Swift Saber

"Kill him!"

The moment battle began, every Long Clan soldier scrambled to be first, their faces greedy and their fighting spirit high.

The eldest young master had placed a lavish bounty on Chu Xisheng, including a full two hundred taels of demon silver and a dose of secret cultivation medicine.

Not to mention that behind him was Tie Xiaosheng, a deputy banner chief of the Iron Banner Gang.

The bounty on that man was twenty times Chu Xisheng's.

In these Long Clan soldiers' eyes, the two men were already military merits ripe for the taking.

This sickly youth before them had merely been a fox borrowing a tiger's might earlier, relying on that woman with seventh-rank martial cultivation. Now his true colors had been exposed.

He was nothing more than a sickling with ninth-rank lower cultivation who grew breathless after running a few hundred paces.

His saber might be fast, but as long as they guarded against it carefully, capturing and killing him would be child's play!

In the very next instant, Chu Xisheng drew his saber.

He still opened with Empty Cave Brings Wind, the saber-drawing move he excelled at most!

The three Long Clan soldiers charging at the front saw only an arc of saber light flash before them with the force of thunder. Then their vision began to tumble rapidly, and they actually saw three headless bodies below.

Those bodies had already lost their heads, with bowl-sized wounds at their necks. Fountains of blood spurted out, while the bodies continued charging forward unconsciously.

They instantly realized what had happened, intense terror and despair filling their eyes.

At that very moment, their vision went black, and they lost all consciousness.

The saber light Chu Xisheng wielded continued to rampage through the crowd.

Next came the only saber move for group combat he had mastered-Ride the Wind and Break the Waves!

The blade was like a raging wind that penetrated every opening, slashing and thrusting ruthlessly forward!

In the Long Clan soldiers' eyes, Chu Xisheng's saber and hand both became afterimages, utterly impossible to track.

Before they could react at all, two had their necks severed, and three had their chests and bellies cut open.

Chu Xisheng's saber could not only chase the wind and race lightning, but also struck with tremendous force. The leather armor they wore offered no defense whatsoever.

Meanwhile, behind Chu Xisheng, Tie Xiaosheng's pupils widened as he hid in the corner.

This fellow's saber-so fast!

Although this youth's cultivation was only ninth-rank lower, his talent for swift saberplay was exceptionally high.

Judging solely by the combat power he had briefly unleashed at this moment, he had clearly reached the very peak of ninth-rank upper!

He had now killed nine men in succession as easily as chopping melons and slicing vegetables.

Only his stamina was somewhat lacking. After killing nine men in succession, his saber slowed, but his combat power was still beyond what those four Long Clan soldiers could withstand.

These four might count as elites among the Long Clan soldiers, but only one of them had attained ranked cultivation.

Sure enough, in fewer than fifteen breaths, Chu Xisheng dispatched the four one by one.

Now, the only men before him were three burly figures in iron armor, advancing swiftly toward him from twenty zhang away.

Tie Xiaosheng recognized them as members of the Hengmen Eighteen Riders under Long Heng's command.

Although their cultivation was higher and their strength greater, their heavy iron armor made them a shade slower than the Long Clan soldiers wearing only leather armor.

A surge of hope could not help rising in Tie Xiaosheng's heart.

He had realized that Chu Xisheng had brought him running here precisely to spread out the Long Clan soldiers and create an opportunity to defeat them separately!

This fellow actually had both courage and strategy!

But could he stand against the Hengmen Eighteen Riders?

The three men ahead all wore heavy armor, leaving exceedingly few openings, and their overall strength approached eighth rank.

Chu Xisheng's advantage was his saber speed, but he might not be able to break through their heavy armor.

Nor was this narrow cavern suited to a mobile fight.

The youth's stamina would not allow him to fight for long, either.

Chu Xisheng was drawing deep breaths and panting rapidly, beads of sweat the size of beans dripping from his forehead.

Those all-out saber strikes had consumed a great deal of his stamina.

The Six Yin Soul-Returning Incantation was also showing signs of flaring up.

Chu Xisheng worked to regulate his breathing while calmly flicking a long saber up from the ground.

These Long Clan soldiers had carried two Hundred-Forged Light Steel Sabers, identical in design to the one whose edge he had rolled. They were far more lethal than his spare steel saber.

Then he held the long saber with its blade pointing down, waiting for those three members of the Hengmen Eighteen Riders to arrive while looking at the illusory screen in his vision.

The moment he had killed nine men in succession, another great burst of fireworks had erupted before his eyes.

His reputation had risen to "ninth-rank upper (illusory)," and his Martial Dao Points, which had dwindled to just 2, had also risen to 8.

The thing was, there were hardly any people here.

Only three members of the Hengmen Eighteen Riders and Tie Xiaosheng had witnessed him killing those men.

Understanding immediately dawned on Chu Xisheng.

Tie Xiaosheng was a formidable expert with sixth-grade upper cultivation, while the three members of the Hengmen Eighteen Riders opposite him were also close to eighth rank in strength.

Their higher cultivation meant they had a greater effect.

These four alone were enough to equal the crowd below the platform who had witnessed his fight with Long Sheng on the day of the inner sect entrance trial bouts!

Chu Xisheng quickly set those thoughts aside and continued browsing the Martial Dao Treasury, searching for something that could help him.

A Divine Strength Pill had also appeared in the treasury, but its description explicitly stated that its effects could not stack.

He withdrew his gaze regretfully. There were quite a few good things in the treasury this time, but they either would not help or cost more Martial Dao Points than he had.

Chu Xisheng shrank the illusory screen into a corner, then lowered his body with saber in hand and focused on what lay ahead.

From here on, he could only rely on himself.

Moments later, the three men had reached him.

They were truly armed to the teeth, even their faces hidden behind faceplates, and each held a heavy, broad-bladed saber roughly four feet long.

The three members of the Hengmen Eighteen Riders watched him with exceptionally grave, cautious eyes. Their three sabers coordinated with one another, advancing separately and striking together.

Chu Xisheng exchanged a few moves with them but found no openings.

Their blades forced him back twenty paces in succession, gradually driving him to a spot in front of Tie Xiaosheng.

Just then, an unusual gleam suddenly flashed in Chu Xisheng's eyes, and the Hundred-Forged Light Steel Saber in his hand abruptly slashed out with tremendous force.

Clang!

As the blades collided, two of the opposing heavy, broad-bladed sabers were actually thrown back by the force of Chu Xisheng's strike.

Chu Xisheng had tested it: after taking the Divine Strength Pill, with his Pure Yang Thunder Body, his strength was only inferior to the combined might of two of his opponents.

But as long as he put his full strength into this strike, his preparation against their lack of preparation allowed his strength to surpass by a shade that of the two armored men, who were using only eighty percent of their strength.

The instant he knocked their weapons aside, Chu Xisheng abruptly stepped forward, driving straight through the center. His saber light launched a surprise attack, slashing directly at the throat of the man in the middle.

At the sight, Tie Xiaosheng's chest jolted, and his heart leaped into his throat.

For the heavy, broad-bladed saber of the man on the right had not been knocked aside. A vicious light shone in his eyes as he accelerated his heavy downward slash.

Chu Xisheng's saber was a fraction faster, cutting straight into the gap between his opponent's faceplate and breastplate and leaving a streak of blood in its wake.

But at the same time, the heavy, broad-bladed saber of the man on the right also struck his left shoulder.

Tie Xiaosheng could hardly bear to watch Chu Xisheng's chest and belly being cleaved open, but then he froze briefly, surprise appearing on his face.

Chu Xisheng's entire body flew backward under the force of the blow. Although the leather armor on his left shoulder was badly damaged, only a faint streak of blood showed beneath it. His chest and belly had not been cut open as Tie Xiaosheng had expected.

Tie Xiaosheng looked closely and saw a patch of gold beneath the damaged leather armor.

It was clearly a Gold-Silk Inner Armor of excellent quality!

A bright gleam could not help bursting into Tie Xiaosheng's eyes.

This had been a premeditated exchange of wounds!

And after killing one armored man, the situation Chu Xisheng faced was already vastly different from before.