Tonight's Heavy Rain Is Perfect for Washing Blades

"What heavy rain."

Pushing open the door, Liu Ye looked at the lightning and thunder tearing through the night sky, and at the curtain of rain crashing down like a waterfall. His brows knitted as he pulled his clothes tighter around himself.

Then he turned to the servant who had come to report the news.

"You're sure my little brother Wang went to Vermilion Phoenix Tower, then bedded a hundred women in just a few hours and made it impossible for them to keep doing business?"

"Master, it's absolutely true!"

The servant hurriedly swore an oath. "That man is simply too formidable. No one in the tower could withstand him. Before I left, even Miss Feng personally entered the fray."

"Strange..."

Liu Ye could not make heads or tails of it. By his reckoning, it had been less than half a month since he had given the other man the [Iron Ox Skill]. He had actually reached perfection in such a short time?

How many times did he train every day?

Could his body endure it?

Even so, Liu Ye did not dare delay. He fetched a bamboo hat and rain cape, then leaped into the rainy night and sped toward Vermilion Phoenix Tower.

Yet he had only made it halfway when he realized something was wrong.

Looking into the distance, he saw a whistling arrow slowly rising from the direction of Vermilion Phoenix Tower. A trail of flame dragged behind it, glaringly bright amid the rain.

"Hm!?"

Liu Ye's expression changed at once, for this was the signal customarily agreed upon by the county yamen constables. At this moment, it meant only one thing:

"That White Lotus Bandit has been found!"

"At Vermilion Phoenix Tower!"

Almost at the same time, people responded from both the inner and outer districts of Longxing County. Figures darted through the rain, rushing toward Vermilion Phoenix Tower with near-mad fervor.

"Catch him! Catch that rebel!"

"A hundred taels of reward silver... none of you are taking it from me!"

"Out of my way!"

Such a huge commotion naturally did not escape Xie Shi, who was currently hiding inside Vermilion Phoenix Tower. He too saw the whistling arrow, and his expression changed drastically.

"Not good! There's a county yamen spy here!"

In an instant, Xie Shi, already filled with resentment, saw his eyes turn red. He had never imagined that his identity would be exposed so quickly.

He had clearly disguised himself and altered his appearance!

Why had this happened?

"Damn it, this place cannot be stayed in any longer. I need to find a way out first and avoid the eyes and ears of those blackhides... Curse those spies. Don't let me find out who it was!"

Xie Shi's thoughts raced, but his movements were decisive. With a raised hand, he sent out a palm strike that swept more than ten people around him into the doors of Vermilion Phoenix Tower, smashing them open. Then he blended into the crowd and ran into the rain, hoping to muddy the waters and improve his chances of escaping alive.

At his peak, this method would naturally have worked every time.

But now he was badly wounded, and his steps were far heavier than before. He could not conceal his tracks at all, and the pursuing constables recognized him almost instantly.

"The third one from the left is the bandit!"

"Don't let him get away!"

Boom!

Beneath the rain curtain, turbid waves surged into the sky. Invisible blade qi, reflected by the rain, turned into a visible tide of blade light that slashed directly toward Xie Shi's chest.

At nearly the same time, more than a dozen crossbow bolts ripped through the air, almost sealing off every avenue for him to dodge or maneuver. Their arrowheads glimmered with armor-piercing cold light and were even smeared with deadly poison. Even a scratch would immediately rob him of his fighting strength and turn him into a lamb awaiting slaughter.

"Damn it! If my [Fine Scale Armor] were still here..."

Xie Shi frowned deeply. If Chen Haoyan had not shot through his protective inner armor earlier, scattering its scales everywhere, he would not have needed to dodge these dozen crossbow bolts at all.

But a tiger fallen to the plains was bullied by dogs.

Thus, he had no choice but to halt. His right arm stretched behind his shoulder like a drawn bow with an arrow nocked, then he thrust out a palm at the incoming bolts.

Bang!

As his palm struck out, a wild wind suddenly rose. In the rain, an incomparably clear palm imprint appeared, and every crossbow bolt in its path was shredded and snapped apart by the surging force.

Then the palm imprint collided with the blade light that had struck first. The crash overlapped with the thunder in the heavens, while rolling force blasted one splash after another from the rain curtain. Yet in that instant, amid the scattering water, a lotus suddenly bloomed.

Plain Moon Lotus Blade, A Thought Blooms a Flower!

The throwing blade hid beneath the rain curtain and vanished in the blink of an eye. By the time the others saw it, the blade had already swept across the neck of one of the constables joining the encirclement.

Splurt!

A head hit the ground. A mist of blood shot into the sky, dyeing the surrounding rain a glaring red and adding the first stench of blood to the siege.

"Move aside! Don't fight him head-on. Use concealed arrows to restrain him!"

A constable shouted from the shadows. The county yamen constables primarily trained in [Yama's Three Demon Blades], not flesh and hide. Their attacks were formidable, but their defenses were lacking.

Xie Shi happened to possess superb skill with throwing blades. His [Plain Moon Lotus Blade] had reached perfection, bolstered by martial strategy. Coupled with how hard hidden weapons were to detect at night, anyone without sufficient means of defense could easily be killed in a single strike. Rather than charging in with blades and risking their lives, it was better to harass him from afar with crossbow bolts.

"This bandit is seriously injured. He can't throw many more blades."

"He has no horse and can only flee on foot. Wear down his strength with crossbow bolts first. Force him to dodge and resist. Once he has no strength left, we'll go up and chop him to pieces."

Voices rose and fell one after another.

Under such an array of troops and tactics, Xie Shi, who had just displayed great might and hoped to intimidate his pursuers, immediately darkened. Alarm and fury churned within him.

"These blackhides... they're far too experienced!"

There was no denying that this tactic had precisely seized upon his weakness. In his current state, he really could be dragged to death if this continued.

Yet he was also a veteran rebel who had faced no fewer than eight or ten desperate situations. Once he recognized the circumstances, he was equally decisive. He stopped on the spot, gathered his breath, and raised his palm. His somewhat pale face instantly turned crimson as though fire had engulfed him, while his whole body abruptly grew three inches taller.

Then he exhaled and roared:

"Kill!!!"

Rolling thunderous sound stirred a visible wave through the rain. At the same time, Xie Shi exerted force beneath his feet and rode that wave toward a street alley.

In this instant of eruption, he had clearly used some secret art. He temporarily cast off his lingering wounds and grave injuries, displaying once more the martial prowess of External Arts Perfection from his prime. Wherever his figure passed, force like mountains toppling and seas overturning exploded again and again, knocking down every crossbow bolt that came near him.

"Trying to leave?"

Just then, a figure abruptly appeared at Xie Shi's side. He did not draw his blade, but leisurely extended an ape-like arm, clenched his five fingers into a fist, and drove it forward heavily.

Boom!

With an explosive crash, a fist imprint pierced the rain, leaving behind a brilliant trail. Without the slightest deviation, it slammed into Xie Shi's back from afar.

"Hundred-Step Divine Fist!?"

Xie Shi seemed to recognize the art behind that punch. He immediately spat out a mouthful of blood, feeling as though his spine had been smashed to pieces, yet he did not dare stop moving.

The next moment, not only did he not slow in the slightest, he instead borrowed the force of that punch to charge out of the encirclement even faster. Along the way, he smashed through several walls, kicking up clouds of dust that mingled with the rain before he finally vanished from the eyes of all the constables who had come to hunt him.

"Liu Ye, you old dog... you and I will not rest until one of us is dead!"

Xie Shi's hate-filled voice mixed with the torrential rain and was quickly swallowed up. Yet Liu Ye, who had launched the attack, showed no joy at all.

"He still didn't die?"

The old constable wore a bitter expression, but his feet did not slow at all. He immediately pursued Xie Shi's trail, clearly having no intention of letting him go.

After all, though he lacked the courage to risk his life, he certainly had the courage to beat a dog already drowning in the water.

And plenty of it.

The two continued like this, one chasing and one fleeing, nearly crossing half the county town. During that process, the despair in Xie Shi's heart grew ever stronger.

"I can't escape...!"

"That old dog Liu Ye has too keen a nose. He must have also trained some unranked martial art. His ability to track trails is too strong—I can't shake him off at all!"

What should he do?

Xie Shi frantically searched for a response, but just then, a figure suddenly entered his vision through the hazy rain.

Clad in black-and-red official robes, with a blade at his waist... a constable?

His features... rather young, and somewhat familiar.

He had come at the perfect time!

Xie Shi's eyes brightened. He stomped down hard, gaining another burst of speed as he rushed toward the young constable, intending to seize him as a hostage first.

"Even if he can't serve as a hostage, I can use him as a meat shield and throw him toward that old dog Liu Ye. He'll have to dodge, and that will buy me a chance to escape..."

As he thought this, the young constable's figure became clearer and clearer. Xie Shi pierced through layers of rain and reached the other man in only a few breaths.

At the same time, Liu Ye drew close as well.

His martial arts surpassed Xie Shi's current badly injured state, and his eyesight was better too. Thus, even from a great distance, he saw through the rain at a glance and recognized the arrival.

Liu Ye's pupils abruptly contracted.

Because he recognized the young constable Xie Shi had chosen as his target. It was Wang Ping! But wasn't he supposed to be battling a harem of women inside Vermilion Phoenix Tower?

Why was he here?

In that flash of lightning and flint, Liu Ye had no time to think. He could only shout at once, "Quick, get out of the way!"

Even as he shouted, though, he sighed inwardly.

"Too late."

What kind of martial artist was Xie Shi? Even seriously wounded, he was not someone an ordinary martial artist could deal with, much less a rookie constable who had not even entered the gate.

He was dead for sure.

Given Xie Shi's savage temperament now that he was nearly driven into a corner, death might even be fortunate. If he truly survived, he would instead have to endure even greater suffering.

At the same time.

Facing Xie Shi, who had already reached him, Wang Ping felt calmer than ever before. His body seemed light and airy, without the slightest fear or tension.

"Xie Shi, Senior Brother Xie... I've missed you to death."

To be fair, Wang Ping held no grudge against Xie Shi. But as a constable, if he wanted to continue advancing, he was short of an excellent stepping stone.

Xie Shi's arrival at this moment was truly charcoal delivered amid snow.

A county-town brawl, a rebel dying violently... how pleasant that sounded!

"What is this!?"

At that instant, Xie Shi seemed to sense something. A piercing pain suddenly stabbed into the center of his brow, and an intense sense of crisis erupted.

This too was a secret art of the White Lotus Sect, one that could sense fortune and calamity. That night, he had relied on this very secret art to avoid being directly shot to death by Chen Haoyan's arrow. And now, it felt as if he had returned to that night, seeing that unmatched arrow and the suffocating image of his own death!

"Is it that old dog Liu Ye? Can his Hundred-Step Divine Fist strike this far?"

Xie Shi's eyes turned bloodshot. The pain in his brow felt as though it would split open and cleave him in two. Utter terror transformed into furious rage.

Trying to kill me? Dream on!

With that thought, Xie Shi ignored his body, which was about to run dry like a lamp out of oil. He used the secret art to stimulate himself again, shaking off his injuries and drawing out every bit of strength he possessed.

Boom!

The tremendous blast even drowned out the thunder in the night sky. Agitated ripples spread through the rain with Xie Shi at their center, signaling the rampage of unmatched divine strength.

At that moment, a muffled boom like a war drum suddenly sounded from Xie Shi's chest. At the same time, crystalline bloody sweat visibly seeped from every pore of his body, then rolled down and merged into the rain. This was proof of the violent force unleashed as his blood and qi circulated to their utmost limit!

"Whatever it takes, escape in the shortest possible time!"

Xie Shi lunged forward with all his strength, intending to seize the young constable before him, throw him at Liu Ye, and then take the chance to hurl a throwing blade with all his might.

"Let the throwing blade pass through this young constable's chest. That will be the most unexpected."

Xie Shi calculated inwardly. Though his hand reached toward the young constable, his attention had long since shifted to Liu Ye pursuing from behind.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—!

Torrential rain, raging wind, two men.

Only then did Wang Ping finally raise his eyes. The scene perceived through his Spirit Sense overlapped with the scene before his naked eyes, reflecting Xie Shi's vicious face.

Instead of retreating, he advanced.

Clang! Clang!

His blade left its sheath.

Every movement flowed like drifting clouds and running water, every movement seemed aided by the gods, yet they were all compressed into a single instant, making the process impossible to see clearly.

Thus, in Xie Shi's eyes, he only saw the young man before him make a drawing motion. Then the shining blade tip had already filled his entire vision, while the three blade intents of Greed, Wrath, and Delusion struck directly at his heart, causing scenes of his life to flash uncontrollably through his mind.

"Is that [Yama's Death Writ]!?"

The martial strategy condensed after [Yama's Three Demon Blades] reached perfection was said to mean, "With one blade in hand, Yama walks the earth." It was a calling card delivered on Yama's behalf, demanding a life.

Yet that was not the most terrifying part.

The most terrifying part was the resounding blade cry that erupted after the constable slashed out, produced by the great sinews throughout his body snapping and responding to the blade.

It was an exceedingly strange sound—long and melodious, faintly merging with the rain that flooded the heavens.

"A dragon's cry... True Dragon Sinew!?"

Boom!

The blade light flashed. The pain in Xie Shi's brow finally vanished, and the sense of crisis was gone as well. All that remained was endless nothingness and thoughts returning to stillness.

In a daze, he saw the other man's face again.

That face truly did look familiar. It was merely older. If he were younger... hm?

Xie Shi's pupils abruptly shrank. At the brink of death, he unexpectedly experienced a final flash of vitality and stared at the man before him in utter disbelief.

It was him!?

The mole sent by the county yamen, the junior brother who could not even practice martial arts, whom his master and he had abandoned in the end?

Impossible! Absolutely impossible!

He wanted to roar, but he was powerless. The instant spark brought by his final flash of life rapidly went out, and the scene in his eyes sank completely into darkness.

"Thud."

A figure split into left and right halves toppled to the ground. Blood poured out like a breached dam, merging with the rain that flooded the heavens.

Dead... dead!?

Liu Ye, who had been chasing close behind, stopped in a daze. He looked at the young constable standing beneath the rain with his blade planted on the ground, unable to recover for a long while.

Only when the other man raised his head and smiled lightly at him did he say:

"Don't worry, Uncle Liu. No need to dodge."

"Tonight's heavy rain is perfect for washing blades."