Feng Shuhu Was Still Riding to the Rescue

The air was terrifyingly still.

There was only the rustling of wind through the leaves.

One held a sword, the other raised a cup. The scene was utterly incongruous, yet somehow seemed perfectly natural, portraying Ma Chen's and Xia Yi's different states of mind and moods.

Ma Chen tightened his grip on his sword slightly. He knew he could not let this continue. Xia Yi had once narrowly defeated Feng Shuhu, who was at the peak of five-star Jade Balance. To him, who had only advanced a little way into five-star Jade Balance, that was far too intimidating.

If this continued, he feared he would lose the courage to attack Xia Yi altogether!

His sword rang sharply. Just as he was about to attack, he heard Xia Yi spit a few more times. "What lousy tea. It tastes absolutely awful. This is outrageous!"

"This is the Light Enlightenment tea I've treasured!"

Ma Chen blurted out, "Lord Fan Zhongyan himself once composed a poem for it, yet you..."

Halfway through, he realized something seemed wrong. His sword tip quivered with a hum, ringing like metal and jade. His entire body seemed to become a sharp sword as he suddenly thrust toward Xia Yi!

At the same time, a pitch-black phantom book appeared behind him, with four large characters written on it!

Sword Dao True Explanation!

[You have discovered a three-star Saint Soul: Sword Dao True Explanation. Current discovery progress: 25%. You have already mastered Sword Dao True Explanation. Automatically converted into 1 Saint Soul experience point.]

Although Sword Dao True Explanation was only a three-star Saint Soul, like the Martial Arts Compendium, it recorded countless sword techniques and offered endless variations. It was much harder to counter than Saint Souls with a single effect.

Xia Yi, who had also mastered Sword Dao True Explanation, knew this well, but he countered it with just one move.

He picked up the teapot and threw it!

Ma Chen faltered, nearly throwing away his sword as he scrambled to catch it. Once he had caught it and saw that Xia Yi had not moved, he took a packet of medicine from inside his robe and put it in his mouth. Pained at having to gulp down such fine tea without savoring it, and scalding his mouth, he quickly drank it all.

Then he carefully placed the teapot in the bushes to one side and pointed his sword at Xia Yi again!

This series of actions was ridiculous and absurd, yet his momentum had not diminished in the slightest as he performed them!

Clap, clap, clap!

Xia Yi raised his hands and applauded. "What a tea lover. Even knowing it's poisoned, you insist on drinking it with an antidote in your mouth. But I wonder how someone who loves tea so much could bear to poison such fine tea?"

Ma Chen ignored him and attacked with his sword.

Xia Yi dodged sideways and kicked the wooden table. With a crash, Ma Chen cut it apart with one slash. As Xia Yi twisted and dodged, he still spoke with ease. "When I met Song Qu a few days ago, I prepared a pot of tea for him too. I don't know what kind it was. I asked the innkeeper to brew it, and it cost thirty copper coins."

The sharp blade brushed past him, but Xia Yi's expression did not change.

"To entertain the illustrious Xiyuan Marquis with tea worth just thirty copper coins-even I thought that was going too far. So I explained to him that I don't like tea. Not at all."

Ma Chen's pupils contracted slightly. With a thud, Xia Yi kicked him in the chest, sending him staggering backward.

So that was it? That was how I gave myself away? For a moment, he could only feel wronged. If they had chosen a different location, could this ambush have succeeded?

Xia Yi smiled. "Feng Shuhu was here earlier, but he's left now. That servant must have gone after him just now. I imagine Feng Shuhu will be back in eight or ten minutes. You want to hold me here, don't you?"

"I knew you were putting on an act and stalling for time, just as I knew Song Qu would never invite me to a tea estate, and that this was a trap!"

"But I let you perform anyway."

"But I came anyway!"

A wisp of black light quietly rose behind Xia Yi, and he suddenly shouted, his voice ringing out, "Do you know why?! Ma Chen, commander of Lieyang City!"

Hearing his name exposed with a single shout unsettled Ma Chen for a moment. His grip on his sword tightened slightly, and then Xia Yi thundered again, "Because I have the confidence of a six-star Kaiyang cultivator! Even if five or ten five-star Jade Balance cultivators joined forces, they would still be utterly worthless!"

An immense aura spread outward, shaking Ma Chen to his core! Yet a trace of confidence still sustained him!

But just then, Xia Yi smiled faintly again. "Let me guess. When Feng Shuhu invited you to help, he must have mentioned that after injuring him, I secretly spat a mouthful of bloody saliva into the Min River, right? He told you I was injured?! Hmph, ridiculous! If I hadn't done that, the people coming to surround and kill me wouldn't just be five-star Jade Balance cultivators! You people are too young!"

He knew someone saw him!

How could that be?!

Could he have done it deliberately?

He actually did it deliberately!

Ma Chen's face turned pale. He spat blood deliberately, and when he came to this meeting, he deliberately circled around and waited until my lord left before finding me!

Everything is under his control!

My lord and I have fallen straight into his trap!

As Xia Yi's final words, "too young," rang out, he instantly became incomparably towering in Ma Chen's eyes!

He himself was like a child who did not know his own limits, trying to challenge an adult's authority. No matter what he did, he would be effortlessly subdued!

Clang!

His sword fell to the ground with a clatter.

That crisp sound cleared his head slightly, and he sensed something was wrong!

The Deception Scripture? I actually fell for the Deception Scripture?!

Ma Chen's face instantly flushed with shame and anger, but inwardly he also sighed with relief. Using a trick like the Deception Scripture proved that this old man truly was not at full strength!

He really is injured. I can hold him off!

Ma Chen stamped his right foot hard on the ground!

The sword bounced up from the ground, and he caught it again. Amid the tremors, the low bushes around them actually uprooted themselves and surrounded Xia Yi!

[You have discovered a four-star Saint Soul: Every Tree and Plant Is an Enemy. Current discovery progress: 10%.]

Ma Chen shook his sword again. As it rang like metal and jade, the branches of the bushes all stretched out, closing in on Xia Yi from every direction amid echoing rustles.

[You have discovered a three-star Saint Soul: Heavenly Net and Earthly Trap. Current discovery progress: 25%.]

"A fine combination of Saint Souls," Xia Yi praised. "So you specialize in control. No wonder you were confident you could hold me off for a while."

Unfortunately, I'm actually an assassin immune to control.

Xia Yi's gaze shifted. A track invisible to anyone else suddenly extended from the tips of his toes, connecting directly to Ma Chen's feet!

Then, in the blink of an eye, the Xia Yi engulfed by branches became an afterimage. Ma Chen's eyes caught nothing at all before a heavy punch struck his chest, draining the strength from his body!

"Urgh-"

Spraying blood from his mouth, he shot backward. After being caught by the net Zhiya had transformed into, he slumped to the ground!

How could this happen? Just one blow...? He wasn't deceiving me? It was actually true! He really thought we were worthless? Everything really was under his control? All of it was true?!

He wasn't deceiving me!

"Did you think my use of the Deception Scripture proved I was only bluffing, and that you could handle me after all?"

"Ha, I was only teasing you. Look how naive you are. Ah, youth!"

Young, yet again!

I... really am young!

Ma Chen had been supporting himself with his sword, but now his hand fell away limply, and he lost all will to struggle.

He looked ahead through a haze and saw only a terrifying giant, his feet planted on the earth and his head touching the blue sky, with white clouds for company! A giant who could easily crush him to death!

On the giant's face was a pitying smile.

Then he slumped into unconsciousness.

His final thought was: My lord, I fear we cannot afford to provoke this old man. He... is too strong!

Xia Yi did not step forward to finish him off.

He simply turned and left, lightly pounding his lower back as he walked. "Ah, these old bones. Using a six-star Saint Soul at full power really does make my back ache a little. How uncomfortable."

And at that moment...

Feng Shuhu was still riding to the rescue.