Obsession

"Bang!"

The blade's gleam wheeled sharply.

It traced a full-moon arc, blocking the sword slashing at him from behind.

Blade met sword.

The explosive force of blood exchange and marrow washing, compared with internal organ refinement, sent a violent tremor through Luo Teng's palm as he attacked with his sword, almost wrenching the hilt from his grasp.

And in the next instant, as their weapons clashed and left their defenses wide open, Li Xian had already formed a sword with the fingers of his left hand and thrust like lightning.

"No!"

Sensing danger, Luo Teng's pupils contracted sharply, and he immediately tried to turn his head aside.

But Li Xian's Finger Sword strike came too fast, and was far too precise.

It was as though, even as he beheaded Daoist Xuantie, he had already devised a battle plan for whoever attacked him from behind.

An inch higher in skill meant a gulf without end.

In a fight to the death, victory was decided within the space of an inch.

With a slight shift of his arm, Li Xian's sword fingers struck with absolute precision below Luo Teng's head, despite his desperate attempt to dodge-his throat!

"Thud!"

Force erupted!

The thyroid cartilage of Luo Teng's Adam's apple shattered like an eggshell. His cricoid cartilage snapped, collapsed, and pierced his windpipe, while broken fragments of bone tore a three-centimeter longitudinal gash in his carotid artery!

As bloody mist gushed from his nose and mouth, his cervical vertebrae had already crushed his spinal cord, destroying the vagus nerve within.

Luo Teng's eyes suddenly widened, their terrified pupils reflecting a calm, composed face.

His breathing and heartbeat stopped abruptly.

Even after breaking Luo Teng's cervical vertebrae with his sword fingers, Li Xian immediately turned his fingers into a fist and hammered forward. A short-range burst of punching force sent this captain of the Prince's Residence Guard, who had reached viscera great accomplishment, flying several meters before he crashed heavily to the ground.

A double kill!

Only now did Yan Kaigui and Ma Fu on the second floor involuntarily cry out again.

"Sect Leader Black Iron!?"

"Stop!"

But their shouts were doomed to be futile.

Looking at the severed head and body, and at Guard Captain Luo Teng, killed with a single finger strike, the King of Yue's heir Yan Kaigui felt as though he had plunged into an ice cave.

Daoist Xuantie...

He was an expert who had achieved great accomplishment in blood exchange and marrow washing, yet he had died at Li Xian's hands just like that!?

A scholar who had been too frail to withstand a breeze three months ago had actually grown this powerful in such a short time!?

How was that possible!?

How could such a thing exist in this world!?

Just as the heir to the King of Yue felt his entire understanding of the world being overturned, Li Xian raised his head, his gaze falling on them.

A single glance seemed to give Ma Fu the same hair-raising sensation he had felt years ago, before he had finished tempering his muscles and bones, when a tiger in the forest had fixed its eyes on him.

No!

It did not merely seem that way!

Even Daoist Xuantie, who had achieved great accomplishment in blood exchange and marrow washing, had died beneath Li Xian's blade. Ma Fu's own progress in blood exchange lagged a notch behind Daoist Xuantie's. How was facing the incomparably ferocious Li Xian any different from an ordinary man who had just attained bright force facing a tiger?

"Your Highness! Run!"

Ma Fu made his decision on the spot, moving to take the King of Yue's heir through the window and flee.

Almost at the same instant he moved, Li Xian's figure sprang upward from downstairs.

A few running steps launched him into the air. Then, pushing off the stair railing, he vaulted more than two meters upward, about to flip onto the next floor.

"Stop him!"

Yan Kaigui reacted extremely quickly, barking the order.

That command was clearly directed at the guards present.

He himself rushed toward the window at once.

Seeing this, Zhou Juechen abruptly stepped forward.

But Ma Fu, already prepared, thrust an arm across to intercept him. "Zhou Juechen, do you want to get the entire Zhou Family executed!"

Zhou Juechen did not slow in the slightest. He struck fiercely, instantly enveloping Ma Fu in his assault.

But with Ma Fu blocking him, Yan Kaigui, one of the Lijiang Three Heroes who had himself already reached viscera great accomplishment and begun blood exchange and marrow washing, had already vaulted through the window and leaped down from the Wave-Viewing Tower.

Meanwhile, although the guards who received the order knew they were no match, more than half gritted their teeth and advanced with their blades, charging straight at Li Xian as he tried to vault upstairs.

None of those selected to serve as guards in the Prince's Mansion were weak. Almost all had reached muscle and bone great accomplishment.

A dozen or so warriors at muscle and bone great accomplishment pressed forward one after another, hacking wildly. Their blades and swords formed a flashing curtain that completely sealed off Li Xian's route upstairs.

Yet faced with so many skilled fighters, the saber in Li Xian's hand flashed like a meteor from beyond the heavens. In an instant, it swept aside all three sabers slashing toward him. Then, pushing off the second-floor railing, he forced his way out of the encirclement of more than a dozen warriors at muscle and bone great accomplishment.

The next moment, he tossed out his long saber and, while airborne, kicked its hilt hard. The weapon tore through the air like a streak of light, hurtling straight toward the King of Yue's heir, who had already leaped down from the Wave-Viewing Tower.

The sight nearly frightened Ma Fu's soul out of his body, and he shouted, "Your Highness, watch out!"

Hearing the shout, Yan Kaigui turned his head slightly. At the sight of that blade streaking through the air, uncontrollable terror welled up in his eyes.

"No!"

"Whoosh!"

The blade howled through the air and struck Yan Kaigui squarely in the back!

Yet...

The sight everyone expected, of the blade piercing Yan Kaigui's body, never appeared.

A burst of golden light suddenly erupted from his body, striking the saber hurtling through the air in an instant.

Under that eruption of golden light, the saber was knocked clean away. It spun through the air and flew into the wall of a shop more than ten meters away, half its blade sinking into the wall amid bursts of dust.

Such was the power released by the golden light!

This turn of events left not only Ma Fu and Zhou Juechen, but even Li Xian, momentarily taken aback.

"The Golden Light Talisman!"

Yan Kaigui, whose life had been saved by that golden light, did not hesitate for a moment. His legs burst into motion again as he ran toward the street corner.

"I don't know what that is, but it looks impressive."

Li Xian offered his sincere praise. "In a fight to the death, any unexpected turn really can happen."

As he spoke, he shifted aside, avoiding two sabers that suddenly slashed at him from behind. His feet twisted and turned, and his right hand shot out, instantly clamping around a guard's wrist and wrenching it hard...

Amid a scream, the saber in the guard's hand fell into his left. He then swept it horizontally, knocking aside two blades that followed close behind. With a further burst of force, his blade swept across both guards' throats faster than they could react.

Then he strode forward, his gaze locked firmly on Yan Kaigui as he tried to slip into the crowd. He headed straight for the windowsill, about to leap down.

"Li Xian!"

But just then, a sharp shout came from beside him.

Liu Yanran had actually hurried over to intercept him, blocking his path.

"I won't let you hurt Kaigui! Back off!"

Li Xian glanced at her and slashed down with the blade in his hand without the slightest hesitation.

The blade's gleam...

Swept straight toward Liu Yanran's throat.

The decisiveness of that strike left not only Liu Yanran dumbfounded, but even Zhou Juechen, who had gained the upper hand over Ma Fu, stunned.

This...

He had just swung his blade!?

But just as that strike was about to behead Liu Yanran on the spot, an intense reluctance to hurt her surged into his heart, making the blade he had swung tremble slightly.

That momentary delay allowed Liu Yanran, who had also studied martial arts but had yet to reach muscle and bone great accomplishment, to let out a terrified scream.

"Ah!"

She jerked backward, narrowly dodging the blade as it swept past her.

In that brief delay, Yan Kaigui had completely melted into the crowd and vanished around the street corner.

Seeing this, Ma Fu lost his will to keep fighting as well.

"Nephew, let's stop here. You and I are both outsiders. Why fight to the death over the grudge between Li Xian and Prince Yue's Residence?"

Zhou Juechen said nothing.

His martial path was not pure enough.

It was too heavily influenced by the outside world.

Today, he only wanted a proper fight.

With no other thoughts mixed in and no allegiances involved, he wanted to find someone at the same blood exchange and marrow washing stage and fight to his heart's content, tracing martial arts back to their essence and enjoying the mental thrill of a battle to the death.

As an old friend, Ma Fu was precisely the best target for breaking those fetters and clearing the distracting thoughts from his mind.

Thus, his attacks did not pause in the slightest.

His attacks did not stop, but Li Xian's did.

He looked at the blade in his hand...

And felt that intense reluctance to hurt her that had suddenly welled up from deep within his heart...

Was his body's instinct resisting any action that would harm Liu Yanran?

"An obsession that won't disperse?"

He felt somewhat astonished.

This was an experience unlike anything before.

But...

Having his soul cross into another world and being reborn in someone else's body was already inconceivable enough. The original "Li Xian" was dead, yet an obsession remained. That did not seem particularly strange either.

At that moment, Liu Yanran seemed to discern something from Li Xian's abruptly halted blade.

Her confidence instantly swelled.

"Li Xian! Have you gone mad!? You actually dared draw your blade on me!? You even wanted to hurt me!? Do you know what you promised me!? Now that you've practiced demonic arts and have martial power at your disposal, this is what you want to do to me?"

Liu Yanran glared fiercely at Li Xian and snapped, "Put that blade down!"

"It's a little novel, but, Li Xian... you're dead."

Li Xian spoke softly in his heart. "Now, it's me, Li Xian."

He raised his head and looked at Liu Yanran.

She really was beautiful. None of the young women he had met so far, such as Hongyu, Li Hanbing, and Yan Ruxue, could compare with her.

She also possessed the noble bearing of a young lady from a Marquis's Residence.

Together, those two qualities truly held an indescribable allure for a poor scholar like "Li Xian."

Li Xian's gaze made Liu Yanran uncomfortable all over, and there even seemed to be an indescribable terror deep within her.

But that terror was quickly replaced by the memory of how meek and submissive "Li Xian" had always been before her over the years. That understanding gave her the confidence to keep ordering him around. "Li Xian! I told you to put that blade down. You even dare disobey me now!?"

"Yan Lian was only a servant. Without orders, he wouldn't have dared kick 'Li Xian,' whose status was sensitive at the time, into the river. So, that night two months ago, you gave the order?"

Li Xian suddenly spoke.

That night two months ago?

At those words, a flicker of panic crossed Liu Yanran's eyes.

But naturally, she could not admit it. Instead, she used anger to cover up the real issue. "Li Xian, I'm the one asking the questions right now! Answer me! You still won't put your blade down. Do you want to kill me!? Come on! If you're really so capable now, then do it! Kill me, and I..."

Before she finished, the saber Li Xian had never lowered suddenly swept across.

"I've never heard such a strange request."

"Slice!"

A line of blood instantly appeared on Liu Yanran's fair, jade-like neck, and her overbearing orders, fierce in appearance but weak within, came to an abrupt end.

(End of chapter)