Ambush

Chen Yiming reconsidered why he had agreed to join Zhang Youde.

He did not particularly care how much money his share of the shops might earn. He expected a contest at the meeting to divide them up, with the winners claiming shares first until everything was allotted.

He had prepared his black outfit so that, after the meeting, he could ambush a suitable swordsman on the road. It would let him test his true fighting strength and learn another sword technique in the process.

He currently knew three sword techniques.

Phantom Light Sword was too low-level. It was barely adequate for someone who had just entered the Apprentice Realm and undergone a First Body Metamorphosis, but he had already undergone a Third Body Metamorphosis. He had outgrown it.

Rainbow Swordsmanship was the Zhang family's inherited technique. It would remain useful through at least six Body Metamorphoses. It excelled at drawn-out fights, and no one knew he had learned it, making it ideal for use while masked.

Mantis Snake Swordsmanship would remain useful through nine Body Metamorphoses and excelled at assassination. But he was better off not using it in secret, lest it raise suspicions that led back to him.

He still lacked techniques for head-on clashes, defense, greater speed, and other ways to deal with different opponents.

Learning multiple sword techniques could improve one's fighting strength, but for most people, it would be a detour that delayed their cultivation.

He was different. With his level-one talent for swordsmanship, he could learn a technique simply by fighting someone who used it.

Once Chen Yiming had made up his mind, he decided to follow and see what happened. The moment Zhang Youde drove back the second masked man Zheng Qiming had sent, Chen Yiming quietly slipped away from the group.

In an alley near Li Family Manor, Tang Zhenfeng clutched his stomach and stumbled every few steps.

He was an independent martial artist with no ties to any faction. He had once studied at East Lake Martial Arts Academy, but after graduating, he had failed to secure a position there as a teacher.

He had earned money for cultivation by taking temporary jobs. Through a lucky opportunity, he had barely made it past the hurdle of his third Body Metamorphosis, then painstakingly reached his fifth.

He knew that someone with ordinary martial talent could not afford to waste a moment. If he wanted even the slightest chance of reaching the Warrior Realm one day, he had to switch as soon as possible to a cultivation method capable of taking him there.

Suddenly—

"Who's there? Come out!" Tang Zhenfeng spun around and shouted.

Nothing changed in the alley behind him. Darkness still covered it, and it was quiet enough to hear a pin drop.

He had chosen this route of retreat deliberately. For reasons he did not know, every household along the alley had moved out, making anyone following him easy to detect.

Crack!

A pebble was crushed in an instant.

Then a figure burst out of the darkness.

Masked as well, the figure charged straight at Tang Zhenfeng like a sword drawn from its sheath.

It was Chen Yiming, now dressed in black.

Without a word, Tang Zhenfeng brought his greatsword across his body and blocked Chen Yiming's surprise attack. His movements were fluid from start to finish; he did not look injured at all.

Chen Yiming used the impact to spring back to a safe distance and stopped. He watched Tang Zhenfeng without attacking again.

Tang Zhenfeng had blocked the ambush so easily that Chen Yiming began to wonder whether his injury was real.

Tang Zhenfeng, meanwhile, was shaken.

Years of taking jobs outside the city and facing all manner of dangers had taught him to guard against ambushes. He had endured the pain and blocked the attack, but before he could counter, his opponent had already retreated.

"Who are you?" Tang Zhenfeng asked steadily, his exposed eyes narrowing.

"The man who's going to kill you." Chen Yiming's expression remained calm. He said nothing more.

The air seemed to freeze. Several breaths passed, but neither man moved.

"What do you want? Did someone with a grudge against me hire you?" Tang Zhenfeng asked.

Chen Yiming did not answer. The fact that Tang Zhenfeng still had not attacked confirmed that he really was injured. The only question was how much strength he had left.

"Think carefully. I may be hurt, but if you force me to fight to the death, someone else could be waiting nearby to pick off the survivor," Tang Zhenfeng warned.

He was injured and would rather avoid a fight. Otherwise, a minor injury could become a serious one. Even if he drove his attacker away, it would not be worth suffering a wound that never healed.

"Then tell me, what do you have that's worth taking?" Chen Yiming probed. He already had a fair idea.

A gust of wind swept into the alley, fluttering their face coverings and briefly exposing glimpses of the faces beneath.

"So there's no settling this peacefully. If you want to kill me, you'll pay for it," Tang Zhenfeng growled.

After Chen Yiming's repeated probing, Tang Zhenfeng understood. The man had no intention of letting him go. He had been testing how badly Tang Zhenfeng was hurt and whether he dared to strike first.

Tang Zhenfeng's primary technique was Mountain-Splitting Sword. It drew on the strength of every muscle in his body, using broad, powerful strikes to overwhelm opponents. He did not fear a head-on clash; he feared enemies faster than himself.

He had failed to counter Chen Yiming's first attack at all. That meant his opponent was quick and would be difficult to handle.

He could not simply wait to be killed.

Tang Zhenfeng lunged forward and swung his greatsword at Chen Yiming. Even before the blade reached him, its ferocious power was palpable.

If that heavy sword struck with the force Tang Zhenfeng had built up behind it, almost no one at the same level could withstand the blow.

Chen Yiming had no intention of trying. He used the evasive moves of Rainbow Swordsmanship to weave through the cramped alley.

If Tang Zhenfeng had been faster than him as well as stronger, Chen Yiming would have had to think about escaping.

Bang!

The greatsword slammed into a wall, blasting dust into the air.

Chen Yiming ducked beneath the blade with ease and quickly moved behind Tang Zhenfeng.

Suppressing the pain of his internal injuries, Tang Zhenfeng spun and lunged into the cloud of dust, bringing his greatsword down toward Chen Yiming.

They exchanged more than a dozen moves in a flash. Tang Zhenfeng put everything into every strike, hoping to smash Chen Yiming to death before his internal injuries overwhelmed him.

Rainbow Swordsmanship excelled at drawn-out fights, its moves shifting and changing. Tang Zhenfeng's technique, meanwhile, emphasized strength at the expense of agility.

The fight settled into a stalemate. Tang Zhenfeng could not keep up with Chen Yiming's movements. Again and again, his efforts went to waste as his sword smashed through courtyard walls.

While Tang Zhenfeng failed to bring Chen Yiming down, the little figure in Chen Yiming's mind quickly simulated Mountain-Splitting Sword.

Chen Yiming saw through both the technique's method of generating force and the weaknesses in its moves.

After another dozen exchanges, Chen Yiming was handling the fight with increasing ease, while Tang Zhenfeng grew more and more frantic.

Fighting an injured opponent who had undergone five Body Metamorphoses had also given Chen Yiming a rough sense of his true fighting strength.