The Hanging Corpse

Cao Jinxing unleashed his ultimate move in a furious assault!

Amid the dazzling golden light, firelight mingled with flashing steel, brilliant and resplendent, like a raging storm of thunder and lightning.

The essence of the Wild Wind Blade Technique came down to a single word:

-Speed!

Yan Baihu could not block it at all. He was nothing more than a target, but his body-hardening arts were so advanced that blades and spears could not pierce him anywhere.

Even with Cao Jinxing's astonishing arm strength, all he could leave were white marks.

Yet as Cao Jinxing's blade attacks grew fiercer, defending became increasingly difficult. His badly injured dantian hindered his ability to gather qi, steadily weakening his Golden Bell Shield. As one gained strength and the other lost it, he gradually began to falter.

This is bad!

Yan Baihu struggled to hold on, his expression growing uglier. If this continued, defeat was certain!

He had to spring a surprise.

The Golden Bell Shield was not the only art Yan Baihu had learned at Shaolin. He also knew the Arhat Fist.

But Cao Jinxing moved too quickly. Speed was not the strength of his punches, and he could not land a single one. Trying would only waste his strength.

Other than that...

He had to leave Cao Jinxing nowhere to dodge!

With that thought, Yan Baihu drew up his qi and circulated it. Even if he had to take a slash from Cao Jinxing, he would channel all his true qi into his right palm and settle the fight in one strike!

"Going for broke?"

Cao Jinxing sneered. "You think I've spent all this time hacking at you just to scratch your itch? If you'd had that resolve from the start, I really would've had to dodge. But now... how much internal energy do you have left?"

Forced to take hit after hit, Yan Baihu had to maintain his Golden Bell Shield with internal energy, an enormous drain in itself. His severe internal injuries could only make that drain worse!

Cao Jinxing had been using his swift blade to wear away Yan Baihu's advantage in internal energy completely.

If it came down to a contest of internal arts, his Golden Bell Shield fell far short of the Cold Toad Art!

It's time.

Cao Jinxing immediately retreated, flung away the golden saber in his hand, and activated the Cold Toad Art. His right hand turned icy blue once again.

"Great Vajra Palm!"

Yan Baihu roared.

His peak Acquired Realm internal energy erupted. A massive golden palm came crashing toward Cao Jinxing like a towering wave against the shore, its force enveloping the surroundings. Its power was truly ferocious!

Utterly unafraid, Cao Jinxing used the Lightning Movement Step again, appearing before Yan Baihu in an instant. Before Yan Baihu could fully release his palm force, Cao Jinxing raised his own palm to meet it!

The golden and blue palms collided.

Brute force met brute force!

Two domineering currents of true qi clashed, sending fierce winds blasting in every direction!

Blood seeped from the corner of Yan Baihu's mouth, and disbelief spread across his face!

"No! This is..."

He had not noticed at first, but Cao Jinxing had put everything into this unstoppable palm strike. It actually bore a trace of that Innate Realm expert from the Five Poisons Cult!

"You... you went to the dungeon and even learned the Cold Toad Art?! How is that possible!"

The three of them had not even been able to understand it. They had always believed that old bastard was deceiving them!

"What's impossible about it?"

Cao Jinxing said quietly, "If you couldn't master such a peerless divine art, that only proves you're stupid!"

"Pfft!"

Those words struck his heart like a hammer. Yan Baihu's mind reeled as regret, rage, and resentment surged through him.

He was obsessed with martial arts and had always imposed strict discipline on himself for their sake. Even after betraying Shaolin, he still observed its rules, abstaining from women and preserving his primal yang.

He had poured all his efforts into pursuing profound martial arts. Never had he imagined that the closest he had ever come to one would still end with it slipping through his fingers!

The moment his mind wavered, his true qi was affected.

Cao Jinxing noticed. Quietly gathering his strength, he continued fanning the flames. "That manual is still in the dungeon, you know... but it won't be for much longer. I set a fire when I left..."

A fire?!

At the first sentence, Yan Baihu had secretly rejoiced that he still had a chance. But the next shattered his composure entirely. Instinctively, he wanted to put out the fire and retrieve the manual... then alarm struck him. That little bastard is tricking me! He's deliberately unsettling my mind!

He hurriedly steadied himself, but it was already too late.

"Heh!"

The corners of Cao Jinxing's mouth lifted into a smile, and his icy palm force erupted a second time!

Surging cold swept over Yan Baihu.

Yan Baihu felt as though he had fallen into an ice pit. His entire right arm and even his internal organs suffered a tremendous shock, worsening his already severe internal injuries!

Like a porcelain vase on the verge of shattering, subjected to one heavy blow after another, he finally could not withstand it and cracked apart inch by inch!

Cao Jinxing pressed his advantage!

The Cold Toad Art was a supreme technique that struck later yet landed first, committing only three-tenths of its force to the initial strike and retaining seven-tenths.

The moment Yan Baihu weakened, the remaining icy palm force surged into his body like a mighty river, rampaging through it and wreaking havoc. Every one of his internal organs froze!

"Pfft!"

Yan Baihu vomited a mouthful of blood, wracked with unbearable pain! It felt as though countless blades were slicing through his body. Shocked and terrified, he began to think of retreating.

But before he could move, the cold had penetrated his marrow, freezing him in place! Terror solidified on his face. He could no longer move at all.

Cao Jinxing swiftly drew his saber and took his head off with one slash!

The head fell to the ground without shedding a single drop of blood.

A clatter of footsteps approached from afar.

A large band of mountain bandits was rushing toward him.

Cao Jinxing's face was pale. Killing Yan Baihu head-on had left him with substantial internal injuries. Saber in hand, he immediately withdrew, vanishing like a ghost.

Hoof Pass.

Han Dang finally finished setting all the mechanisms and traps. Seeing that night had fallen, he immediately led the remaining bandits back to the stronghold.

Just as he reached the gate, he heard a distant shout. "Disaster! The third chief is dead!"

Startled, Han Dang moved like lightning and appeared beside the man. Grabbing his collar, he demanded furiously, "What did you say?!"

"The... the third chief... he's dead, in the secret chamber..."

The bandit's face was full of fear, and his whole body trembled.

"The secret chamber..."

Han Dang's thoughts raced. He immediately connected it to the spy from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, his expression shifting uncertainly. "Him alone? Could it be... he wasn't a disposable pawn, but their trump card?"

"Disaster! The dining hall is on fire..."

Under the darkening sky, another bandit came running, gasping for breath, his face blackened by smoke and fire. He stammered:

"The chief... the chief, he..."

Anxious, Han Dang hurried over and seized his shoulders. "What happened to the chief?! Speak!"

"The chief... he..."

Something's wrong!

Han Dang suddenly sensed a chilling killing intent locking onto him. It was coming from the very man before him!

As an heir to the Thieves' Gate, whose specialty was sneaking and stealing, he was extremely sensitive to hostility.

He hurriedly tried to retreat.

"Trying to run... heh..."

Suddenly, an iron grip closed around his wrist!

Cao Jinxing used the momentum to throw Han Dang over his shoulder and slam him into the ground. He drove his right knee down into Han Dang's chest and clamped his left hand around his throat.

With his lungs compressed, his breathing obstructed, and his throat locked, Han Dang's entire face immediately turned bluish purple.

His eyes were filled with disbelief.

Was this the Embroidered Uniform Guard man he had captured so casually?

"Hhk... you..."

The reversal came so suddenly that before the bandits surrounding them could react, their second chief had already been pinned to the ground by the throat.

"Second chief!"

Several of his trusted men cried out in alarm and moved to rescue him.

Cao Jinxing had already struck Han Dang's numbing acupoint. He stood, lifting him, and surveyed the crowd. "Your third chief is already dead, in the secret chamber. Your chief is dead too, in the dining hall... huh? That has a nice ring to it."

The bandits: "..."

"Ha ha."

Cao Jinxing chuckled. "This last one is going to die too. Are you sure you want to waste time on me? The Embroidered Uniform Guard will be coming up soon. You'd better run."

With that, he ignored the others and took the box of heart-boring venomous insects from behind his waist. Wearing a kindly expression, he told Han Dang:

"Here, they're all yours. Take your time eating."

"?!"

Han Dang looked horrified.

The dazed bandits around them were frightened too, and backed away.

"Why aren't you eating? Oh, you can't manage it yourself? Then let me help!"

With a twist of his fingers, Cao Jinxing pried open Han Dang's tightly clenched teeth, tilted his head back, forced his mouth wide open, and poured in every last heart-boring venomous insect!

The bandits stared, dumbfounded!

This fellow was practically a demon!

Just because the second chief had fed him one, he was making him eat an entire box... dozens of them, all still wriggling!

With so many venomous insects entering his belly and gnawing at his organs, the agony would surely make death preferable to life!

That was exactly what Han Dang was experiencing now.

He wished he could finish himself with a single slash, but his numbing acupoint had been struck, leaving him unable to muster any strength. All he could do was endure the torment, his entire face twisting.

"You. Come here."

Cao Jinxing pointed at the bandit who had shouted about rescuing Han Dang and beckoned him over.

With the outcome settled, the bandit dared not disobey. He approached, trembling.

Holding Han Dang up like a sack of garbage, Cao Jinxing said to the bandit, "You've seen what happened to him?"

"...Y-yes, I have..."

"I'm going down the mountain. You know what to do, don't you?"

"I... I'll lead the way for you, sir."

"Good."

On the mountain path up Crouching Tiger Mountain, four figures raced uphill at breakneck speed.

"To think that squad leader's map was actually genuine! It must have been hard on him."

"Don't let your guard down yet. Han Dang is meticulous. Fooling him isn't easy. We can only use this map as a reference."

"Yes."

Alternately stopping and moving, the four sped all the way to Hoof Pass, where an extraordinary sight greeted them.

A full moon hung high.

A young man sat atop the octagonal pavilion.

His posture was casual and his expression relaxed as he gazed down at the beautiful mountains and rivers in the clear moonlight.

At his feet, Han Dang, the second chief of the Crouching Tiger Gang, hung from one of the pavilion's upturned eaves.

"Oh, you're here."

The young man turned back with a slight smile and cupped his hands. "I am Cao Jinxing, squad leader of the Northern Pacification Office. Greetings, my four lords."