat.

Yet before he had even reached the alley, he heard fighting from Wutong Alley. Drawing closer, he discovered that it was his fourth brother being hunted down and brutally attacked.

"You dared to cut off both my fourth brother's arms. I'll—"

Ding Ze was just about to kick Chen Jue in the chest.

Then, after vomiting blood, Chen Jue raised his left hand and gave him an incomparably eerie smile.

Ding Ze's scalp went numb, and his temples throbbed. A great terror born from the boundary between life and death instantly spread through his entire body like maggots clinging to bone.

"Bang!"

Chen Jue shaped his hand like a gun and made a chilling sound effect with his mouth.

The next moment, tremendous fire erupted from his pitch-black left sleeve. Dense steel pellets, like a torrential rain plastered across his face, blasted Ding Ze's entire visage into a bloody pulp.

Before he could even unleash the formidable strength of his seventh layer of True Qi, his eyes were shot apart. Brain matter mixed with fragments of skull flew into the air together.

Du Kui stared upward. The satisfaction of having his great vengeance avenged in his eyes instantly turned into utter terror.