The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, Unaware of the Oriole Behind

Like all things in the world, the Martial Dao had undergone a process of development.

At first, battles between martial artists were nothing more than contests of who had more Inner Force, whose explosive power was fiercer, whose physique was stronger, and whose techniques were more exquisite.

Until one day.

When heroes vied for the title of the strongest under heaven, one martial artist, driven to the brink of life and death while facing powerful enemies from all corners of the land, entered a certain special state.

That state was extraordinarily unique. Because it was an arena watched by the whole world, the outcome of victory or defeat would be known by countless people. The prestige of hundreds of millions of living beings converged there, and that intangible "atmosphere" formed a tangible pressure upon the mind, nearly crushing that martial artist into a mental breakdown.

Yet that martial artist was also an unparalleled genius.

He endured it.

After that came an unimaginable qualitative transformation. His Martial Dao was no longer confined to the flesh; it was reborn, turning its focus toward the power of the spirit and the mind.

Once a martial artist's mind could bear the prestige of the world, their spirit would transform and, in turn, nourish the flesh. Its visible effects were the ultimate evolution of the five senses: hearing ants crawling a hundred meters away, sensing danger before it arrived, and slowing the world before one's eyes.

That martial artist was respectfully called the Martial God in his era.

He was the first martial artist to complete a spiritual transformation. To commemorate this pioneer of the Martial Dao, people named this power of the mind—

[Divine Intent].

The invisible net descended once more, boundless Inner Force winding around every strand. In a daze, Wang Ping saw that great net transform into a sharp claw.

Heaven Roc Seizes Dragon!

With that burst of force, Xu Bingzheng landed directly on the ground. His feet stamped down heavily, and visible cracks immediately spread beneath them.

Then, with every step splitting the ground, he slowly raised his palm. Though there was clearly nothing there, it seemed as if he were holding up a towering mountain. Surging Inner Force stirred a howling gale and poured entirely into the great net overhead, outlining an intangible mountain that seemed truly real!

"Smash!"

The strike had yet to emerge, but the sound arrived first. What shocked Wang Ping was that Xu Bingzheng's exhalation and shout produced an unexpected effect when they reached his ears.

Rumble!

It was as though someone had lit a firecracker beside his ear. The heavy booming sound crashed from without to within, battering his sinews and bones and making his entire body resonate.

That vibration completely exceeded his control. In an instant, his body lost all ability to react, while a shadow fell over his mind. It was as if a real mountain were pressing down on him, making his thoughts difficult to turn. He could only watch helplessly as the great net fell over his head.

The process was not long.

From beginning to end, it lasted no more than the flick of a finger. Under normal circumstances, it would have been insignificant, but in a martial artist's life-and-death struggle, that instant of hesitation was enough to determine life or death.

"So this is Divine Intent... It can actually be used like this!"

"Ignore the flesh and strike directly at the mind?"

Understanding dawned upon Wang Ping. He had already lost. Just now, his mind had lost to Xu Bingzheng's, becoming the little dragon seized by the heaven roc.

And once the mind was defeated, the flesh would die!

In that lightning-flash instant, Wang Ping did not hesitate in the slightest. He directly took out a pill bottle hidden on his person and flung it toward the great net descending from above.

"The pills are yours!"

"Hm?"

Almost at the same time, Xu Bingzheng gave a soft cry of surprise. Yet instead of catching the pill bottle, he abruptly retreated, drawing back the invisible net as well.

This showed that the move which had nearly forced Wang Ping into certain death was far from Xu Bingzheng's full strength. Otherwise, he could not have withdrawn it so freely.

The next second, the pill bottle exploded, scattering white powder through the air. Some of the Inner Force Xu Bingzheng had not withdrawn in time touched the powder and immediately ignited in midair. From afar, it looked like a torch lit beneath the night sky, flame and rain blending together.

"Skill-Dissolving Powder that can burn Inner Force."

Xu Bingzheng frowned slightly. "It seems you have more than restorative pills in your hands—you also have poison pills. Unfortunately, you still do not understand the fundamental gap between us."

"The utmost sincerity can foresee what is to come."

"If it were an ordinary person, they would be determined to obtain the pills. After hearing what you said, with no time to think, they might truly have fallen for your Skill-Dissolving Powder."

"But to a Titled Martial Master, it is meaningless."

"Because I do not need to think at all. I need only follow the intuition Divine Intent gives me. Anything harmful to me cannot possibly injure me."

Naturally, Wang Ping was not foolish enough to stand there and watch Xu Bingzheng show off. The moment the other man began speaking, he had already raced toward the courtyard's exit. At the same time, he threw out another bottle of poison, [Gu Poison Pill], each pill the size of a grain of rice and black from end to end.

Yet Xu Bingzheng did not care in the least.

Though Wang Ping had used Spirit Sense to calculate the position precisely, Xu Bingzheng still evaded the [Gu Poison Pill] with effortless ease, as though he had foreknowledge, and continued chasing him.

"A trapped beast's struggle."

"You have broken through to Inner Force too recently. You have martial skill but lack technique entirely. The Cloud-Piercing Heaven-Shaking Bow has not reached mastery yet, has it?"

Xu Bingzheng strolled along leisurely and said calmly:

"For martial artists like us, technique is the foundation upon which we survive. Without technique, no matter how high your cultivation or how strong your physique, you are merely an unarmed monkey."

"And technique requires time to temper."

"With your three-legged-cat skills, perhaps you were lucky enough to kill Chen Haoyan. But before a Titled Martial Master's Divine Intent, you are a feeble monkey."

As his words fell, he suddenly clenched his fist.

With that single motion, the invisible net blanketing the sky abruptly closed in. The sound that had previously struck directly at the mind rang out again, rolling through the air like thunder:

"This punch contains twenty years of tempering."

"What will you use to block it?"

Rumble!

Wang Ping raised his head, and the phantom of Heaven Roc Seizes Dragon surfaced in his mind once more. His thoughts were suppressed, his mind shook, and he stood there blankly again.

But this time, he woke up far more quickly.

"Break for me!"

A martial artist's Divine Intent could suppress an ordinary person's mind, but it could not shake an immortal cultivator's Spirit Sense. It suddenly erupted, instantly taking control of Wang Ping's body.

Beyond that, his Spirit Sense captured a scene.

"This is...?"

In that instant, Wang Ping, who had already been prepared to die, felt his heart leap. Like lightning tearing open the night, a doubt buried deep in his heart was finally resolved.

"It seems I am not the only one being plotted against this time... In that case, victory, defeat, life, and death are still uncertain. Better to risk everything—perhaps there is still a chance!"

With that thought, Wang Ping decisively erupted.

Whoosh! Whoosh whoosh!

A sound like rivers rushing surged from within his body. His originally sturdy skin turned blood-red in an instant, as though blood might drip from it at any moment!

Then the Black Chi Bow appeared in his hands. He still drew it to a full moon, but this time, his body also erupted with the sound of a bow being drawn. Faint dragon roars accompanied it. His sinews and bones were trembling, exerting force, pouring all the strength of his body into it!

"Hm?"

At almost the same instant, Xu Bingzheng's brow furrowed.

The moment Wang Ping broke through the mental suppression, an intense sense of danger suddenly rose in his heart—as though thorns were pressed against his back and catastrophe loomed overhead.

This was the intuition brought by Divine Intent. He could not doubt it.

But... why?

"What happened?"

He was not surprised that Wang Ping could break through the mental suppression. Divine Intent was not a tangible object, after all. Illusory mental power needed methods such as gaze, sound, and words to display its might. If the target was mentally prepared, its effect should naturally be greatly reduced.

After all, he was only a Titled Martial Master.

To truly wield the power of Divine Intent, perhaps only Martial Dao Grandmasters who had achieved "Seeing God" could do so. That was not a realm he could touch.

But the problem was:

"Even if he can break through my mental suppression, with his martial skill, even if he stakes his life and uses a desperate secret art, what right does he have to threaten me?"

Xu Bingzheng's thoughts spun fiercely.

In his eyes, the world's movements slowed. This too was an effect of Divine Intent, granting him more time to consider strategies for dealing with danger.

In an instant, he thought of more than ten possible responses.

He ran through each one in his mind, then checked his intuition's response. Whichever one lowered his sense of danger, he would choose it.

Yet this time, the result was different.

"...None?"

Xu Bingzheng found it unbelievable.

No matter which response he chose, the sense of danger did not waver in the slightest. In fact, as time slowly passed, that sense of danger continued to intensify!

"I... might die?"

What a joke!

In that lightning-flash instant, Xu Bingzheng made his decision. His descending fist abruptly rose, and the invisible net swept up rainwater as it surged back toward the heavens.

At almost the same time, Wang Ping moved.

As he moved, the Black Chi Bow quivered, Wang Ping's sinews and bones quivered, and his Inner Force exploded with a boom. It was as if not one man were firing an arrow, but an entire army were unleashing a volley!

In an instant, the long arrow left the string. Yet it was not a single straight line, but an arrow of shattering, exploding Inner Force that smashed toward Xu Bingzheng with the fury of a violent storm. Its momentum was so tremendous that it directly shattered the falling rain around it, blasting out a rainless area several meters wide.

At the same time, Wang Ping's vision went black.

He had held nothing back in this strike. He had even used Spirit Sense to squeeze his physique dry and force out an eruption. Once the blow was released, he felt as though his entire body had been hollowed out.

Yet he did not dare slacken.

In the blink of an eye, the world fell still. Amid the spinning heavens and earth, he had already entered the Peace Scripture's space, where surging blood-red text appeared line by line upon the scroll.

[Perish with the Sun]!

Xu Bingzheng had inflicted quite a few injuries upon him earlier. They had all been recorded now, then transformed into tangible retribution to be returned in full!

"Pfft!"

When he raised his eyes, the world returned to normal. A blood blossom suddenly burst upon Xu Bingzheng's body—the retribution of [Perish with the Sun]—but it was negligible.

The injuries were too minor.

The gap between Wang Ping and Xu Bingzheng was even greater than the gap between him and Chen Haoyan had been. This time, he had not suffered an injury like a severed arm either.

Thus, the retribution was scant, doing no more than making Xu Bingzheng pause for an instant.

Yet the same held true: in a martial artist's life-and-death battle, an instant of hesitation was often enough to decide victory or defeat—even life and death.

"Now!" Wang Ping's eyes widened.

There was no sound and no warning. It was as though it were merely a thought from someone far away, yet a blood blossom bloomed upon Xu Bingzheng's body.

[A Thought Blooms a Flower].

"Shouchong—!!!"

Xu Bingzheng's resentful, pain-filled roar blended with the sound of rain, falling blood, and the arrow tearing through the air at Wang Ping's full power, becoming ever more shrill.

Compared to the retribution inflicted by [Perish with the Sun], Shouchong's sudden appearance was what truly dealt him a fatal blow. That blood blossom bloomed upon his chest, breaking not only his flesh but also his cultivation foundation. His Inner Force completely lost control and ran wild through his meridians!

And at this fatal moment, Wang Ping's life-risking attack arrived!

Yet faced with this instant between life and death, Xu Bingzheng had no intention of blocking it at all. Rather than retreating, he advanced, and the boiling Inner Force within his body erupted at that moment!

But it was at this time.

An aged laugh drifted faintly from the curtain of rain. "You have merely touched upon 'God'; you have not truly achieved 'Seeing God.' And you dare speak of foresight?"

"You again... You old thing that clings like a ghost!"

Xu Bingzheng gritted his teeth, but the voice carried an immensely powerful mental pressure that even he found overwhelming. His thoughts could not turn quickly enough.

"Besides, even if it truly is foresight, so what? So long as the power is great enough and the speed is fast enough, so-called foresight does nothing but add to one's fear."

"For example."

"With the next blade, I will cut off your right hand."

Blood light bloomed again.

Xu Bingzheng's right hand was pierced through, exploding into a bloody hole the size of a bowl. The flower of explosive force madly tore apart his bones and muscles.

The Inner Force he had originally erupted to block Wang Ping's life-risking strike collapsed as a result.

He had sensed the danger in advance and tried to evade it, yet he could not escape.

Everything happened in a lightning-flash instant. Even Shouchong and Xu Bingzheng's exchange had in truth been transmitted through thought amid the clash of their Divine Intent.

Anyone who was not a Titled Martial Master, or a martial artist whose mind had reached the Subtlety Realm, could not sense their collision or hear that instant of conversation.

Swish! Swish!

The chaotic arrows had arrived.

Dozens of tiny wounds immediately burst open across Xu Bingzheng's body, while a long arrow pierced through the left hand he desperately raised before his forehead.

The next second, his figure vanished from where he stood.

At almost the same time, four or five silver-white flying knives appeared out of thin air where he had just been, every one carrying a chill that made Wang Ping's scalp prickle.

"Where did he go!?"

Wang Ping's thoughts raced. Then, as if blessed by inspiration, he raised his head and saw Xu Bingzheng's figure dragging a trail of blood light as it swiftly disappeared into a dark cloud.

[Immortal Rope]!

The source of Xu Bingzheng's title—this lightness art of climbing clouds and soaring into heaven was the true foundation of his survival. At the final moment, he had successfully unleashed it.

"Hmph. He ran quite quickly."

Under the moonlight, Shouchong, dressed in a Daoist robe with white hair and an aged face, strolled out. His gaze lingered on the dark cloud with faint regret before he finally withdrew it.

Then he looked at Wang Ping and grinned broadly.

"Good disciple, I was right about you. You were born to be a rebel!"

"You old bastard..." Wang Ping gritted his teeth.

"You already knew I was the one who killed Chen Haoyan, so you stayed by my side all along, waiting for that dog official to notice something and come after me."

"Correct." Shouchong nodded with a smiling face.

"The county office is an important place; it would not have been easy for me to force my way in."

"And that man surnamed Xu is an old turtle who rarely shows himself. Fortunately, Chen Haoyan died, and he coveted the pill in your possession, so he finally exposed a flaw."

Without question, Shouchong had used him as bait again.

Xu Bingzheng thought he had discovered the real culprit, but in truth, the mantis stalked the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. Shouchong had fished him out of the county office.

In tonight's grand play, this old bastard was the director behind the curtain!

Thinking of this, Wang Ping raised his head. Just as he was about to speak, all he saw was Shouchong's retreating back.

"Though Xu Bingzheng escaped this time, his injuries will take at least a year and a half to recover from. The county city will surely fall into chaos because of it, so this old man will not remain here long."

"Time waits for no one. We leave tonight."

"Good disciple, the road of the jianghu is long. Let us each take care!"

Wang Ping: "..."

That old bastard wasn't even human!

Wang Ping took several deep breaths before he finally caught his breath. He glanced at Liu Ye beside him, who had fainted on the spot after Xu Bingzheng fled with grievous injuries.

He checked his breathing. Luckily, he was still alive.

What now?

Although Xu Bingzheng was injured badly enough that he posed no threat for the moment, the county yamen and those hundred-plus constables were still out there. Staying at the Su Household any longer was too risky.

Looks like they had to run.

Just then, Wang Ping suddenly sensed something. Coming back to himself, he saw the woman standing beneath the eaves, her beautiful eyes fixed directly on him.

At some point, Madam Su had already awakened.

She seemed to have witnessed everything. She knew Wang Ping had killed Chen Haoyan, understood that he was in mortal danger, and knew even more clearly that he should flee at once.

Yet once Wang Ping fled, she would be the only one left here.

When that time came, alone and powerless to protect herself, stripped of Wang Ping's shelter, what malice would she face? What fate awaited her?

She did not know, but it surely would not be good.

So she simply watched him.

Her beautiful eyes were deep and shadowed beneath the curtain of rain, making it impossible to tell what thoughts lay within. She said nothing, merely gazing quietly at Wang Ping through the rain.

That curtain of rain seemed to divide two worlds.

The next moment, Wang Ping decisively hoisted Liu Ye onto his back, grabbed his bow and blade, and strode through the rain toward the woman. In a relaxed tone, he said:

"Come on. I'll take you out of the city."