Battle

Boom!

Qin Shujian's aura changed completely. Like a fierce tiger leaping out of the mountain forests, he radiated a savage presence that struck them head-on.

His Tiger Head Saber flashed out of its sheath. Its heavy blade swept toward the guards with a powerful rush of wind.

Tiger Descends the Mountain!

Nothing could stand in its path!

In a single instant, more than a dozen spears shattered, and the blade continued its relentless sweep.

The guards stared in horror, their bodies seemingly locked in place by an overwhelming presence.

In their eyes, Qin Shujian had become a terrifying beast. His brutal aura froze their minds.

It was not just the guards.

Even the surrounding players felt as though they had plunged into an ice cellar when Qin Shujian's aura swept over them.

At that moment.

They felt that what stood there was no longer an NPC, but a terrifying beast capable of killing them.

"Stop!"

A thunderous roar rang out.

Qin Shujian's gaze remained cold, and his attack did not falter in the slightest.

The blade swept past, and blood burst forth.

A dark figure charged out of Novice Village and unleashed a fierce palm strike. The scorching wind from his palm instantly raised the surrounding temperature.

Thunder Across a Hundred Li!

Roar!

Tiger Roars Through the Forest, making the dark figure pause for an instant.

Rather than retreating, Qin Shujian advanced. His Tiger Head Saber unleashed another Tiger Descends the Mountain, crashing violently against his opponent's attack.

Boom!

Violent winds burst outward.

Qin Shujian's saber arm trembled slightly, and his body involuntarily retreated.

The dark figure stumbled backward as well.

Martial Entry Fifth Level?

Sixth level of Martial Entry?

Qin Shujian's expression grew somewhat grave as he studied the middle-aged man in brown before him.

Neither had gained the upper hand in that exchange.

It had, however, given him a rough estimate of the man's strength.

"That's... Instructor Zhang from the Martial Arts Hall!"

The man's arrival stirred a commotion among the players.

The Martial Arts Hall's instructor was the one who taught players cultivation techniques.

From the very beginning, the players had known that the Martial Arts Hall's instructor was a powerful expert.

But none of them knew exactly how strong he was.

Now that Instructor Zhang had appeared and stopped the mysterious NPC in his tracks, his strength was clearly far from ordinary.

Instructor Zhang's expression darkened as he looked at the dozen or so corpses on the ground, shock stirring within him.

The clean cuts, together with the strength Qin Shujian had displayed in their exchange, showed that he was a formidable opponent.

"Why have you come here to kill without provocation?"

Instructor Zhang rebuked him in a low, angry voice.

“So I killed them. Fools who don't know their place would hardly survive tomorrow even if they didn't die today.” Qin Shujian sneered disdainfully.

His opponent was certainly strong.

But in a true fight to the death, he remained confident that he could cut the man down.

His mastery of the Black Tiger Saber Technique was not merely an empty claim.

With that hurried strike just now, he had not even brought out seventy percent of the technique's essence.

Qin Shujian's only concern was whether this man was the strongest person in Novice Village, or merely one of its experts.

Instructor Zhang's gaze darkened. "You are outrageously arrogant."

"If you want revenge, then attack. If you don't have the guts, get out of my way."

"Insolence!"

Instructor Zhang's expression turned utterly grim as he shouted, "I have shown you some courtesy only out of respect for your position as the Liangshan Stronghold Chief. Don't push your luck!"

At those words, Qin Shujian narrowed his eyes again.

The man's words clearly showed that he knew Qin Shujian's identity.

Logically speaking.

It had been less than two days since he had killed Wu Sheng and taken his place.

Apart from the bandits of the Liangshan Stronghold, no one should have known that the stronghold had a new chieftain.

Yet this man had identified him outright, which clearly meant he knew something about him.

However.

Qin Shujian puzzled over it only briefly before understanding dawned on him.

He was an NPC, and so were the others.

Since he occasionally received notifications from the system, the man before him could receive them too.

There was no need to question it any further.

The system must have revealed his identity as the Liangshan Stronghold Chief.

Meanwhile, the other players looked puzzled as well.

Liangshan Stronghold Chief?

The title alone made it clear that he led a faction.

Even after he had killed so many Novice Village guards, Instructor Zhang from the Martial Arts Hall had not attacked rashly. That left the players even more astonished by Qin Shujian's strength.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two more people rushed out of Novice Village and came to a stop beside Instructor Zhang.

A man and a woman.

The man had a fat face and large ears. His clothes were black and gleaming with grease, his face covered in stubble. He looked thoroughly slovenly.

The woman appeared to be in her forties or fifties. Dressed plainly, she looked like an ordinary village woman.

At first glance, both looked like ordinary country folk.

But the auras they now exuded made everyone realize that they were anything but ordinary.

Among the crowd.

Lu Shoujia stared at the two newcomers, momentarily stunned.

Not only had he seen them before, he knew them quite well.

One was Zhu Daming, the village pork butcher.

The other was Li Chunhua, the owner of the village tailor shop.

To scrape together enough copper coins to learn techniques at the Martial Arts Hall, he had done a few odd jobs at both the butcher shop and the tailor shop.

What surprised Lu Shoujia was this.

These two unremarkable-looking people were actually experts who had kept their abilities hidden.

As the two appeared, Qin Shujian's gaze turned cold.

In an instant!

Boom!

His motionless body suddenly surged into action, and his Tiger Head Saber slashed out with a fierce rush of wind.

Tiger Descends the Mountain!

At that moment, he pushed his pinnacle mastery of the Black Tiger Saber Technique almost to its limit.

Once again, Qin Shujian's target was Instructor Zhang from the Martial Arts Hall.

They had not expected Qin Shujian to unleash such a terrifying killing move without a word. With the Black Tiger Saber Technique brought to bear at full power, Instructor Zhang felt as though he faced not a man, but a terrifying tiger slaughtering its way through the mountain forests.

He did not hesitate.

Instructor Zhang's palms turned crimson like flames. As he struck, fire seemed to surge from them, and the scorching heat slightly distorted the air.

Then, as the blade descended, he abruptly brought his crimson palms together, trying to catch it between them.

Unfortunately, the blade was not only swift but ferociously powerful. The instant his palms clamped around it, Instructor Zhang felt an irresistible force surge through the saber, knocking his hands apart.

The saber drove straight through, about to pierce his throat.

Whoosh!

A silver serpent shot through the air and coiled around the blade in an instant, revealing itself to be a long silver whip.

The other end of the whip rested in the hand of Li Chunhua, the tailor shop's owner.

But before Instructor Zhang and Li Chunhua could breathe a sigh of relief, Qin Shujian violently pulled his Tiger Head Saber back. The immense force dragged Li Chunhua several stumbling steps forward against her will.

Immediately afterward.

Qin Shujian strode forward, slid his Tiger Head Saber downward and free of the silver whip, then swung a backhand slash at Li Chunhua's neck.

A butcher's knife moved later but arrived first, intercepting the Tiger Head Saber before it could strike.

Clang!

The two blades collided, spraying sparks.

The web of Zhu Daming's hand shook violently, and he nearly lost his grip on the butcher's knife.

The collision also checked Qin Shujian's movement, abruptly interrupting his previously flawless assault. Li Chunhua and Instructor Zhang recovered and were about to attack him together.

Seeing this.

Qin Shujian immediately withdrew his saber and retreated, escaping the three opponents' attack range in an instant before charging outward.

Some of the spectating players saw Qin Shujian charging toward them and tried to dodge out of his way.

But all they saw was a cold flash of saber light sweeping toward them.

Then pain shot through their bodies, and they vanished in flashes of white light.