Endurance Kill, Harvest

As soon as the words fell, Zhou Fei's face went pale. The blood qi around him surged again as he threw a punch, making Deng Qing's arms tremble violently. At last, his guard was knocked open.

Deng Qing flew backward and crashed heavily into the stream.

Deng Qing choked on a mouthful of water. When he spat it out, it was already tinged with blood.

Zhou Fei took a step, sprang into the air, and pounced toward Deng Qing once more.

Deng Qing lay facedown on the ground without moving, as though he no longer had the strength to rise.

Just as Zhou Fei came within three feet of him, Deng Qing suddenly sprang up.

With a slap at his waist, the Blacksteel Soft Sword shot out like a venomous snake, stabbing straight for Zhou Fei's throat.

Zhou Fei sneered. "You still dare to play tricks?"

He forcibly tilted his head aside. The cold gleam grazed his neck and landed on his shoulder.

With a puff, the Blacksteel Soft Sword pierced straight into his shoulder, tearing open a bloody wound.

Zhou Fei's expression changed drastically. "What sword technique is this?"

"The sword technique that kills you."

As Deng Qing spoke, he advanced rather than retreated, unleashing the Seven Forms of Settling Solitude.

The Blacksteel Soft Sword darted rapidly through the gaps between shifts in Zhou Fei's fist force and movement.

Zhou Fei was already severely injured and had also been poisoned by Li Cheng's toxic smoke. Now, the streaks of sword light forced him back again and again.

Zhou Fei roared repeatedly. He had already discovered that this sword technique was vicious to the extreme.

Every strike targeted the places where his strength faltered and broke.

Puff! Puff!

His chest, shoulder, and ribs were struck by the sword in succession.

More and more blood flowed from Zhou Fei's body.

In the distance, Li Cheng leaned against the mountainside, staring wide-eyed in utter shock.

He knew Deng Qing's Seven Forms of Settling Solitude was formidable.

But only now did he truly see how terrifying this sword technique was once fully unleashed.

Zhou Fei let out a furious roar as blood qi erupted all around him.

He actually took one of Deng Qing's strikes head-on, then struck out with a backhanded palm.

Deng Qing drew back his sword to block, but Zhou Fei's palm struck the blade and sent Deng Qing, sword and all, flying away.

Bang! Deng Qing flew backward and slammed into a pile of jagged rocks.

The Blacksteel Soft Sword flew from his hand as well, landing several yards away.

Zhou Fei stood where he was, gasping heavily.

His entire body was covered in bloody wounds, yet he still gritted his teeth and walked toward Deng Qing step by step.

Supporting himself against a rock, Deng Qing rose to his feet. Both arms began to tremble from exhaustion.

Yet he still clenched his teeth and assumed the stance of the Tiger-Subduing Fist.

Zhou Fei's face was white as paper as he grinned savagely. "I'm going to slaughter you."

Deng Qing stared fixedly at Zhou Fei's steps, silently counting in his heart. One hundred and eight, one hundred and nine...

Ever since Li Cheng had revealed that Zhou Fei could only hold out for a hundred breaths, Deng Qing had begun counting in secret.

One step, two steps, three steps...

Suddenly, Zhou Fei swayed. The next instant, he toppled to the ground, blood spilling from both his mouth and nose.

Deng Qing still maintained his stance and did not dare approach.

From afar, Li Cheng shouted, "Senior Brother Deng, be careful! He might be playing dead!"

Deng Qing bent down, picked up a stone, and hurled it over.

The stone struck Zhou Fei in the back, but Zhou Fei did not react at all.

Still uneasy, Deng Qing retrieved the Blacksteel Soft Sword.

Keeping his distance, he thrust the sword forward. Its tip pierced Zhou Fei's wrist.

Zhou Fei still did not react.

Only then did Deng Qing confirm that he was truly dead.

In the distance, Li Cheng let out a long breath. Leaning against the stone wall, he slowly slid down to sit, then stuffed a pill into his mouth.

With a flick of his hand, he sent another pill flying toward Deng Qing. "For healing. It works wonders."

Deng Qing thanked him, covered his mouth with his hand, and let the pill slide into his sleeve.

At a time like this, he trusted no one.

He tried circulating the Violet Palace Method, but his breath was terribly clogged.

He persisted through two circulation cycles before his breath gradually began to flow freely. He opened his mouth and spat out another mouthful of black blood, and only then did the stifling discomfort in his chest slowly fade.

Only then did Deng Qing rise and walk over to Zhou Fei's corpse.

Zhou Fei's face was already pale as paper. Clearly, after suffering such severe blood loss and forcibly stimulating his blood qi, he was now like an oil lamp burned dry.

Deng Qing glanced at Li Cheng. This fellow showed no signs of poisoning whatsoever.

Deng Qing guessed that Li Cheng had most likely taken the antidote long ago. He thought to himself, The rich really are fucking rich. They've got so many damned backup plans.

Before his sigh had even faded, Deng Qing crouched down and carefully searched Zhou Fei's corpse.

Very quickly, he found a handful of gold beans in Zhou Fei's clothes.

Weighing them in his hand, he estimated there were around ten taels. Other than that, there was also a medicine case the size of a fingernail.

Opening it, he found a dark-red pill inside. It was precisely the Blood-Burning Pill Zhou Fei had taken earlier.

Having caught his breath, Li Cheng walked over and said with a smile, "Not bad. Senior Brother Deng, you've struck it rich this time.

"But don't use that Blood-Burning Pill lightly.

"It burns blood qi, forcing out one's potential and forcibly increasing one's strength for a short time, but its side effects are enormous.

"If things go wrong, blood qi may run wild, and you could even explode and die."

Deng Qing nodded, putting away the gold beans and Blood-Burning Pill. Then he carefully searched Zhou Fei again and unexpectedly felt a hard lump at the corner of his clothes.

He tore open the robe and found a black stone the size of his little fingernail.

Li Cheng leaned in for a look and said, "Judging by the texture, it should be a piece of ancient jade. It ought to fetch a few taels of silver."

When Deng Qing heard it could be sold for money, and remembered how carefully Zhou Fei had hidden it, he knew it had to be valuable and put it away with care.

After collecting the loot, Deng Qing stood up and patted Li Cheng on the shoulder. "You all right?"

Li Cheng cupped his hands. "I'm fine. Thank you for saving my life."

Deng Qing waved a hand. "I just happened to run into you. What I don't understand is how you two ended up fighting. You were far too careless."

Li Cheng sighed. "Senior Brother Deng, I don't consider you an outsider, so I'll tell you the truth.

"It was Zhang Bo who knocked Zhou Fei down into the mountain ravine.

"I came down after him to take his head. I wanted to use that merit to add something worthwhile to my recommendation letter for the Martial Dao Trial."

At this point, Li Cheng revealed a bitter smile. "Originally, Zhang Bo was going to come down with me, but the county commandant transferred him away.

"I had no choice but to come alone. I thought it would just be a matter of collecting a corpse. I never expected that after falling from such a high ravine, he still wouldn't be dead. I expected even less that he had a Blood-Burning Pill on him. That was how things ended up like this.

"If I hadn't happened to encounter you, I'm afraid I'd have died here."

After saying that, he seemed to remember something. "By the way, why are you here?"

Deng Qing rolled his shoulders. "Got tired of fighting. Found a place to rest."

Li Cheng understood immediately and burst into laughter. "Got it."

Then Li Cheng circled Zhou Fei's corpse and said quietly, "Senior Brother Deng, Zhou Fei's head is very important to me.

"But you were the one who killed him, after all. Name your price."

"Name what price?"

Deng Qing smiled. "Back in North Warehouse, you and I were merely strangers passing by, so we counted every penny and traded Mountain-Crossing Wind's corpse with you for silver.

"Now, you and I are brothers and friends. Since Zhou Fei's head is so useful to you, just take it."

He spoke with boundless generosity, but in truth, he had already calculated everything clearly.

Even if he took Zhou Fei's head out himself, he could at most exchange it for some extra silver.

The process would certainly be complicated.

One careless misstep, and he might even offend Li Cheng and Zhang Bo.

But if he gave the head to Li Cheng and earned this favor, its long-term value would be beyond measure.

After seeing that even Zhang Bo, a household retainer, was an expert of the Bone-Forging Realm, Deng Qing could naturally guess that Li Cheng's family background far exceeded imagination.

Demanding a million from Jack Ma and becoming friends with Jack Ma—he knew how to calculate that account.

Although Li Cheng was usually full of schemes, Deng Qing's sudden "sincerity" left him completely stunned.