Prince Jing's appreciation

Meanwhile, the secluded alley where the fight was taking place was just visible from the top floor of a distant restaurant.

The morning sun had just risen, its golden light outlining Prince Jing Dongfang Liren's striking, heroic features. She stood at the window with her hands behind her back, approval showing in her eyes.

"Fine skills. This young man's foundation is as solid as a rock."

The White-Haired Old Woman stood behind her, her long hair reaching the floor. She shook her head slightly.

"He took a punch from She Long without even getting winded. His foundation is certainly impressive, but he's too young. He rushes headlong into things without knowing how deep the waters of the martial world run, and he has no grasp of technique. He's fighting on sheer ferocity. Shall we call She Long and the others back?"

"They're already there. Let them teach him a lesson, lest his pride go to his head and he offend Her Majesty in the palace someday."

The White-Haired Old Woman nodded slightly and said no more.

In the alley.

Ye Jingtang gripped his blade tightly, watching the formidable opponents flanking him. In truth, he had already learned his lesson-he had been invincible back in the Border Town, but after just a few days in the Capital City, every bastard he met was a god. Even if he wanted to be careless from now on, he couldn't.

Seeing that neither man was pressing the attack, Ye Jingtang spoke coldly.

"Yang Guan, these are the helpers you managed to find?!"

These two certainly weren't helpers Yang Guan had found. After all, they were known together as Black and White Impermanence. Even his master, the Three-Perfection Immortal Elder, would take a detour to avoid them.

The title of martial grandmaster was an honor without a clearly defined threshold. The martial world had many ways of judging it, one of which was to use Black and White Impermanence as the "examiners."

Anyone who could defeat either of them, or emerge unscathed when they fought together, qualified as a genuine grandmaster. In other words, Black and White Impermanence were the benchmark for grandmasters.

Although Yang Guan had been conscripted as a mere tool, having someone vent his anger for him still felt pretty good. He said,

"These two gentlemen are close friends of my master. Did you really think I could get by in the Capital City without any connections?"

Ye Jingtang's gaze darkened. He watched the movements of the men on either side, waiting for an opening.

She Long, Iron-Armed Impermanence, had no interest whatsoever in bullying a youngster. Prince Jing had ordered him here to test Ye Jingtang's foundation. He could already tell that it was exceptionally solid, but the young man's actual fighting skills were rubbish-nothing but wild flailing.

Seeing that Prince Jing had not ordered them to stop, She Long strode forward again.

Thud, thud, thud-

His steps weren't quick, but they were steady and powerful, as though an iron tower were bearing down on him.

Ye Jingtang could land a slash on this iron man, whereas he couldn't even touch the ghostly one. Weighing his options, he gritted his teeth and leaped diagonally upward, seemingly trying to vault the courtyard wall and break out.

Shang Jianli, Ghost-Shadow Impermanence, saw that Ye Jingtang knew no real techniques and that the palm strike to his right shoulder had slowed him down. He had no intention of intervening and merely watched from the alley entrance.

She Long flashed forward, moving second but arriving first. He appeared on Ye Jingtang's left and unleashed another punch.

Bang-

The heavy, powerful fist stirred a crosswind through the alley!

From the way things stood, Ye Jingtang would be punched back down before he rose even three feet.

But unexpectedly, before She Long's fist struck, his expression changed sharply. He raised his arm and moved to evade!

Clang-

The next instant, the ring of a blade erupted through the alley like a dragon's cry!

A flash of steel lit the old, bluestone-paved alley!

Clang-

Once again, metal rang against metal, but this time a mist of blood burst forth.

The tremendous force sent She Long's airborne body flying backward. The sleeve over his left arm shredded, exposing his muscular, bronze-colored arm.

His forearm, as hard as iron and stone, was no longer intact. A horrifying slash ran deep enough to expose the bone, spraying blood.

Hiss-

Watching from the alley entrance, Shang Jianli could scarcely believe his eyes.

She Long had tempered his arms for decades until they were the equivalent of divine weapons. Countless martial artists had wanted to sever them, but anyone who could cut a finger's width into his flesh already qualified as a formidable fighter.

That this youngster could expose bone with a single slash showed just how powerful his physique and vast internal force were.

But that wasn't the crucial point. Any proper grandmaster of external martial arts could cut She Long to the bone. What mattered was the speed of this slash!

Shang Jianli could clearly see that She Long had sensed the youngster's intention beforehand and begun evading the moment the blade left its sheath.

Both had moved simultaneously. Despite She Long's wealth of combat experience as an external grandmaster, his arm had still suffered a grievous wound. That could only mean that even with everything he had, he couldn't evade this utterly domineering slash.

In all Shang Jianli's years in the martial world, the only blade technique he remembered with comparable explosive power was Junshan Terrace's Dragon-Slaying Order.

If this was the Xuanyuan Family's Dragon-Slaying Order, then after arrogantly charging into close range and taking that slash, She Long would inevitably be struck several more times and seriously injured.

With explosive power rivaling the Dragon-Slaying Order, this youngster was unlikely not to know how to follow up. Shang Jianli therefore rushed forward to help at once.

She Long also knew he was in trouble and swiftly flew backward.

Yet to their surprise, Ye Jingtang did not capitalize on the perfect opening to strike again while his opponent was off balance.

After driving his enemy back with one slash, Ye Jingtang instantly sheathed his blade and returned to his starting stance. Only then did he kick off the courtyard wall and pursue She Long, whose left arm was injured.

If he could be caught like that, She Long wouldn't deserve to be called a grandmaster.

Seeing She Long leap aside and clear the way, Ye Jingtang unleashed all his power and charged straight at Yang Guan!

He wasn't trying to take someone down with him in a blood-mad frenzy. He was taking a hostage.

No matter how solid his foundation was, he only knew this one slash. Those two were unfathomable. Unless they came within reach themselves, he could hardly catch them, nor could he escape. His only way out was to seize their employer as a hostage.

Yang Guan hadn't imagined Ye Jingtang could breach Iron-Armed Impermanence's defenses with a single slash. The shock in his eyes was beyond description.

But when he saw Ye Jingtang charging toward him, his expression instantly turned to horror. He dropped to both knees and shouted,

"Shang..."

Before the words were out, Ye Jingtang had seized Yang Guan by the neck and moved behind him, his left hand gripping his blade's hilt, ready to strike.

As for his opponent...

Shang Jianli didn't care whether Yang Guan lived or died, so he showed no reaction at all. He drifted forward like a ghost and thrust out a deathly pale hand toward Yang Guan's chest and abdomen, apparently intending to skewer them like candied hawthorns and tear out Ye Jingtang's heart.

Even Ye Jingtang was shocked. He had never imagined these two would go mad enough to kill their own employer!

Knowing a slash would probably be useless, Ye Jingtang gritted his teeth and prepared to try the palm technique Luo Ning had taught him yesterday against this ghostly figure.

But the words Yang Guan hadn't managed to finish finally came out.

"Chief Constable Shang, save me..."

Those words gave the game away.

Ye Jingtang understood instantly-these were government men testing him. He forcibly checked the palm strike he had been about to unleash.

Seeing Ye Jingtang stop, Shang Jianli naturally had no intention of actually skewering them. He floated lightly backward and landed thirty feet away, resuming his wooden, motionless stance.

"An excellent blade technique, Young Master Ye. At only eighteen, your physique and internal force already match an ordinary grandmaster's. Such talent truly puts me to shame. It's a pity you don't know many actual techniques."

Atop the wall, She Long flexed the muscles in his left arm, forcibly stopping the bleeding. He jumped down from the high wall and lifted his bamboo hat, revealing a face still tinged with uncertainty and surprise.

"That slash was truly domineering. If your lack of experience hadn't made you reveal your killing intent beforehand, and if you knew more than that single slash, I might not have made it out of this alley today."

Running into two ghostly constables first thing in the morning had put Ye Jingtang in an utterly foul mood. He said heavily,

"You flatter me. You're both renowned experts. Isn't it a little inappropriate to come here and bully a junior like me?"

Shang Jianli did not reply. Instead, he looked at She Long beside him and asked,

"Was that the Eight-Step Mad Blade?"

Ye Jingtang's heart lurched at those words. He knew his accursed adoptive father's debts were about to land on his head.

He didn't know whether his adoptive father had committed any heinous deeds during his years in the martial world, but his enemy, Blade Overlord Xuanyuan Chao, was the court-appointed Marquis of Junshan and had close ties to the government.

If the authorities discovered that he knew the Eight-Step Mad Blade, Xuanyuan Chao would find out. And if he wanted to cut out the roots along with the weeds...

At that thought, Ye Jingtang quietly gripped his blade's hilt, preparing to fight to the death for a way out.

But to his surprise, after a moment of silence, She Long shook his head.

"It doesn't look like it. I've seen Zheng Feng before. The opening of this slash resembles his technique somewhat, but its might is worlds apart. It's a Dragon-and-Python Divide."

?

Ye Jingtang froze. Are you blind? My adoptive father taught me this technique. How could I have practiced it wrong?

Shang Jianli asked,

"Which is the dragon, and which is the python?"

She Long gestured at his bleeding arm.

"What do you think?"

Shang Jianli understood-Zheng Feng's master had a great reputation, but Zheng Feng's blade skills were genuinely mediocre. If he had possessed this youngster's terrifying power, how could he have been crippled at such a young age?

A hint of surprise appeared in Shang Jianli's eyes. He studied Ye Jingtang seriously, recalling the famous blade practitioners of the martial world, but could find no similar technique. He asked,

"Young Master Ye, what is that slash called?"

The opening stance of the Eight-Step Mad Blade...

Ye Jingtang felt that these two fellows playing at ghosts and mysteries had no discernment whatsoever. They had already recognized it, yet were still bending over backward to explain it away for him.

But since they were blind, he naturally wouldn't volunteer a confession. He made something up.

"White Slash!"

"Chirp?"

Niao Niao poked its head over the wall. "?"

"White Slash..."

She Long nodded and asked again,

"Did you create this slash yourself, or did an expert teach you?"

My adoptive father taught me...

Faced with a constable's question, Ye Jingtang had little choice but to answer. He could only keep making things up.

"While escorting a shipment, I suddenly saw a great river falling from the mountain peak..."

She Long raised a hand to interrupt. "Understood. A chance insight drawn from heaven and earth. A pity you only have one slash for now, with no follow-up."

"That's indeed the case. I'm afraid I've made a fool of myself before you both..."

While the conversation continued in the alley, another discussion was taking place on the distant restaurant's top floor.

The coolness in Dongfang Liren's eyes had vanished, replaced by a measure of surprise.

"He knows no real techniques, yet his foundation rivals that of a newly minted grandmaster. He's even better than me... How did he train? Or is he deliberately concealing his abilities?"

"This youngster really does know only that one slash. His internal force is vast and his physique strong. Perhaps he had no expert to teach him, but with considerable talent and diligence, he built them through relentless practice of basic punches and kicks."

Dongfang Liren had heard tales of men practicing swordsmanship in remote mountain valleys for decades and emerging as Sword Saints, but this was her first time encountering anything of the sort.

"Even with a beginner grandmaster's foundation, leaving She Long utterly unable to retaliate with a single slash is too incredible... Is the Eight-Step Mad Blade really that domineering?"

The White-Haired Old Woman's brows knitted tightly as she said solemnly,

"No one of equal caliber could withstand Mad Fangzi's blade, but Zheng Feng's blade was never this domineering. In my view, this slash is a perfected work, whereas Zheng Feng's Eight-Step Mad Blade was a counterfeit that strayed down the wrong path. Its spirit and form were alike, but they were entirely different things."

"Could Mad Fangzi have taught him?"

"Mad Fangzi was hunted throughout the martial world over the Dragon-Mingling Diagram. He couldn't have survived until now. They say he was already a lamp with its oil exhausted when Zheng Feng met him... I suspect Mad Fangzi died before Zheng Feng mastered the Eight-Step Mad Blade. Zheng Feng never learned its essence, and with no master to guide him, he felt his way across the river stone by stone and went astray... But this youngster's slash could scarcely have been better even if Mad Fangzi were alive. Its origin is truly difficult to fathom..."

"Could Zheng Feng have comprehended Mad Fangzi's blade technique during his years in seclusion in the mountains and taught it to Ye Jingtang?"

The White-Haired Old Woman shook her head. "Xuanyuan Chao crippled Zheng Feng. Even practicing martial arts was a problem for him. He couldn't simply achieve complete enlightenment out of thin air. And even if he taught him, he wouldn't teach just one slash."

Dongfang Liren nodded slightly and glanced at Ye Jingtang in the distance.

"Mad Fangzi couldn't have passed it on, and Zheng Feng himself went astray, so he couldn't teach it... If he comprehended this slash himself, wouldn't his insight surpass even mine?"

By far...

Knowing how proud and ambitious Prince Jing was, the White-Haired Old Woman did not dare wound Her Highness's pride. She merely put it tactfully.

"If he comprehended this slash himself, his insight could be called unparalleled through the ages. But the world is full of martial artists with one brilliant move, and most fade away without ever developing it further. Those who can use it as a foundation to develop an entire martial art are vanishingly few. We must wait to see what he ultimately achieves."

Dongfang Liren said no more.

Seeing that those in the alley were still awaiting orders, the White-Haired Old Woman spoke again.

"Your Highness, it's time to send his portrait to Her Majesty and have him return to wash and dress for an imperial audience."

"..."

Dongfang Liren stood with her hands behind her back, gazing at the incomparably handsome Ye Jingtang from afar. After a brief silence, she said,

"Her Majesty has no interest in martial artists. This youngster has exceptional martial talent. If he truly catches her eye and abandons martial pursuits for scholarly ones, it would be a pity. Hmm... There's no need to send the portrait. Give him a token from Prince Jing's Manor. If he needs anything in the future, he may visit the manor at any time."

?

Hearing that, the White-Haired Old Woman felt as though Prince Jing was deceiving Her Majesty, withholding a handsome candidate, and lining her own pockets...

Still, Prince Jing had a point. Once he caught the Empress's eye, however well he was treated, he would be little different from an imperial consort. He could neither hold office nor leave the sovereign's side. Besides, accompanying a ruler was like accompanying a tiger. He would be doomed never to hold his head high for the rest of his life.

The White-Haired Old Woman also cherished talent, so she nodded.

"As you command."

In the alley.

With his arm slashed by Ye Jingtang, She Long had left first to seek treatment. Only Shang Jianli remained, making idle conversation with Ye Jingtang while awaiting orders from above.

After a long wait, a Black Bureau constable ran into the alley and whispered a few words to Shang Jianli.

After listening, Shang Jianli took a waist token and tossed it to Ye Jingtang.

"The blade practitioner Zheng Feng's technique resembles your slash. Zheng Feng knows Qiu Tianhe, who is a fugitive wanted by the court. I was ordered to investigate the matter and came today for routine questioning. Please forgive the disturbance, Young Master Ye."

Ye Jingtang secretly breathed a sigh of relief. "You were carrying out your duties impartially, sir. It was only right for me to cooperate. As long as everything is cleared up, that's all that matters."

"Your talent has earned Prince Jing's considerable appreciation, Young Master Ye. She has specially bestowed this token upon you. From now on, you are an honored guest of Prince Jing's Manor."

Ye Jingtang took the token from Prince Jing's Manor and examined it briefly, feeling rather surprised.

With this token, he could probably go straight to the manor and request an audience with Prince Jing, but its greater significance lay in the connection it represented.

Prince Jing was the reigning sovereign's younger sister and greatly favored. The exceptional decision to grant a princess the title of prince made that clear enough.

Possessing a token that granted entry to Prince Jing's Manor meant having close ties to Prince Jing. Whether someone was a prince, marquis, general, or minister, they would have to consult Prince Jing before laying a hand on him.

But once he showed the token, it would amount to Prince Jing settling a matter for him, and that favor would be anything but easy to repay.

After a little consideration, Ye Jingtang put the token away and cupped his hands in a salute.

"My thanks to Prince Jing for her appreciation. Is she nearby?"

Shang Jianli found that difficult to answer, so he offered a cryptic line.

"Prince Jing is everywhere."

He turned and left.

"..."

Ye Jingtang thought that sounded terribly pretentious. He raised his head and looked around, then suddenly spotted Yang Guan facing a corner of the wall and playing dead!

"Lord Shang, is Yang Guan really an old family friend of you two?"

Without looking back, Shang Jianli said, "No." With that, he vanished around the mouth of the alley.

"..."

The old flagstone alley fell silent.

"Chirp!"

Niao Niao hopped off the wall, flapping his wings with a ferocious air, seemingly signaling-Tang-Tang, chop him!

Yang Guan, who had lured Ye Jingtang into the encirclement, saw that Black and White Impermanence had both suffered badly, then pulled up their trousers and pretended not to know him. His face went white, and he raised both hands.

"Young Master Ye, wait... hiss-"

Before he could finish, he sucked in a sharp breath.

Ye Jingtang had been subjected to a mixed doubles beating by Black and White Impermanence first thing in the morning. Since they were government officials, he could hardly vent his anger at them, leaving him with a bellyful of fire.

The moment he saw the ghost officers leave, he raised his saber and slashed Yang Guan's still-uninjured right arm.

Slash-

"You wanted to take an arm and a leg from me?"

Yang Guan forced himself not to cry out. Both arms hung limp as he gritted his teeth and offered an apologetic smile.

"I was forced into it, too. I really couldn't afford to offend Black and White Impermanence, so I could only do as they said. Otherwise, how would I dare provoke you, young master? Your saber work is superb, Young Master Ye. You have my admiration. Take care, Young Master Ye..."

Ye Jingtang sheathed his saber, hoisted Niao Niao onto his shoulder, and strode out of the alley...