First Meeting Qin Shuang (Part One)

Seeing Li Chenfeng suddenly rise to his feet, the Sword Servant remained expressionless, but his heart was far from calm.

He did not know what his young master was thinking, but judging from his current appearance, it seemed he had found something extremely interesting. A hint of eagerness even showed on his face.

Pushing open the door, Li Chenfeng strode toward the courtyard where Madam Ao lived.

If he wanted to travel the martial world, he would naturally need his mother's permission.

This was rather similar to the situation of the Nalan Clan in the Battle Through the Heavens World... neither of them could decide their own itinerary...

"At the end of the day, it's because I'm still too young!"

But there was nothing he could do about that.

Age was something that had to pass one day at a time...

Still, Madam Ao would probably not be easy to persuade either.

Sure enough, after hearing Li Chenfeng's thoughts, Madam Ao immediately voiced her opposition. Her attitude was firm, as though there was no room for negotiation.

Li Chenfeng found this rather troublesome. He could only patiently persuade her, and in the end, he even resorted to a child's spoiled pleading before Madam Ao reluctantly nodded.

And so, when the next morning arrived.

After packing his belongings and bidding Madam Ao farewell, Li Chenfeng left Sword Worship Villa by boat beneath Ao Tian's envious gaze.

For this journey through the martial world, aside from the Sword Servant who had always followed him, Li Chenfeng brought no one else.

After all, Li Chenfeng wanted to use this chance to temper himself properly. If he brought too many subordinates, such training would become nothing more than empty talk.

Along the way, Li Chenfeng was like a bird freshly released from its cage, brimming with interest in everything and finding every sight novel.

Looking upon the vast world, Li Chenfeng felt the boundless freedom of fish leaping through the sea and birds soaring beneath the high heavens.

But that feeling did not last long...

This world was now undeniably in an age of chaos. Along the way, while the fields were not strewn with bones and starving corpses did not blanket the ground, corpses appeared every stretch of the road.

There were refugees who had frozen or starved to death, and martial artists slain by blades and spears. Everything he heard and saw weighed heavily on Li Chenfeng's heart.

Yet all Li Chenfeng could do was sigh. The World Society had already revealed its ambitions, slaughtering its way across the northern lands. Anyone who refused to submit was exterminated without mercy. Xiong Ba's tyranny, arrogance, and supreme self-regard were clear enough from the original story alone.

But things were still relatively good for now. After all, Wind and Cloud had not yet gathered under the World Society, and its truly top-tier fighters were not numerous.

Other than Xiong Ba, that supreme expert, perhaps only the Heavenly Pool Assassins hiding within the World Society and afraid to show themselves could still be considered noteworthy.

However, those twelve had been utterly frightened out of their wits by the Sword Saint's pursuit and did not dare show their faces while hiding in the World Society. Even though the Sword Saint had withdrawn from the martial world years ago, they remained the same.

After Wuming's massacre of the Ten Great Sects several years ago, they could now be said to have lost all their experts. In the martial world, only Unparalleled City could contend with Xiong Ba.

But how much better was Unparalleled City than the World Society?

In order to contend with the World Society, Unparalleled City was likewise constantly expanding outward, its brutality and tyranny not much inferior to the World Society's.

The struggle between these two great powers had thrown the entire northern martial world into chaos and left the people in misery. By now, even martial artists in the south, separated by the natural barrier of the Yangtze River, were suffering bitterly.

Along the way, Li Chenfeng saw quite a few conflicts among martial artists. However, the two of them did not meddle in such matters unless they encountered someone foolish enough to provoke them, in which case Li Chenfeng would have the Sword Servant deal with them.

After all, in troubled times, such matters could not be managed. Li Chenfeng did not possess the heart of a saint.

Li Chenfeng and the Sword Servant rode south on horseback. Just after passing through a forest, they suddenly spotted another battlefield ahead where two sides were fighting, directly blocking their path.

They stopped from a hundred meters away and had no intention of approaching.

The pursuing side had clearly noticed Li Chenfeng and the Sword Servant as well. But seeing them halt in the distance, they paid them no mind and continued what they were doing, treating the two as if they did not exist.

Li Chenfeng frowned slightly, because the pursued party consisted of three females: one adult and two children.

Judging by her age, the woman should have been the two girls' mother. She looked to be only a little over thirty, roughly the same age as Madam Ao.

As for the two little girls, they appeared to be twin sisters, around thirteen or fourteen years old. They were currently huddled in the woman's arms, their faces filled with terror.

Fighting the pursuers was a middle-aged man wielding a sword. His strength appeared to be at the Acquired Peak Realm, and he was holding his own against the pursuers.

But the enemy had the advantage in numbers. In barely fifteen minutes, the middle-aged man was suppressed, and wounds gradually began appearing on his body.

"Run!" Seeing that he was about to lose, the middle-aged man forced back the three people attacking him with a sword strike, then turned and shouted at the mother and daughters.

"Husband!" Seeing the man covered in blood, the woman let out a despairing cry.

"Run! Run! Get as far away as you can!" As he desperately kept the three pursuers occupied, preventing them from going after his wife and daughters, the middle-aged man roared repeatedly.

The woman was already in despair. She was merely a weak woman with two young daughters. Even if they ran, where could they possibly go?

She lowered her head to look at her two daughters. Seeing the fear in the twins' eyes, she seemed to summon boundless strength in an instant and dragged them toward the distance.

Seeing this, the middle-aged man finally let out a breath of relief. He had no hope of survival left. As long as his wife and two daughters could escape, that would be his greatest wish.

However, just as he was distracted by his wife and daughters, one of the three seized the opportunity and slashed at the arm holding his sword, nearly severing it in half.

Clang!

The iron sword fell from his hand. The middle-aged man cried out in pain, kicked the ambusher away, and staggered back two steps.

"Run? Liu Qingfeng, you offended the World Society. None of you will escape!" Watching blood drip from his blade, the man who had succeeded in his sneak attack gave a savage grin.

"Hmph! The World Society wants to swallow my Clearwind Sword Sect whole. Even if I know death awaits me, I, Liu, will never become Xiong Ba's lackey!"

His iron sword was gone, and for a swordsman, that was fatal... because all his skills lay in that one sword.

Having seen this clearly, the three pursuers did not immediately attack again.

For one thing, they knew their opponent was already at the end of his rope and would perish shortly. For another, they feared he might possess some desperate move to perish together with them. It would not be worth it if they were bitten by him in his final moments.

"Three Fiends of Wolf Mountain, do not forget that the Heavenly Dao turns in cycles. You have joined the World Society and slaughtered countless sects and families. One day, you will die miserably by another's hand!"

"Hahaha!"

Upon hearing Liu Qingfeng's curse-like words, the three men known as the Three Fiends of Wolf Mountain instead threw back their heads and laughed.

"Hahaha! Since we live in this martial world, we either kill or are killed. If we three brothers feared death, what would we be doing in the martial world?"