As the words fell, Zhou Fei's face went pale. His Qi-Blood surged again, and he drove out a punch. Deng Qing's arms shook violently; his guard was finally broken.
Deng Qing flew backward and crashed into the stream.
He choked on a mouthful of water. When he spat it out, it was tinged with blood.
Zhou Fei stepped forward, sprang into the air, and lunged at Deng Qing again.
Deng Qing lay facedown, motionless, as though he had no strength left to rise.
Just as Zhou Fei came within three feet, Deng Qing suddenly sprang up.
His right hand slapped his waist. The Blacksteel Soft Sword shot out like a venomous snake, straight for Zhou Fei's throat.
Zhou Fei sneered. "Still trying tricks?"
He wrenched his head aside. The cold gleam grazed his neck and struck his shoulder.
With a wet thrust, the Blacksteel Soft Sword pierced his shoulder and tore open a bloody wound.
Zhou Fei's expression changed sharply. "What kind of swordsmanship is that?"
"The kind that kills you."
Before his words had faded, Deng Qing advanced instead of retreating, unleashing the Seven Forms of Settling Solitude.
The Blacksteel Soft Sword darted through the gaps between Zhou Fei's punches and shifts in stance.
Zhou Fei was already badly wounded and had inhaled Li Cheng's poisonous smoke. Now the flashes of sword light forced him back again and again.
Zhou Fei roared in fury. He had realized just how vicious this swordsmanship was.
Every thrust sought the instant his strength faltered.
Slash! Slash!
His chest, shoulder, and ribs were struck in quick succession.
More and more blood poured from Zhou Fei's wounds.
In the distance, Li Cheng leaned against the cliff wall and stared, dumbfounded.
He knew Deng Qing's Seven Forms of Settling Solitude was formidable.
Only now did he truly see how terrifying it became when unleashed.
Zhou Fei roared, and Qi-Blood erupted from his body.
He took one of Deng Qing's strikes head-on and swung his palm in return.
Deng Qing drew back his sword to block. Zhou Fei's palm struck the blade and sent both Deng Qing and his sword flying.
Bang! Deng Qing slammed into a heap of rocks.
The Blacksteel Soft Sword flew from his hand and landed several yards away.
Zhou Fei stood where he was, gasping for breath.
His body was covered in bloody wounds, but he gritted his teeth and walked toward Deng Qing, one step at a time.
Deng Qing pushed himself up against a rock. His arms trembled with exhaustion.
Still, he clenched his teeth and took up the stance of the Tiger-Subduing Fist.
Zhou Fei's face was white as paper. He gave a savage grin. "I'm going to kill you."
Deng Qing fixed his gaze on Zhou Fei's steps and counted silently. One hundred eight, one hundred nine...
Ever since Li Cheng had shouted out the secret that Zhou Fei could last only a hundred breaths, Deng Qing had been counting.
One step, two steps, three steps...
Suddenly, Zhou Fei swayed. The next instant, he pitched forward, blood spilling from his nose and mouth.
Deng Qing held his stance, not daring to approach.
From a distance, Li Cheng shouted, "Senior Brother Deng, watch out! He might be playing dead!"
Deng Qing bent to pick up a stone and hurled it over.
The stone struck Zhou Fei's back. He did not react.
Still wary, Deng Qing retrieved the Blacksteel Soft Sword.
Keeping his distance, he thrust the blade forward. Its tip pierced Zhou Fei's wrist.
Zhou Fei still did not react.
Only then was Deng Qing certain he was dead.
In the distance, Li Cheng let out a long breath. He slowly slid down the rock wall into a seated position and popped a pill into his mouth.
With a flick of his hand, he sent another pill flying toward Deng Qing. "For your injuries. It works wonders."
Deng Qing thanked him and covered his mouth with his hand. The pill slipped into his sleeve.
Right now, he trusted no one.
He tried to circulate the Violet Palace Method, but his breath was severely obstructed.
He persisted through two Heavenly Cycles before his breath gradually flowed freely. He spat out another mouthful of black blood, and the tightness in his chest began to fade.
Only then did Deng Qing rise and walk over to Zhou Fei's corpse.
Zhou Fei's face had turned white as paper. After forcing his Qi-Blood to surge despite losing so much blood, he was like an Oil Lamp burned dry.
Deng Qing glanced at Li Cheng. There was not the slightest sign that the man had been poisoned.
Deng Qing guessed Li Cheng had probably taken the antidote long ago. Rich people really are fucking rich. They've got so many damn tricks up their sleeves.
As soon as the thought passed, Deng Qing crouched and carefully searched Zhou Fei's body.
He soon found a handful of gold nuggets in Zhou Fei's robes.
He weighed them in his hand. They came to roughly ten taels. There was also a medicine case no bigger than a fingernail.
He opened it and found a dark-red pill inside: another Blood-Burning Pill, like the one Zhou Fei had taken earlier.
Li Cheng, having caught his breath, walked over 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 Qi-Blood to force out your potential and boost your strength for a short time, but the side effects are severe.
"One wrong move, and your Qi-Blood could run wild. You might even burst apart and die."
Deng Qing nodded and put away the gold nuggets and Blood-Burning Pill. He searched Zhou Fei's body again, feeling every inch, and found something hard sewn into a corner of his robe.
He tore the fabric open. Inside was a black stone the size of his little finger.
Li Cheng leaned in for a look. "Judging by its texture, it should be a piece of Ancient Jade. You could probably trade it for a few taels of silver."
At the mention of money, Deng Qing thought of how carefully Zhou Fei had hidden it. It had to be valuable, so he tucked it away.
Once he had gathered the valuables, Deng Qing stood 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 him off. "I just happened by. What I don't understand is how you two ended up fighting. You were too careless."
Li Cheng sighed. "Senior Brother Deng, I won't treat you like an outsider. I'll tell you the truth.
"Zhang Bo knocked Zhou Fei into the Mountain Ravine.
"I came after him to take his head. I wanted something worth writing about in the Recommendation Letter for the Martial Dao Trial."
A wry smile appeared on Li Cheng's face. "Zhang Bo was supposed to come down with me, but the County Commandant called him away.
"I had no choice but to come alone. I thought I only needed to collect a corpse. Who would have guessed he'd survive a fall from a ravine that high? And I never expected him to have a Blood-Burning Pill. That's how I ended up in this state.
"If I hadn't run into you, I'm afraid I would have died here."
Then he seemed to remember something. "By the way, what brought you here?"
Deng Qing rolled his shoulders. "I got tired from fighting and found a place to rest."
Li Cheng understood without another word and laughed. "I see."
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're the one who killed him. Name your price."
"What price?"
Deng Qing smiled. "Back at the North Warehouse, we were strangers, so I counted every coin and traded Mountain-Crossing Wind's corpse to you for silver.
"Now we're brothers and friends. If Zhou Fei's head is of such use to you, take it."
He sounded exceedingly generous, but in his mind, he had already calculated everything down to the last detail.
Even if he took Zhou Fei's head out himself, the most he could gain was a little more silver.
The process, however, would certainly be complicated.
One misstep, and he might offend Li Cheng and Zhang Bo.
But if he let Li Cheng have the head, he would earn a favor whose long-term value was impossible to measure.
Zhang Bo was merely a household retainer, yet he was an expert of the Bone-Forging Realm. Deng Qing could well imagine that Li Cheng's family background far exceeded his expectations.
Given the choice between taking a million from Ma Yun and becoming Ma Yun's friend, he knew which was worth more.
For all Li Cheng's cunning, Deng Qing's sudden "sincerity" left him stunned.