Turning the Tables

After the force of the saber knocked Chu Xisheng to the ground, he quickly rolled over and got to his feet.

Saber in hand, he watched the two armored soldiers before him with the same focused gaze.

His injuries were far from light now. Although his leather armor and Gold-Silk Inner Armor had spared him from being disemboweled, they could not dissipate all the force.

That broad-bladed saber had smashed his left collarbone.

His left hand did not affect his fighting strength, but now every movement sent a piercing pain through his left shoulder.

Yet Chu Xisheng seemed not to feel it as he walked forward, expressionless.

He swung his Hundred-Forged Light Steel Saber casually, seemingly without much force or any pattern. Yet the two armored soldiers facing him were drenched in cold sweat, beads as large as beans covering their faces behind their visors.

Chu Xisheng's saber was faster than theirs, his blows heavier, and his reactions quicker!

So much so that every swing of his saber seemed to hold boundless murderous intent, threatening their lives.

Under the pressure of that saber light, the two had no choice but to retreat step by step, swinging with all their strength to weave a dense web of saber light before them.

They worked together, their saber light so tightly interwoven that not even water could seep through.

Chu Xisheng continued to swing casually. Occasionally, he struck with full force, but he never committed deeply, withdrawing at the slightest contact.

He was like a cat testing its prey with its claws, calm and unhurried.

Each of Chu Xisheng's probes forced the two to work even harder at weaving their curtain of blades, trying to keep him outside it.

Yet after only a short while, both were dripping with sweat and panting heavily.

They had both realized something was wrong.

In that brief interval, they had swung their sabers more than twice as often as Chu Xisheng, putting their full strength into every blow and holding nothing back.

With their heavy armor added to the burden, they were expending more than five times as much stamina as their opponent.

By contrast, Chu Xisheng, who had originally been panting for breath, had actually steadied his breathing. Rather than spending his stamina, he had recovered a good deal of it.

One of the armored soldiers tore off his breastplate without hesitation.

This heavy armor could no longer protect them. Instead, it was an enormous burden, a fatal weakness.

The corners of Chu Xisheng's lips lifted slightly.

This fellow was fairly clever, but it was already too late to shed his armor!

In that brief interval, the two men opposite him had swung their sabers two hundred times. Without realizing it, their blades had slowed to less than eighty percent of their peak speed.

Without the slightest hesitation, Chu Xisheng closed in swiftly, his Hundred-Forged Light Steel Saber launching a surprise attack like a cutting wind.

Both men roared, one desperately trying to block while the other slashed toward Chu Xisheng's neck.

Yet Chu Xisheng's saber still swept across one man's neck faster than a gale. At the same time, he drew it back, just in time to block the other broad-bladed saber.

The powerful force of the incoming blow sent Chu Xisheng staggering back three steps.

By the time Chu Xisheng steadied himself, the surviving armored soldier had already turned and was running with all his might.

Chu Xisheng could not help chuckling derisively. The man had learned some lightness techniques, but could he really escape wearing heavy armor?

He ran forward and caught up with the man in just twenty-seven strides. His Hundred-Forged Light Steel Saber cut into the back of the man's neck, easily severing his head.

Fireworks burst before his eyes again, and his Martial Dao Points rose to 10.

Behind him, Tie Xiaosheng finally could not resist praising him. "Brilliant! An accurate blade and quick hands, but rarest of all, both brains and courage."

These sixteen Long Clan elites had fighting strength equal to an entire branch of their Iron Banner Gang, yet this boy had crushed them outright with tactics and a swift saber.

Chu Xisheng relaxed all over as well, his tightly wound mind easing.

He glanced at Tie Xiaosheng with a smile. "Uncle, I think you'd better stop talking for now. Your wounds will split open."

Tie Xiaosheng broke into an involuntary laugh. His condition really was rather bad; every word tugged at wounds all over his body.

Hearing the word "uncle" from the boy's mouth, he admired him even more and felt a sense of closeness.

Chu Xisheng cleaned the Hundred-Forged Light Steel Saber in his hand and sheathed it. Then he tore a few relatively clean scraps of cloth from the corpses to secure his left shoulder and collarbone.

Earlier, while he had been focused on fighting, the pain had not felt so intense.

But now that he had relaxed, the pain did more than make him bare his teeth and grimace.

After tending to his injuries, Chu Xisheng began searching the corpses again.

He was full of anticipation, but in the end, he found only thirty-two taels of demon silver.

Chu Xisheng could not help silently cursing them as paupers. The Long Household ought to pay handsomely, yet these sixteen men had carried so little money.

Their weapons were actually quite valuable too, especially the broad-backed sabers and heavy armor of the three armored soldiers, worth at least a hundred and fifty taels of demon silver.

Unfortunately, these things were far too heavy and cumbersome for Chu Xisheng to take away.

He took only the other Hundred-Forged Light Steel Saber lying on the ground, discarding his spare steel saber.

Chu Xisheng hoisted Tie Xiaosheng onto his back again and headed toward the hot spring.

Lu Luanli was a Seventh-Rank practitioner of dual cultivation of technique and martial arts. Chu Xisheng believed that even if she could not defeat the Long Household's Seventh-Rank expert, she could certainly retreat unscathed.

Still, he was a little worried and wanted to go take a look.

As it turned out, Chu Xisheng had only gone halfway when he saw Lu Luanli.

The girl's expression was poor, and she looked dejected and dispirited.

Nevertheless, she was delighted and surprised to see Chu Xisheng. Then her pupils widened slightly. "Why have you come back? What about those people from the Long Household? Didn't they chase you?"

Because her view was obstructed, she had not seen the corpses.

But from the two additional Hundred-Forged Light Steel Sabers on Chu Xisheng and the blood staining his clothes alone, Lu Luanli vaguely guessed the answer.

Could this fellow have slaughtered all those Long Clan soldiers?

Lu Luanli realized she seemed to have underestimated Chu Xisheng a little.

Chu Xisheng pointed to his shoulder injury and gave a wry smile. "Didn't I just break through to Ninth-Rank Lower? I happened to awaken an innate talent and was lucky enough to turn the tables and kill them. But it cost me quite a bit."

Just as he finished speaking, another firework burst in his field of vision, adding two Martial Dao Points.

So that's how it works, Chu Xisheng thought. This is the delay in Martial Dao Points.

Lu Luanli was a Seventh-Rank Upper Tier expert. She had only just learned what had happened, so the Martial Dao Points had been delayed until now.

Meanwhile, he looked Lu Luanli up and down and found her completely unscathed.

But why was she so downcast? Had she suffered internal injuries?

Such injuries would indeed be invisible from the outside.

Chu Xisheng asked doubtfully, "What about that man from the Long Household? Which of you won?"

"Do you even need to ask? How could an eagle that couldn't fly be a match for me?"

Lu Luanli gave a disdainful snort, but then sighed. "But he escaped. That fellow actually had a fifth-rank jade talisman that enhanced his movement method. He fled so damned fast that I couldn't catch him."

Jade talismans were a type of talisman made from white jade.

Martial cultivators could use these talismans too, but they were extremely expensive, costing thirty times as much as other talismans of the same rank.

Chu Xisheng understood at once. Since someone had survived, Lu Luanli's undercover identity was most likely ruined.

Then he saw Lu Luanli hold out her hand to him. "Hand it over!"

Chu Xisheng blinked, thoroughly puzzled. "Hand what over?"

"The demon silver I paid in advance, of course! I paid you fifteen taels to keep my secret for a month."

Lu Luanli's clear black-and-white eyes widened as she glared angrily at Chu Xisheng. "But now I can't hide my identity anymore. It's already generous of me not to charge you a bodyguard fee, and you still don't want to refund me?"

Chu Xisheng looked sheepish. He really did not want to refund her.

But Lu Luanli's reasoning was so sound that he had no reply.

At that same moment, the sword-bearing young man was hurrying along a narrow passage seven li away.

Lu Luanli had stabbed a bloody hole in his chest, leaving him in terrible pain, bloody froth spilling from his mouth from time to time.

The sword-bearing young man coughed softly, a vicious gleam in his eyes. Once he returned to the upper level of Firebone Cavern, he would definitely make that wretched pair pay.

Just then, he saw a slight figure in coarse black clothes and a hooded cloak approaching from the opposite direction.

The sword-bearing young man frowned, tightened his grip on his longsword, and raised his guard.

As everyone knew, the greatest danger in the depths of Firebone Cavern was not actually the evil creatures, but all sorts of people.

And the person before him felt unfathomable.

Just then, the black-clad figure opposite him suddenly spoke. "Are you Eagle Sword Du Hong?"

It was a girl's voice, as clear and pure as spring water.

The sword-bearing young man grew even more wary. "I am indeed Du Hong. And you are?"

At that moment, he saw a black shadow flicker, arriving before him like smoke and mist. Then the sword-bearing young man's head burst like a watermelon.

From beginning to end, he never even had time to draw his sword.

Chu Yunyun's figure continued to flicker, untouched by even a speck of blood or filth. She glanced at Eagle Sword Du Hong's corpse, then continued forward.

Her nostrils twitched as she followed the bloody scent Du Hong had left along the way, eventually arriving before a hot spring.

When Chu Yunyun looked over from a distance, she saw Chu Xisheng sitting bare-chested at the edge of the hot spring, with a lovely young girl seated beside him.

The two sat extremely close together, doing who knew what.

Something stirred in Chu Yunyun's heart, and the stone wall beneath her hand caved inward with a thud.