Green-Armored General

The swordsman with high cheekbones and narrow eyes was originally named Chen Yi'an. He had been born into a scholarly family; his name alone made that clear.

But now he was the leader of the Six Ghosts of Hejian, the "Hanging-Horn Ghost," and one of his brothers had died.

He had to be killed. Chen Yi'an thought so not only because he had killed his fourth brother, but also because Chen Yi'an could not see through him.

If the other side truly was one of those worldly-ignorant youths from a grotto-heaven or sect, Chen Yi'an had plenty of ways to deal with him. Those people were indeed immortals, skilled in immortal arts, but they did not understand the ways of the world. With a mere roll of his eyes, he could coax them into blooming with delight.

But this brat...

The thought of turning an enemy into a friend had crossed his mind. But only for an instant. Who knew where this brat had sprung from? His mind was frighteningly quick. If Chen Yi'an played a false game with him, who knew who would end up playing whom?

Since that was the case, he could only kill him.

After killing him, he would burn his clothes and dismember his body. In a dense forest like this, it would soon be devoured. Then he would cut up the others' corpses as well and scatter the pieces around here. No matter how brilliant the methods, no one would be able to trace the brat's whereabouts.

The only blame lay in his being too clever, too well-born, yet too weak.

Rarely weak, at that.

Chen Yi'an felt a faint heat rising through his body. That youth, actually...

He was quite handsome...

Those disciples from grotto-heavens and sects stood high above everyone else, making men like him coax and cater to them. Hmph. Would they ever imagine that one of their number had been trapped by him in that ruined temple?

When the time came, when he was trampled beneath his feet...

Mm... when he was pressed beneath him, would he still be able to put on such airs? Mm? Such airs?

By the time he thought of this, he was only four or five steps from the door.

Such a short distance could be crossed in the blink of an eye if he gathered his breath and pounced. But that brat had struck too viciously before and was far too scheming. He had to be careful.

There was something strange about this forest. It seemed haunted.

They had called themselves the Six Ghosts of Hejian for years, and it was not as though they had never seen ghosts. Though they had been startled earlier, they were not overly worried. For one thing, he had seen "immortals"; for another, he knew some ghosts could not harm people and could only frighten them. He had pierced that female ghost with one sword, reducing her to smoke and ashes. Clearly, she had merely been putting on a show.

They had killed more people than they could count, yet they would fear ghosts? What a joke.

Taking another step, he saw Li Yunxin emerge from the temple with his hands behind his back.

He wore white robes. While fleeing through the forest, his sleeves had been snagged and torn by branches. But now, the strips of white cloth hanging from his cuffs fluttered in the night wind, lending him an even more unworldly air.

Li Yunxin pinched a sheet of paper between his fingers, and the swordsman frowned slightly.

Naturally, he had heard of painters. Thinking it over carefully now... could this brat be a painter?

Back when he and his brothers robbed homes and plundered travelers, he had never had the patience to study how many realms painters had or what abilities they possessed. He only knew that painters who could create phantoms were figures ordinary people rarely saw—kept and worshipped by nobles and officials, who hoped they would paint more pictures to prolong their lives.

This youth was so young, yet he possessed such formidable skill.

Even more... he could not be allowed to live.

What a pity. Such a skilled painter. But no matter how skilled... they were only phantoms, mere tricks.

How could they compare to the Daoists and swordsmen of grotto-heavens and sects?

Then he heard the youth speak. "Take another step, and I won't be polite."

Chen Yi'an sneered inwardly. That trick no longer worked on him.

At that moment, he drove the inner strength throughout his body to its peak. He could even hear the grass beneath his feet bend as he stepped. He was utterly unafraid of whatever tricks the youth might try again.

He saw clearly that the youth exhaled when he spoke and cast a shadow when he walked. He was a real person. That female ghost had perhaps been something the youth had made to frighten them, but so long as one did not panic, it could always be told apart.

"Die. I'll make it quick for you."

With a flick of his thin sword, its narrow, finger-wide blade hummed,

like the flickering tongue of a silver serpent. "Go!"

This sword strike was swift and treacherous. Even Qiao Duanhong from that escort agency would not have been able to evade it. He was certain the youth would die.

Yet...

He missed.

The swordsman was startled!

The youth's body suddenly became much more nimble. At a bizarre angle, he evaded the blow, retreated another step, and cried out, "I'm going to cast a spell!"

That evasive movement was absolutely not something an ordinary person could perform—at least not with an ordinary youth's strength.

In that flash of lightning and spark of flint, the swordsman could not afford another moment of distraction. He could tell the youth had struggled somewhat to evade that strike. His momentum was spent now; there was no way he could dodge a second sword.

With a flick of his wrist, the silver light curled back like a swimming serpent and shot once more toward Li Yunxin's throat.

In that instant, he saw the youth finally shake open the paper in his hand. A flash of green light passed, and the swordsman found that a dark green figure had suddenly appeared between himself and Li Yunxin.

At first glance, the swordsman found the figure strange. It was a general clad in green armor, holding a pale-green broad-bladed sword and wearing a peculiar helmet embedded with densely packed green gemstones. It looked like a fly.

What sort of man dressed like that?

But the swordsman understood that this was only an illusion. He absolutely could not let it distract him and give the brat an opening!

He immediately gathered his focus, ignoring the sword swung by the phantom swordsman. He still intended to pierce through the illusion and stab Li Yunxin in the throat!

But then came a wet pfft.

Swordsman Chen Yi'an's head flew into the sky!

The green-armored general's broadsword had almost been something the swordsman himself crashed into.

This was not a phantom. It was a solid, tangible entity manifested by a master of the Transformation Realm!

After beheading swordsman Chen Yi'an and becoming stained with a living man's hot blood, the green-armored general's figure abruptly began to blur. He sheathed his sword, turned to Li Yunxin, nodded, and said with solemn gravity, "My sword is your sword!"

Then he turned into a scatter of light and vanished.

The headless corpse of Chen Yi'an, the eldest of the Six Ghosts of Hejian, toppled to the ground.

Li Yunxin let out a long breath.

It still could not last long...

His sea of qi was sealed, so he could not use spiritual power. Thus, he had the cat demon possess him. The cat demon's spirit body supplied him with a tiny bit of spiritual power, barely enough to reach the realm of making the unreal real.

But the cat demon's spiritual power was weak after all, and it was not his own. The thing he summoned had killed only one person before the hot blood and yang energy of the living dispersed it.

The cat demon, unable to feel the thrill of that brush with life and death, asked in an odd, sing-song voice, "Ah, oh, dead. Ha, what was that? Mm? That green general, what was he, mm?"

Li Yunxin sighed, his voice tinged with nostalgia and melancholy. But the cat demon was bound not to understand—

"Him... his name was Yi. The Unparalleled Sword Saint, Yi."