Before the bluestone arena at the southern training ground, the crowd surged like boiling water. As Li Chen Zhou reined in his horse, he happened to see a bearded brute kick a bronze-badge constable of the Six Doors off the platform, blood carving a glaring arc through the air.
"Who else?!" The brute pounded his chest, thick with black hair, while the gilded badge at his waist reading "Earth Ranking, Thirty-Ninth" clinked loudly. "Is this all the court is capable of?"
The arena official's face was livid. Behind him lay seven or eight badly wounded experts from the Ministry of War.
Amid the jeering laughter of the jianghu crowd, Li Chen Zhou's riding whip suddenly cracked!
Smack!
The whip tip curled around the life-and-death contract by the arena's edge. The ink on the white paper had yet to dry as it fluttered like a white butterfly.
Li Chen Zhou tapped the saddle with his toes, turning into a blood-red streak as he swept onto the arena. When he landed, the sheath of the Blood Demon Blade slammed heavily against the ground, making the bronze bells at all four corners ring in unison.
"Li Chen Zhou of the Brocade Guard." He pushed open the blade guard with his thumb, revealing three inches of scarlet edge. "If you're not afraid of death, sign the contract and come up."
The entire venue fell deathly silent.
Looking at the bearded brute, Li Chen Zhou sneered. "A clown leaping about on a stage."
Li Chen Zhou's imposing presence left the man with lingering fear, but cheers rose from the jianghu crowd below.
"Get up there! What are you afraid of?!"
Before so many people, the bearded brute feared losing face as well. He hardened his resolve and signed the life-and-death contract.
Standing on the arena, he glared viciously at Li Chen Zhou's attire and mocked, "Hmph, a mere Banner Officer dares to take the stage? Looks like the court truly has no one left."
Someone below suddenly warned, "Don't underestimate him. That's the Little Devil Li Chen Zhou. Watch out for his Soul Absorption Art—it's wicked as hell."
The bearded brute tilted his neck, his bones cracking explosively. Unconcerned, he said, "Soul Absorption Art? I'd like to see whether it's really as wicked as the legends say." With that, he charged at Li Chen Zhou.
Li Chen Zhou stood where he was without moving an inch.
The bearded brute threw a punch, only for it to stop three inches before Li Chen Zhou's face.
Li Chen Zhou's eyes brimmed with contempt. "You? You're not worthy."
Seeing that his full-powered blow had failed to make his opponent retreat even half a step, the bearded brute's eyes widened.
Li Chen Zhou kicked him squarely in the chest. The man flew straight off the arena, his breastbone shattered by the kick, dead on the spot.
The city guards responsible for the scene immediately dragged him away.
The next moment, a voice rang out.
"Lord Li, striking with such ruthless cruelty and leaving no path of survival—was that not a little excessive?" The speaker was none other than the Gentleman's Sword who had once challenged him—Xie An.
"If you're afraid of dying, then cower below. Why come out here pretending to be a saint?" Li Chen Zhou paid no heed to such accusations.
Xie An's white robes snapped in the autumn wind, the jade badge reading "Gentleman" at his waist striking his longsword with a clear chime.
As he slowly stepped onto the arena, his toes paused over the bloodstain left by the bearded brute. He took out a snow-white handkerchief and covered his nose and mouth.
"Lord Li." With a flick of his sword tip, the life-and-death contract drifted into his palm. "Xie has come today not for the Heavenly Desire Palace, nor for the jianghu rankings..." As he dipped his brush in ink and wrote, the gold-thread bamboo pattern embroidered on his cuffs gleamed beneath the sunlight. "Only to seek instruction in the true martial arts of the court."
Li Chen Zhou suddenly laughed. He planted the Blood Demon Blade in the center of the arena with his backhand, then removed an Embroidered Spring Blade from his waist. "Using the Blood Demon Blade against you would be a waste." The scabbard spun lightly, revealing an ordinary Embroidered Spring Blade with a chilling gleam.
Xie An's white robes snapped in the autumn wind, while the jade badge of the "Gentleman's Sword" at his waist reflected the bleak daylight. As he slowly stepped onto the arena, blossoms of ice lotus actually bloomed across the bluestone slabs—proof that his icy true qi had been cultivated to the realm of perfection.
"Lord Li." Xie An cupped his hands, and a gilt-edged challenge letter slid from his sleeve. "The appointment at Emerald Cloud Tower three days ago..."
"Too noisy." Li Chen Zhou heavily struck the Blood Demon Blade's sheath against the ground, and the bronze bells at all four corners of the arena suddenly shattered at once. "If you want to fight, then fight. Why all this nonsense?"
Xie An did not get angry. With a backhand motion, he drew the longsword embedded at the arena's edge. The instant it left its sheath, the moisture within thirty yards froze into frost, and ice crystals formed even on the eyebrows of several jianghu folk standing too close.
"Gentleman's Sword Art, First Form—"
The path carved by the sword edge condensed into ice crystals in midair, and Xie An's figure suddenly split into three! All three "Xie Ans" stabbed at Li Chen Zhou's throat, heart, and dantian at once, their sword tips glittering like stars.
"Childish tricks." Li Chen Zhou sneered, utterly unconcerned as he drove his perfected Golden Bell Shield to its limit.
The three figures struck him simultaneously, yet only sparks flew from his throat.
Xie An changed techniques with extreme speed. His sword force suddenly turned soft and yielding, winding around the Embroidered Spring Blade like spring wind melting into rain. This was the most sinister move of the Gentleman's Sword Art, "Soft as a Finger Wrap"—seemingly gentle, yet every strand of sword qi concealed thirty-six layers of delayed force.
"Does Lord Li know..." Xie An suddenly transmitted his voice directly into Li Chen Zhou's ear. "Holy Maiden Nangong offered one hundred thousand taels for a complete recording of you using the Soul Absorption Art." His sword edge deliberately scraped across the Blood Demon Blade, drawing a trail of glaring sparks. "The Heavenly Desire Palace is deciphering your..."
Before his words could finish, the Embroidered Spring Blade suddenly let out a dragon-like hum! Strands of blood mist seeped from every pore of Li Chen Zhou's body, winding around the blade to form dark-red patterns. Those patterns actually began to writhe like living things.
"You talk too much."
The first slash of the Three Abyssal Slashes, Sever Samsara, came crashing down!
Xie An hurriedly raised his sword to meet it, only to see that seemingly fierce blade force suddenly turn into soft threads that could wrap around a finger—it was returning his own method upon him!
Crack!
The Gentleman's Sword snapped in response.
Xie An retreated seven steps in rapid succession, with only the sword hilt left in his hand.
"Is that all you can do?" Li Chen Zhou suddenly changed moves, slamming the flat of his blade against Xie An's wrist.
Xie An staggered back, then suddenly fired a spray of hair-thin needles from his sleeve! Their tips were dark blue, clearly steeped in deadly poison.
As Li Chen Zhou spun aside to evade, he heard shocked cries from below. "They're the Tang Clan's Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needles!"
Countless poisoned needles shot toward him as Li Chen Zhou shouted, "Cosmic Shift!"
The Soul Absorption Art surged at full power. The flying poisoned needles were frozen directly in midair, then shot explosively into the stone wall beside the arena.
"You dare call yourself the Gentleman's Sword? A fraud deceiving the world and stealing a name." Li Chen Zhou sneered. The Embroidered Spring Blade suddenly flew from his hand, its hilt smashing heavily into Xie An's Tanzhong acupoint. As Xie An vomited blood and flew backward, Li Chen Zhou had already swept behind him like a ghost, pressing a palm to his back—
"Want to witness the Soul Absorption Art? I'll grant your wish."
The Soul Absorption Art activated!
Xie An let out a scream that did not sound human, his entire cultivation flooding into Li Chen Zhou's meridians like a breached dam.
The crowd below watched in horror as this elegant young gentleman's skin shriveled at a visible rate, until he became nothing more than a wrinkled human husk!
With a thud, the corpse fell to the ground. Li Chen Zhou closed his eyes and felt the newly gained twelve years of cultivation.
Current internal cultivation: 135 years
But the next moment, a sinister laugh suddenly came from the northwest corner.
"As expected of someone ranked twentieth on the Rising Dragon Ranking by the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion. The title Little Devil is well deserved!"
The crowd parted like a receding tide, revealing a gray-robed man as thin as a bamboo pole.
With every step he took, a charred footprint remained on the bluestone slabs. The jade badge at his waist reading "Earth Ranking, Twenty-Eighth" glowed with a poisonous miasma-like green light.
"A traitor of the Five Poisons Sect, Cui Wei, Scorched Bone Hand." The arena official cried out in shock. "He came too!"
Cui Wei pressed his withered claw onto the life-and-death contract, and wisps of green smoke immediately rose as the palm print corroded the paper. "I heard the Heavenly Desire Palace spread word that Banner Officer Li's Soul Absorption Art was exceedingly strange. Seeing it today, its reputation is indeed well deserved. I simply wonder whether Lord Li dares to take in this bodyful of poison arts of mine?"
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