There was little else to ask here and now. All they wanted was to recover the treasure Shi Chun had stolen.
They had never even seen what the treasure looked like, having only heard about it from the overseer in the mine. It had been an unexpected windfall, and now that their lost prize was within reach again, they were delighted.
Shen Youkun, who had run back, was excited too, with a savage edge to his excitement. Before he could voice his threat to make Shi Chun suffer, his uncle's vicious, icy glare forced the words back down his throat.
Qi Ziru guessed what his nephew wanted to say. He was not trying to stop him from venting; he simply did not want him running his mouth before they recovered the treasure.
The reasoning was simple. They had yet to establish whether the chief had the treasure on him. If he had hidden it somewhere, and his nephew said something that made him believe he would die either way, they might drive him to stake everything on a desperate gamble. Wouldn't that ruin matters?
The Lineage had sent him to take charge personally, which was a measure of recognition for his abilities. He would not allow himself to make such a basic mistake.
The masked burly man nodded at the order, then turned toward Shi Chun. He sprang up and reached out to place a restriction on him, intending to secure him before removing the Immobilizing Talisman.
Behind Shi Chun, Wu Jinliang watched this unfold, his heart wailing. He knew the two of them were in for it this time. They really had fallen into the trap.
He could not help grumbling inwardly. He had repeatedly reminded Chun to leave early, but the bastard simply refused. He just had to come over here and take the risk. Well, look where that had got them.
Just as despair filled his heart, his eyes suddenly brightened. He did not know whether he was seeing things, but Chun, frozen in place ahead of him, seemed to have moved.
The masked burly man reaching out to touch Shi Chun also thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. What the hell? Had the immobilized man just moved?
Before he could focus for a closer look, the bewilderment in his eyes turned to horror. The immobilized man really had moved, plainly turning his head to stare at him. The saber in his hand had changed direction too, and the look in his eyes chilled the man to the bone.
Qi Ziru, reclining with calm composure, also thought he had seen wrong. The faint smile on his face abruptly froze, turning into shock.
Shen Youkun, whose eyes had gleamed with savage excitement, was utterly stunned. His mouth hung open in an O, his eyes widening in an instant as though he had seen a living ghost.
It was no illusion. Shi Chun really had moved. The joy of breaking free flashed through his eyes, then instantly hardened into ferocity. His blade quivered and slashed at the masked burly man springing toward him.
The masked man's face drained of color as he realized he had nowhere to dodge. He had just leaped into the air and had nothing to push off, while the blade was already upon him. In haste, he twisted to protect his vitals.
His head escaped the strike, but the blade cleaved diagonally through his shoulder and neck.
In that sudden, utterly unforeseen turn, a head and a chunk of shoulder with its arm attached flew away amid a spray of blood.
Shi Chun followed his slash with a kick, driving his foot into the blood-spurting remnant of the airborne body. Using it for leverage, he twisted in midair and lunged back toward Wu Jinliang. Saving him while their opponents were caught off guard came first. Otherwise, an immobilized man was a living target with no means of resistance. Never mind a thrown blade-even a casually hurled stone could kill him.
Stretching out as he flipped through the air, he first tore the Talisman Paper from his own chest, then reached out and ripped the talisman from Wu Jinliang's chest.
Within the strange vision of his right eye, he clearly saw the removed talisman drag out a multitude of glowing filaments, like roots being pulled from the earth.
In that lightning-quick instant, the sight left a deep impression on him. Those glowing filaments, intangible and suspended between illusion and reality, could be grasped by this Talisman Paper as though they were solid objects.
It was not difficult to understand. After all, this Talisman Paper itself was a vessel for those glowing filaments.
The moment the talisman was torn away, Wu Jinliang's eyes lit up and he felt his restraints vanish. As he dropped swiftly to the ground, he raised an arm and gave Shi Chun a push. Then, seeing Shi Chun twist and flip back toward him, extending a foot as a signal, he immediately held his saber across himself to receive it. Their coordination needed no words; it was flawless.
Shi Chun planted his foot against the flat of the blade, and Wu Jinliang thrust him away with both arms. Once again, he flew toward the two armed sedan bearers standing on guard.
Though he could not fly, that entire sequence of killing and rescuing had been completed in the air in one seamless motion.
The masked burly man had died instantly, without even time to scream, his head parted from his body amid the spraying blood.
Qi Ziru's expression changed drastically. He sprang to his feet in alarm, his eyes full of disbelief. He desperately wanted to ask how this was possible. The talismans he had brought were hardly low-grade; their power could easily suppress even an ordinary Advanced Martial cultivator. How could they fail to restrain a cultivator whose cultivation was beneath notice?
By rights, these talismans should have lasted at least an hour before dissipating on their own. Had he been given inferior talismans passed off as quality goods?
A sudden clatter came from beside him. Shen Youkun was fleeing in panic again. In his frenzy, he once more lost his footing and tumbled down the slope, scrambling for his life.
He knew how formidable the chief of the Eastern Nine Plains was, but he had never imagined he could be this formidable. Even an Immobilizing Talisman could not subdue him-how were they supposed to fight that? It was terrifying. All color drained from his face, and his only thought was to escape. He regretted coming back to watch the fun.
Casting a quick sidelong glance at his nephew's cowardly display, Qi Ziru had no time for anything else. He hastily drew two talismans from his sleeve.
Here, such talismans could deal with emergencies, so he could hardly give away his entire stock. Apart from the two he had given the masked burly man, he had kept two on himself for urgent use. He had never expected the moment to use them would truly come.
But the turn of events had been far too sudden, and Shi Chun's sequence of movements far too fast. Anyone with a discerning eye could tell from those crisp, efficient motions that he was a veteran forged in deadly combat. Not only had he killed and rescued in an instant, his counterattack flowed into place like drifting clouds and running water, giving his opponents not a moment of composure.
As a result, he had not even managed to hand the two talismans he had drawn to the sedan bearers.
Just as he was about to, the two sedan bearers darted in front of him to block the attack. His cultivation had been crippled, leaving him without any magical power, so he could not activate the talismans himself.
He could only adapt. To protect himself and avoid becoming a burden, he quickly turned away from the reclining chair and hurried down the slope, waving the talismans in his hand as he shouted, "One of you, come here!"
He meant for one to keep their opponent occupied while the other came to take an Immobilizing Talisman.
But neither sedan bearer could disengage immediately. They had already attacked together, shoulder to shoulder, thrusting their swords in unison at the oncoming Shi Chun.
As he flew toward them, Shi Chun changed his move in midair, holding his saber upright with its spine before the space between his brows. Facing the two cold gleams stabbing toward his face, he neither dodged nor evaded, as though he intended to crash straight into them.
Even the two sedan bearers delivering the thrusts were slightly surprised by this, though both knew it could not be that simple.
Sure enough, his saber suddenly shot forward. The instant it slid between their swords, he twisted it in a circle like a taiji wheel, disrupting their combined strike. He released the saber in the same motion and drove his other palm into its spine, pressing all the way to where the blades crossed. His five fingers clamped fiercely around the overlap of all three weapons, as though he meant to wrench both swords from their hands by force.
The two sedan bearers Qi Ziru had chosen as bodyguards were no pushovers either. They simultaneously channeled their power, intending to join forces and shear Shi Chun apart.
For a moment, Shi Chun seemed to hang in the air, held aloft by their twin swords.
But that moment was fleeting. Realizing that neither man's cultivation was weaker than his own, and that forcibly seizing their weapons was not only impossible but might endanger him, Shi Chun decisively abandoned the attempt. His other hand flipped palm-up and slammed upward like a rising tray into the overlap of the three weapons, blasting them skyward while he seized the opening to crash toward the two sedan bearers.
The two sedan bearers hurriedly struck out with their free hands, one with a fist and the other with a palm, only to see Shi Chun's palms thread toward them like splitting light and crossing shadows.
Amid the bewildering palm shadows, the instant their four hands met, Shi Chun threaded, cut, swept, and struck in one seamless sequence. The two men's eyes reeled from the flurry; all they felt was their hands being swept aside, leaving their centers wide open. As terror gripped them, a deep, resonant cry, driven by a forceful breath, rang in their ears: "Demon-Undoing Hand!"
Bang! Bang! Two thunderous impacts rang out.
His interweaving palms slammed into the sedan bearers' chests, knocking them off balance. They staggered backward, swords wavering wildly in their hands, and almost simultaneously spewed mouthfuls of blood.
Both heard the crack of their own breastbones shattering. The agony and the sudden turmoil of their blood and energy made them realize something, but it was already too late for regret.
Running while looking back and calling for them to collect the talismans, Qi Ziru saw not only the two sedan bearers take those grievous blows, but also two writhing shapes suddenly bulge from their bare backs. They resembled faces subjected to endless torment, struggling to tear free of flesh, or evil ghosts trying to escape their bodies. An instant later, they stilled into two bloody marks resembling skulls.
He thought it was an illusion, but the moonlight was bright, and he had seen it perfectly clearly.
Shi Chun touched one foot to the slope, caught his falling saber, and sprang forward again. He slashed down, striking the crossing point of the two swords once more. With a clang, both blades, hastily raised to meet him, were knocked from their owners' hands.
Then the saber's gleam whirled like a disc, guarding a figure as he spun between the two men.
Two heads popped into the air almost simultaneously, and twin streams of hot blood shot skyward like a shower of blossoms.
Passing between them, Shi Chun ignored what lay behind him. Still airborne, he casually hurled his saber.
Whoosh! Qi Ziru stopped short in his desperate flight as a cold gleam descended from above. A large saber planted itself in front of him, quivering in warning.
Having nearly run into its edge, he stopped and did not run again. He knew there was no point.
A figure flipped down beside the upright saber immediately afterward. It was Shi Chun!
The breeze stirred by his arrival swept aside Shi Chun's hanging hair, revealing a handsome, alert face beneath the moonlight. Qi Ziru saw that the face was still young, yet carried an unquestionable resolve. He could not imagine what this man had lived through.
He turned back toward the two headless sedan bearers, who swayed and toppled down the slope one after the other, and knew his last hope was gone.
Before they fell, the two sedan bearers seemed to be bleeding heavily beneath the skin of their backs. Broad patches of red spread rapidly, swallowing the skull-like bloody marks. Even so, Qi Ziru narrowed his eyes.
"Wahaha!" With a strange laugh, Wu Jinliang flashed past the two of them like a gust of wind. He paid them no attention, seemingly unable to spare even a glance. Dragging his large saber, he rushed after the fleeing Shen Youkun, cackling threats. "You, Shen! Last time I stripped off your trousers. This time I'll strip off your skin! Where do you think you're running? Your grandpa's coming!"