The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, the Oriole Waits Behind

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

In the beginning, battles between martial artists were nothing more than contests of who had more inner force, fiercer explosive power, a stronger physique, or more refined moves.

Until one day.

As the heroes of the world competed for the title of strongest under heaven, one martial artist entered a peculiar state under the pressure of life and death, facing formidable opponents from every corner of the land.

This state was extraordinary. The arena held the eyes of the entire world, and countless people would learn the outcome. The attention of untold billions converged there, turning that intangible "atmosphere" into a crushing weight upon the mind that nearly drove the martial artist to a mental breakdown.

Yet that martial artist was also a prodigy the likes of whom appeared only once in an age.

He endured.

What followed was an unimaginable transformation. His Martial Dao no longer remained confined to the flesh. It was reborn, turning toward the power of the spirit and the mind.

Once martial artists' minds could bear the weight of their renown throughout the world, their spirits would transform, then nourish their bodies in turn. This manifested as the ultimate evolution of their senses: they could hear ants crawling a hundred meters away, feel sudden premonitions before danger arrived, and slow the world before their eyes.

In that era, that martial artist was revered as the Martial God.

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

[Divine Intent].

The invisible net descended again, immense inner force winding around every thread. For an instant, Wang Ping saw that vast net become a talon.

Heaven Roc Seizes Dragon!

With this burst of power, Xu Bingzheng landed squarely on the ground. His foot slammed down, and visible cracks immediately spread beneath him.

Then every step he took split the ground. His palm rose slowly, holding nothing, yet seemingly lifting a towering mountain. Surging inner force stirred howling winds and poured into the net overhead, outlining an invisible mountain that truly existed!

"Come crashing down!"

His voice arrived before his attack. What shocked Wang Ping was the utterly unexpected effect of Xu Bingzheng's forceful exhalation and shout when it struck his ears.

Rumble!

It was as though someone had lit a firecracker beside his ear. The heavy, resounding blast penetrated from outside to within, battering his bones and tendons and making his entire body resonate.

The vibrations lay completely beyond his control. In an instant, his body lost all ability to respond, and a shadow fell over his mind. It felt as though a real mountain were bearing down upon him, making thought almost impossible. He could only watch the net descend toward his head.

It did not last long.

From beginning to end, it took no more than the snap of a finger—an insignificant moment under ordinary circumstances. In a battle between martial artists, however, that brief hesitation was enough to decide life and death.

So this is Divine Intent... it can even be used like this!

It bypasses the body and strikes straight at the mind?

Understanding dawned in Wang Ping's heart. He had already lost. Just now, his mind had lost to Xu Bingzheng's, and he had become the little dragon caught in the heaven roc's talons.

Once the mind lost, the body would die!

In that lightning-fast instant, Wang Ping did not hesitate. He pulled out a pill bottle concealed on his person and hurled it toward the net descending overhead.

"Here's your pill!"

"Hm?"

Almost simultaneously, Xu Bingzheng gave a soft exclamation. But rather than catch the bottle, he abruptly retreated, drawing the invisible net back with him.

Clearly, the move that had nearly driven Wang Ping into certain death was still far from his full strength. Otherwise, he could not have unleashed and withdrawn it so freely.

The next instant, the bottle exploded. White powder scattered through the air. Some of Xu Bingzheng's inner force, which he had been too slow to withdraw, touched the powder and immediately burst into flame. From afar, it looked like a torch had been lit beneath the night sky, firelight and rain mingling into one.

"Skill-Dissolving Powder that burns inner force."

Xu Bingzheng frowned slightly. "It seems you have poison pills as well as restorative ones. Unfortunately, you still don't understand the fundamental gulf between us."

"The path of utmost sincerity grants foreknowledge."

"An ordinary person determined to get that pill, with no time to think after hearing your words, might indeed have fallen victim to your Skill-Dissolving Powder."

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

"Because I don't need to think at all. I only need to follow the intuition my Divine Intent gives me. Nothing harmful to me can possibly hurt me."

Naturally, Wang Ping was not foolish enough to stand there watching Xu Bingzheng show off. The moment the man began speaking, he was already racing out of the courtyard. At the same time, he flung out another bottle of poison, [Gu Poison Pills]—pitch-black pellets the size of grains of rice.

Xu Bingzheng paid them no mind.

Although Wang Ping had calculated their placement with his Spirit Sense, Xu Bingzheng still dodged the [Gu Poison Pills] with effortless ease, as though he could foresee the future, and pursued him closely.

"A cornered beast's struggle."

"You broke through to inner force too recently. You possess martial power, but your skill hasn't caught up at all. You haven't fully mastered [Cloud-Piercing Heaven-Shaking Bow] yet, have you?"

Xu Bingzheng moved as leisurely as if strolling through his own courtyard and said calmly:

"For martial artists like us, skill is the foundation of our survival. Without skill, no matter how great your power or strong your body, you are merely an unarmed monkey."

"And skill takes time to hone."

"With your pathetic scraps of skill, you might have killed Chen Haoyan by luck. But before a Titled Martial Master's Divine Intent, you are nothing but a feeble monkey."

As his words fell, he abruptly clenched his fist.

With that single motion, the invisible net covering the sky suddenly contracted. The sound that struck directly at the mind rang out again, rolling through the air like thunder:

"This fist carries twenty years of honing."

"What will you block it with?"

Rumble!

Wang Ping raised his head. The phantom image of a heaven roc seizing a dragon appeared in his mind again. His thoughts were suppressed, his mind shaken, and once more he froze in place.

This time, however, he recovered faster.

"Break!"

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

Beyond that, his Spirit Sense caught sight of something else.

This is...?

In that instant, Wang Ping, who had already prepared himself for death, felt his heart leap. Like lightning splitting the night, a question buried deep within his heart was finally answered.

It seems I'm not the only one being schemed against this time... in that case, victory and defeat, life and death, are still uncertain. I might as well fight with my life on the line. There may yet be a chance!

At that thought, Wang Ping unleashed his power without hesitation.

Whoosh! Whoosh, whoosh!

The sound of a rushing river rose from within his body. His once-thick 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, drawn once more into a full moon. This time, however, his body also rang with the sound of a bow being drawn, faintly accompanied by a dragon's cry. His bones and tendons were vibrating, releasing force, pouring every ounce of strength in his body into the bow!

"Hm?"

Almost simultaneously, Xu Bingzheng frowned.

The very moment Wang Ping broke through the suppression of his mind, an intense sense of impending catastrophe suddenly rose within Xu Bingzheng, like a sharp thorn pressing into his back.

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

But... why?

What happened?

Wang Ping's ability to break through the mental suppression did not surprise him. Divine Intent was not a tangible substance, after all. This ethereal power of the mind required a gaze, a sound, words, or similar means to exert its might. If the target was mentally prepared, its effect naturally diminished greatly.

After all, he was only a Titled Martial Master.

Only Martial Dao Grandmasters who had completed "Seeing God" could truly wield the power of Divine Intent. That lay beyond his reach.

But the problem was:

Even if he can break through my mental suppression, with his martial abilities, how could he threaten me—even fighting desperately and using a secret life-risking art?

Xu Bingzheng's thoughts raced.

In his eyes, the world slowed. This, too, was an effect of Divine Intent, giving him more time to consider how to respond to danger.

In an instant, he devised more than a dozen plans.

He ran through each plan in his mind, then checked his intuition's response. Whichever reduced his sense of danger would be the one he chose.

This time, however, the result was different.

...None?

Xu Bingzheng found it inconceivable.

No matter which plan he chose, his sense of danger did not waver in the slightest. In fact, as time slowly passed, it continued to grow stronger!

I... might die?

What kind of joke is this!

In a lightning-fast instant, Xu Bingzheng made his decision. The fist that had been crashing downward abruptly rose, and the invisible net swept up the rain, surging back toward the sky.

Almost simultaneously, Wang Ping moved.

As he moved, the Black Chi Bow quivered, his bones and tendons quivered, and his inner force exploded. It was as though an entire army were firing a volley rather than one man loosing an arrow!

The long arrow left the string in an instant. But it did not fly as a single straight shaft. Accompanied by arrows of shattering, exploding inner force, it battered Xu Bingzheng like a furious storm. Its sheer momentum shattered the falling rain around it, blasting a rainless space several meters across.

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

He had held nothing back in this attack, even using his Spirit Sense to wring power from his body and force an eruption. Now that the strike was released, he felt completely hollowed out.

Yet he dared not delay.

In the blink of an eye, the world fell still. Amid a dizzying whirl, he entered the space within the [Peace Scripture], where lines of blood-written text appeared across the scroll.

[Perish with the Sun]!

Xu Bingzheng had inflicted quite a few injuries on him earlier. All of them were now recorded, then transformed into tangible retribution to be returned in full!

Splurt!

He lifted his eyes, and the world returned to normal. A flower of blood suddenly burst from Xu Bingzheng's body. It was the retribution of [Perish with the Sun], but its effect was negligible.

The injury was too slight.

The gulf between Wang Ping and Xu Bingzheng was far greater than the one that had separated him from Chen Haoyan. And this time, he had suffered nothing as severe as a severed arm.

Thus, the retribution was also slight, merely halting Xu Bingzheng for an instant.

But again, in a life-and-death battle between martial artists, an instant's hesitation was often enough to decide victory and defeat—even life and death.

"Now!" Wang Ping's eyes widened.

There was no sound, no warning. As though someone in the distance had merely formed a thought, a flower of blood bloomed on Xu Bingzheng's body.

[A Thought Blooms a Flower].

"Shouchong—!!!"

Xu Bingzheng's furious, pain-filled roar mingled with the rain, the sound of falling blood, and the whistle of Wang Ping's all-out arrow through the air, growing ever more shrill.

Compared with the retribution inflicted by [Perish with the Sun], Shouchong's sudden appearance delivered the truly fatal blow. That flower of blood bloomed on his chest, breaking not only his flesh but the foundation of his martial power. His inner force spiraled completely out of control, rampaging through his meridians!

And at that lethal moment, Wang Ping's life-risking strike arrived!

Facing this instant between life and death, Xu Bingzheng showed no intention of blocking it. Instead of retreating, he advanced, the boiling inner force within him erupting!

Yet just then—

An aged laugh drifted out from the curtain of rain. "You have merely touched 'God,' not truly achieved 'Seeing God.' With that alone, you dare speak of foreknowledge?"

"You again... you haunting old bastard!"

Xu Bingzheng gritted his teeth, but the voice carried an extraordinarily powerful mental pressure that even he found oppressive. His thoughts could not keep pace.

"Besides, what if you really do have foreknowledge? With enough strength and speed, your so-called foreknowledge does nothing but increase your fear."

"For example."

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

Bloody light bloomed again.

Xu Bingzheng's right hand was pierced, a bowl-sized bloody hole erupting through it. The exploding flower of force savagely tore apart his bones and flesh.

The inner force he had unleashed to block Wang Ping's life-risking strike collapsed as a result.

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

Everything happened in a flash, including Shouchong and Xu Bingzheng's exchange. In truth, their words were transmitted as thoughts during the clash of their Divine Intent.

Anyone who was not a Titled Martial Master, a martial artist whose mind had reached the Subtlety Realm, could neither sense their clash nor hear that fleeting exchange.

Whoosh, whoosh!

The barrage of arrows arrived.

Dozens of tiny wounds burst open across Xu Bingzheng's body. At the same time, a long arrow pierced the left hand he had desperately raised before his forehead.

The next second, his figure vanished.

Almost simultaneously, four or five silver-white flying knives appeared out of thin air where he had just stood. Every one carried a chill that made Wang Ping's scalp prickle.

Where did he go?!

Wang Ping's thoughts raced. Then, as though struck by sudden inspiration, he raised his head and saw Xu Bingzheng's figure trailing bloody light as he plunged swiftly into a dark cloud.

[Immortal Rope]!

The source of Xu Bingzheng's title—this movement art that climbed the clouds and soared through the heavens was the true foundation of his survival. At the very last moment, he had successfully unleashed it.

"Hmph. He certainly runs fast."

Beneath the moonlight, the white-haired Shouchong strolled out in his Daoist robes. His gaze lingered on the dark cloud with a hint of regret before he finally looked away.

Then he turned to Wang Ping and grinned broadly:

"My good disciple, I knew I hadn't misjudged you. You were born to be a rebel!"

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

"You knew long ago that I killed Chen Haoyan. That's why you kept following me—you were waiting for that corrupt official to notice the clues and come after me."

"Correct." Shouchong nodded with a smile.

"The county office is heavily guarded. Forcing my way in would be difficult."

"And that Xu fellow is an old turtle who rarely shows himself. Fortunately, Chen Haoyan died, and Xu coveted the pill in your possession. Only then did he leave an opening."

There was no doubt about it. Shouchong had used him as bait again.

Xu Bingzheng thought he had discovered the true killer. In reality, while the mantis stalked the cicada, the oriole waited behind. Shouchong had lured him out of the county office.

This old bastard was the director behind tonight's grand performance!

At that thought, Wang Ping raised his head and was about to speak, only to see Shouchong's retreating back.

"Xu Bingzheng escaped this time, but his injuries will take at least six months to a year to heal. The county town is bound to fall into chaos because of this, so I won't linger here."

"No time to lose. I'm leaving tonight."

"My good disciple, the roads of the martial world stretch far. Let us both take care!"

Wang Ping: "..."

That old bastard wasn't even human!

Wang Ping took several deep breaths before finally recovering. He glanced at Liu Ye beside him, who had fainted the moment Xu Bingzheng fled with severe injuries.

He checked for breath at Liu Ye's nose. Luckily, he was still breathing.

What now?

Although Xu Bingzheng was so badly wounded that he posed no immediate threat, the county office and its hundred-plus constables were still there. Staying at the Su Household would be risky.

Looks like it's time to run.

Just then, Wang Ping suddenly sensed something. Snapping back to his senses, he spotted the woman standing beneath the eaves, her beautiful eyes fixed intently on him.

At some point, Madam Su had woken up.

She seemed to have witnessed everything. She knew Wang Ping had killed Chen Haoyan, understood that his life now hung by a thread, and knew full well that he needed to flee immediately.

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

When that happened, alone and unable to defend herself, without Wang Ping's protection, what malice would she face? What fate awaited her?

She did not know, but she doubted it would be anything good.

And so she simply watched him.

Her beautiful eyes were fathomless behind the curtain of rain, their thoughts impossible to discern. She said nothing, simply watching Wang Ping quietly through the rain.

That curtain of rain seemed to separate two worlds.

The next moment, Wang Ping decisively hoisted Liu Ye onto his back, picked up his bow and saber, and strode through the curtain of rain to stand before her. In an easy tone, he said:

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