Solved with Ease

After Butler Wei gave the order.

Axu took Tao Yanchen and left.

As for Huo Qi and the other martial wanderers, they could only stay behind with Butler Wei to provide cover and hold the rear, fighting as they retreated. But after he had dealt with several parasites, he saw that escort brat he had been watching actually daring to sneak away.

Besides that, amid the chaos, other escorts were also slipping away.

Especially Wei Yu, who had actually headed off in the opposite direction.

However.

That half-grown brat was relatively closer to him, and relatively weaker, so he chose to chase down this young escort who was fleeing midway.

Once he hacked this youngster to death, he could turn around and catch up with Escort Wei Yu.

He was confident that with the speed of a Marrow Tempering Stage Martial Master, even if Blood Tempering Stage Wei Yu got a brief head start, he would still be able to catch him.

"This man is seriously insane!"

Jiang Jingnian did not look back as he cursed inwardly.

His movements did not pause in the slightest. In an instant, he activated the Blood Core within his Cinnabar Field, sending his blood and qi surging into his legs. His speed abruptly increased by several degrees.

Before the blade could fall, he had already darted straight into the dense grass.

The scorching wind from the saber swept up waves of weeds.

But Jiang Jingnian's figure had already fled far away.

Was Huo Qi of the Firewind Saber out of his mind?

He was not the only one sneaking away. Why was Huo Qi chasing only him?

Huo Qi discovered that his slash had actually failed to kill the brat.

"A Martial Master who hasn't even reached Blood Tempering can actually evade my strike?"

"And that speed is already comparable to an ordinary Bone Tempering Martial Master."

Doubt filled his eyes. Then, seeing the shadow continuously parting the grass ahead, killing intent surged within him. Saber in hand, he continued the pursuit.

That half-grown brat had indeed concealed his strength. He had even managed to fool an Inner Qi Realm expert like Butler Wei.

In other words.

Either this fellow possessed some treasure that concealed his aura, or he had some kind of special secret technique.

Either way, it was good stuff.

As for Wei Yu.

Huo Qi had cast him to the back of his mind for now.

A monk may run, but the temple cannot.

As for the Tongda Escort Agency, he could let the young master settle accounts with them afterward.

Jiang Jingnian raced ahead at top speed, occasionally weaving through the forest, trying to use the terrain to shake off Huo Qi.

Precisely because the terrain here was complicated, visibility was limited, and it was night, Huo Qi was unable to catch him immediately.

Even so, he remained tightly on Jiang Jingnian's heels, not far behind.

One chased while the other fled, and another half-incense stick of time passed.

"My speed is a little slower than Huo Qi's. If this continues, I'll be caught sooner or later."

To shake off Huo Qi behind him, Jiang Jingnian ran wildly through the forest, darting into the woods one moment and circling around earthen mounds the next. By now, he was not even sure of his own location.

Yet.

The other party was still hanging not far behind him.

And was steadily closing the distance.

Thus, one chased and one fled.

Another incense stick of time passed.

"How can this brat's blood and qi be so abundant? I've already been pursuing him at full speed, and the consumption is not small. Why hasn't his speed slowed at all?"

Huo Qi was beginning to feel that something was wrong.

Even if this half-grown brat had hidden his strength, at most he was a Blood Tempering Stage Martial Master. Even estimating generously, he could only be at the Bone Tempering Stage.

He could never be at the Marrow Tempering Stage.

If he were on roughly the same level as Huo Qi, he would have counterattacked long ago.

Yet his blood and qi flowed without end, and his endurance was so formidable that it already surpassed many Bone Tempering Stage Martial Masters.

Huo Qi secretly considered whether to continue chasing or give up.

"Good! An opening!"

But the next moment, just as he saw the other party preparing to duck beneath a fallen dead tree, his gaze flashed. His spine seemed to explode, producing a rapid string of crisp cracks.

The surging blood and qi mixed with a great amount of essence spilling from his bone marrow.

This allowed him to directly unleash the ultimate move of the Firewind Blade Technique.

Blazing Phoenix Scorches the Plains!

For a brief period, Huo Qi's speed increased by more than fifty percent. He leaped high into the air, utterly disregarding the branches and leaves obstructing him, and swung his heat-laden saber straight at the dead tree ahead.

Rumble—

Amid the thunderous crash, the dead tree was cleaved directly in half.

The saber's remaining force did not diminish.

It struck Jiang Jingnian.

Though the instant Jiang Jingnian heard the sound behind him, he immediately activated the Blood Core to cover his back and twisted aside to evade.

He was still struck on the shoulder.

Bang—

A dull thud rang out.

"Not good!"

Jiang Jingnian cried out in pain and hurriedly tried to cover his right shoulder where the saber had struck.

When he touched it.

His hand was covered in blood.

Under the night sky, he could not estimate exactly how much blood he had lost.

But his shoulder and arm were both still there.

"Wait, it does hurt a little. It's a little hot too, but it doesn't hurt that badly."

The immense pain Jiang Jingnian had expected did not come. It merely felt like the pain of a superficial wound.

He twisted his right shoulder and arm.

He found that apart from still bleeding, it did not affect his movements much.

"Perhaps I'm not that weak?"

"Was I just scaring myself?"

Jiang Jingnian froze at first, then immediately understood.

He had no real combat experience and had never truly killed anyone, so his assessment of others' strength had remained limited to the differences in cultivation realms.

Yet between Martial Masters.

How things truly stood could only be known after actually fighting.

Once he understood this.

The expression Jiang Jingnian had been about to twist into a howl instantly settled into cold composure. His eyes became deep and dark, without the faintest glimmer beneath the night.

He turned around without hesitation.

He directly activated [Psychic Whip].

Huo Qi had already ignited his Bone Marrow Essence and unleashed the strongest ultimate move in his martial arts, believing that he could achieve complete success in one stroke and split this strange half-grown brat in two.

However.

At the critical moment, the other party had shifted slightly. The right shoulder that had been struck seemed only to have been cut open, rather than having the shoulder and arm severed outright.

Though he could not understand it, Huo Qi had no room to think at this moment. He continued raising his saber, preparing to slash down again.

Yet the other party merely turned around.

Those pitch-black eyes were like endless whirlpools, dragging all of Huo Qi's attention into them.

The next moment.

Endless agony, like a thousand-pound sledgehammer, seemed to smash viciously into his mind.

His entire body.

His head buzzed, the scene before his eyes rapidly blurred, and in an instant he lost the ability to think. He stood there blankly in a daze, utterly unaware even when the saber in his hand fell to the ground.

"Die!"

Jiang Jingnian exerted strength throughout his body. With a twist of his hips and a bow stance, he shot out from the wreckage of the dead tree. His right hand swept down and picked up the saber that had fallen to the ground.

The blood and qi throughout his body roared and surged.

Then.

Aiming at Huo Qi's neck, he slashed sideways.

The saber light flashed past.

And in response.

A head bearing a confused, bewildered expression rolled to the ground.

Blood spouted forth like a spring, instantly dyeing the nearby ground red.

Even at the moment of death, Huo Qi could not understand how he had suddenly lost consciousness.

Though Jiang Jingnian saw that the other man's corpse had been separated from its head, he did not dare relax in the slightest.

After all, Demon Wraiths existed in this world. What if there was some secret technique that could reattach a severed head, or fight again after death? Would that not bring disaster upon him?

He kicked Huo Qi's headless corpse to the ground. Then, knowing not a shred of blade technique, he simply gripped the saber and drove it with the force of his blood and qi, hacking crudely left and right, cutting the body into eight pieces.

Just like playing Fruit Ninja in his previous life.

Only when Huo Qi had completely lost human form.

And stopped moving altogether.

"This man shouldn't be able to get back up now, right?"

Only then did Jiang Jingnian let out a long breath, his gaze complicated as he looked at the various pieces before him.

The sense of danger that had always lingered in his heart.

At this very moment.

Was solved with ease.